The Flower Moon

Year Eight, Chapter Twenty-Six

A Birthday, a Funeral, and a Wedding

Renesmee's Point of View

Felicity's first birthday should have been a happy occasion; a time for celebration. But someone who should have been here wouldn't be.

"Felicity," Alice called to my daughter.

"What is it Alice?" she sighed from her seat next to me at the kitchen table.

Couldn't we make it through one lunch without being interrupted by her with some new scheme to cheer us up?

"We have to plan your birthday party, silly," my aunt replied to my daughter.

"No thank you," she told Alice, much nicer than I would have been able to. "There is no way that I'm up for that. I'm sorry. But I'm just not in the mood for a party."

"Of course you are. A party is exactly what you need. Something to lift your spirits. You've been so sad for months now, and I refuse to let this behavior continue. You can't keep going on like this. I know what happened is upsetting, but you need to try to move on."

How could Alice be so flippant? Didn't she realize the pain and the loss my daughter was suffering from? The loss we were all suffering?

"Listen missy," my aunt continued when Felicity got up and started to walk away, "you're going to sit down, at this table with me, and plan your birthday party, because you deserve it. You only get two birthdays with the way you age and I'm going to make the most of the ones you have. Do you hear me?" How was someone so small so scary when they wanted to be? "So sit that little butt of yours back down," she said while pulling my daughter back to the table, "and start telling me what your favorite colors are. I'm going to plan the most amazing, most wonderful, specialist birthday party ever." Her arms were stretched out as far as they would go, but knowing her that was not nearly far enough. "Because you, my grandniece, deserve it," she chirped and ordered at the same time.

I think that was my cue to step in and say something.

"Look Alice, if my daughter doesn't want to have a birthday party this year then she shouldn't have to have one." Seeing the death glare she gave me I started backtracking a little. "Maybe you could reschedule and have it in a few months, if she's feeling more up to it then."

I don't think my aunt even heard that part. I mean I know technically she had to have heard me, with her super Vampire hearing, but she just chose to completely ignore me, I guess. Two seconds later she had my daughter sitting back down in her chair, while she opened her ridiculously large party planning binder and started sketching out ideas. I was a little worried about Felicity but it didn't look like I was going to be able to do anything. Once Alice got into party planning mode there was no stopping her. And plus Felicity had that look in her eye that told me that she'd already resigned herself to the task at hand.

"I'm sorry," I silently mouthed to her. I probably should have put up a little more of a fight with my aunt and stuck up for my daughter more, but I just didn't have the energy. I was equally depressed right now, myself. "Okay, let's start off with the guest list." Alice took out a piece of paper that had four columns of names on the front and three on the back. How many guests was she expecting? "I already invited a ton of people but want to know who you want coming to your birthday party?"

"What does it matter," she replied, slumping her head down onto the table. "The one person I want here isn't going to be. So what does it matter?"

That was my cue to leave. I couldn't listen to this anymore. I wanted to just curl up into a ball somewhere and cry. But I knew I couldn't do that.

Instead I got up, walked out of the kitchen, and called, "Bella?" I knew she would be able to hear me anywhere in the house.

Felicity was taking this so hard. I was dealing with it as best I could, but I was wondering, looking for answers. Seeing if there was anything I could offer her, to help her through this time. I know eventually the pain will ease for her. But that was the thing - eventually wasn't right now. And right now she needed my help.

"In the library," I heard her reply.

Of course. I should have known. Where else would she be?

I needed to talk to somebody. I needed some advice and hers was the closest experience that I could think of right now.

"Bella... um, Mom, can I ask you something?" I was getting pretty comfortable calling my family by their first names. I did it most of the time now, but I just wanted my mom right now - even if she did look like she was five years younger than me.

"Of course sweetheart what's it?" she asked raising her eyes up from the book she was reading. I didn't even need to look to know which one it was. Over the years I came to realize how she seemed to reread Wuthering Heights whenever she was anxious, or upset, or sad. And currently we were all sad. This was just her way of dealing with the grief. What was it about the book that comforted her though?

I wasn't sure how to ask what I wanted to. "How did you deal -" my voice trailed off.

"Honey, my situation wasn't the same exactly as this," she said, not even waiting for me to finish my question. I knew this was hard for her as well. She loved him too. "When we all left for France we knew we were leaving you here, but you weren't alone. You had Jake and David and -"

"No," I cut her off, "not that time. I meant when Dad left you, when you were human." That was, I think, the closest experience that I could think of, of anyone in my family having an experience similar to what was going on now.

"Hmmm. Well as you know," she started twisting her fingers absent-mindedly, "those memories aren't very clear but as best as I can remember I didn't actually deal with it very well at all. I just stopped," she sighed. Maybe this was a bad idea. I know that time of her life was painful. I shouldn't have dredged up her old heartbreak. I would have told her it wasn't necessary to relive her past pain now, if I had another option. That wasn't what I'd meant to do. But I was too weak, so I just waited. "I barely ate, or slept. I stopped talking to my friends," my mother continued after she'd recomposed herself. "I had nightmares every night. I tried not to think about Edward, it hurt too much. I wouldn't say his name, I didn't even let myself even think it. I was pretty messed up.

"Renesmee listen to me, you need to be strong for your daughter now. She's going to look to you to help her get through this. Not just during on her birthday, but the next day, and the next after that. If she sees you upset she's not going to be able to feel like she can move on or be happy herself."

I guess my mother had a point. I needed to try to at least pretend to be... maybe be not exactly happy, but composed. Not the angry mess I had been. And that's just what I planned to do, starting now, through her party next week, and beyond.

It was her very first birthday and Alice was right; she deserved to have it be as special as she was.

With all of the planning and preparations that needed to be done the week seemed to fly by. Everybody Felicity asked, or those Alice invited, had arrived, or at least Alice saw that they would be here by this evening, with only one very notable exception, but we already knew he would be here.

I couldn't believe David was doing this. It was his sister's very first birthday. And he refused to come!

So what if Alice had invited all of the family's Vampire friends? Why did Dave have to take such offense to having to be in the same house as them? Sure they drank human blood, but they were our fiends and agreed not to hunt in the state. Carlisle respected human life more than any Vampire I knew and he got along with them. Felicity didn't have a problem with them either. The two of them have always been so close but ever since he moved to La Push, it's like he'd forgotten about her, never mind the rest of us.

Well that and the fact that he refused to leave his Imprint, Janet. I understood why he didn't want to bring a human here with all of the red-eyed Vampires around. He could at least have come back for Felicity's birthday if not the party. I was so angry… and sad. I missed my son.

"Come on darling. I think Alice is about to come looking for us, if we don't get to her house to help her set up," Bella said while grabbing my hand and lead me down the stairs.

"Okay you two slow pokes, let's finish setting up for Felicity's party, tomorrow." Alice's voice had gone super-sonic, threatening to blow out my eardrums, not that she noticed as she bounced merrily up and down.

"Really Alice? It's going to take us that long to set this room up for Felicity that we need to start this early?" I questioned her once my ears had stopped ringing. "You do realize she still doesn't want a party. Right?"

"What are you talking about Nessie? It's not just this room," she said gesturing to the living room, "but the kitchen, dining room, music room, and backyard."

Yikes!

Even though Alice had started planning everything weeks ago, against my daughter's objections, it seemed that every time Felicity voiced her opinion not to have a party Alice just kept adding things, making it bigger and bigger and bigger.

Since there seemed to be no stopping her, Alice was at least listening to my daughter for the color theme, and some of her choices for music and food. Originally Alice had turned her nose up to my daughter's green and purple requests for her color choices. Even though they were Felicity's favorites, I was worried those colors were going to look tacky together, like the Joker from Batman, or something, but Alice made them work in a way that was both classy and elegant, just like my daughter. She'd designed everything around a floral theme.

The purple lilacs and hydrangeas were being hung and placed everywhere, on every available surface and empty inch of wall, then long leafy, vines were woven throughout, for green accents, here and there.

By the time it was dark outside, after hours of work, everything was finally finished and the house, which normally looked beautiful in Esme's standard creams and minimalist modern furniture, was transformed into a kind of botanical temple. The soft spilling creams of the tablecloths and sheer curtains billowed from the ceiling, gave a soft and ethereal cloud-like appearance to everything. It was almost magical.

After everything was finally set up the only thing left to do was wrap the gifts from Jake and me. Together we'd carved a chess set for Felicity months ago, beginning it soon after she was born. It was similar to the ones Jake made for me and David, but this time I felt confident enough to help him. Each piece took days to carve and then they also needed to be sanded, stained and sealed.

While neither of us was able to work on it when Jake was in La Push with David we'd recommitted ourselves to the project and finished a lot of it in record time, the following weeks. Jake especially, doing three times as much as me. I know some of it was because he had been carving years longer than me, but I don't think that was the only reason.

Between Jake's rush to try and finish Felicity's gift and him Alpha ordering Leah to phase so he could get her back together with Nahuel, it was like he knew how badly things could go with my treatments. Of course he did. He knew it... I... my drinking his blood, could be potentially deadly to him. I hadn't realized, at the time, how much he'd believed, or had prepared for the possibility that he might not have made it.

The chess set Jacob carved for me was made up of members of the Cullen family and the Wolves; David's had been of himself as he matured from a baby to an adult on one side, and his favorite comic book characters on the other. We tried to make Felicity's equally meaningful to her – the Cullen's, on one side (of course), with the Wolves as the pawns, and since she loved music, piano especially, some of her favorite composers were on the other – Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy, Strauss, Chopin, Stravinsky and a few others, with different musical instruments as the pawns.

"Which color wrapping paper should we use?" Looking around the finished basement in Alice's house I was a little, okay a LOT, overwhelmed. I thought her closet was impressive, but this… Gift wrapping stores had less inventory.

"Well, purple is her favorite color," Bella suggested, as she pulled down a few rolls in that color. "You can't go wrong with that."

"Yeah, but there is so much purple already with the flowers, and napkins, and chair covers. And Alice is already having us all dress up in different shades of Lavenders and Plums. Isn't that a bit much? I don't think we need anymore."

"Why not use this one and add a purple bow?" He'd grabbed a beautifully embossed ivory roll of wrapping paper from the huge pile.

What would I ever do without him? "Jake, that's perfect!" Or Leah? Thanks to her I didn't have to find out. It was touch and go for awhile, and my grandfather was concerned that we could have lost both of them but in the end her blood had revived my Jacob. It took so much though. When she arrived, Carlisle, and my aunt and uncle, had only transfused half of the blood I had taken back into his body. The rest came from Leah. She's so much smaller than him; I wasn't exactly sure why, but she insisted we take however much was needed from her. Carlisle did, but that left her down almost fifty-seven percent (a human never would have survived loosing so much). Carlisle had to rush and give her all of the remaining donated blood into her. Since it was only her first transfusion it only took her a week till she was fully recovered, but my grandfather said Jake would need another few weeks.

I told Leah that I was forever in her debt, but she just shrugged it off, saying that now we were even. I didn't understand what she meant, but decided it was wiser to just agree with her.

After Carlisle assured us that Jake was fully recovered, and confirmed that my bloodlust was cured... or ended... or whatever it was, Jake and I... err, rekindled our love life in a way that not only sent Edward running out of the house, and probably the state (sorry Daddy), but in all probability would have made Emmett blush – if he were able to, that is.

"The party's wonderful," Felicity admitted the next night, or at least that was what she said. As much as she tried not to show it, she was still upset that her brother never showed up. All night long my daughter kept glancing at the door, assuming David was miraculously going to appear. But of course he didn't.

There were plenty of other guests though.

When the doorbell rang and our first guest arrived, my heart was thumping in my chest. Alice refused to tell me who was coming, but said it was a mix of my human family and Vampires, but she assured me that she invited only those who would be able to control themselves and not feed on the other guests.

"I'll get it," I called running to the door. Jake was right behind me. Even though he knew I was perfectly safe, Jake was so sweet, refusing to leave my side while the party was going on and red eyed Vampires were in the house (or state). And he made Edward and Bella promise to glue themselves to Felicity's hip. Opening the door I saw that it was the Irish coven.

"Siobhan!" I cried. It had been years since I'd last seen them, not since they came to witness for me against the Volturi.

It looked like it took her half a second to recognize me. "Renesmee?" she questioned back, while looking me up and down. "You've changed so much. I didn't expect you to be so grown. What a beautiful woman you have become."

She practically ripped me out of Jake's arms as her massive arms easily picked me up and twirled me around. It was hard but Jake managed to only let out the smallest of growls. "Thank you," I replied after she put me down. "You look…" now it was my turn to quickly run my eyes over her and the two others in her coven, "exactly the same." I didn't mean to, but a small chuckle escaped my lips. Thankfully they didn't take offence; how could they, it was the truth. They were even wearing many of the same pieces of clothing as they had seven years ago. I guess that shouldn't be that surprising. Their clothes looked like they were the ones they were wearing when they were first changed, decades ago.

Felicity had never met them before, but it looked like she and Maggie were becoming fast friends. Bella went off with them but Edward walked back over to the front door.

A second later the doorbell rang again, and I saw Randall standing in the doorway when my father opened it. I thought Mary would have been with him, but my father just shook his head slightly, and welcomed the nomad into our house. Oh, I guess her and humans weren't a good combination. "Where is the child," he asked before even saying hello.

Assuming he meant me, Jake and I went over to greet him. He was happy to see me and commented on how much I'd grown, just like the Irish coven had.

"They are all probably going to want to do the same," my father whispered to me. "Change is unusual for our kind, and they are all very fond of you." He went on to explain.

He was smiling, so Jake calmed down, but it just make me a little self conscious. But it was only for the afternoon. I could deal with the attention for a few hours.

The four of us started talking about what we all had been up to for the past few years. But when Randall started to mention t some new feeding ground in Atlanta that he was excited about, that was Jake's and my cue to politely extricate ourselves from the conversation.

Besides there was something I wanted to ask Alice

"Will the Amazon's be here soon," I asked after finding her in the kitchen. She was starting to take out the food, so I assumed that meant Charlie and the others from La Push would be here soon.

"They weren't invented," she apologized.

Jake let out a quick breath and smirked, clearly happy about the information, but I wasn't. I was looking forward to seeing Zafrina again.

"I'm sorry," Alice continued. "It's just," she looked so uncomfortable with whatever she was about to say, "they're practically feral." Feral? Yeah, she had a point with that, but what did there less than civilized appearance have to do with helping us celebrate my daughter's birthday? "Nessie they couldn't even take sharing the entire Amazon jungle with you and Jake. How do you think they would handle being here, in these four walls, with no fresh air, no sky, no trees to swing from, no dirt under their feet? The three of them… trapped in a room…. with humans?" Her eyebrows rose, as if to say 'Duh'.

Okay, so I ended up agreeing with her, but that didn't mean that I wasn't disappointed. Not that I had time to dwell on it right away because a short while later the Denali's arrived. Even thought they would visit every few years, it was still nice to see them again. I wanted to talk to them some, but the doorbell rang again.

Next came Charlotte and Peter. I heard Alice mention earlier that Emmett and Carlisle were charged with staying close to them… just in case.

That was it for our Vampire guests. Almost everyone whom Alice had invited came, but there were a few exceptions, Jennifer being the most notable. Huilen and Roberto weren't invited, since Alice saw Roberto going after Billy almost as soon as he rolled into the house. That was the one… two guests I had been told about beforehand, but I thought that Jennifer would have come, at least to see her brother, now that she had a good excuse.

She was a friend. And an ally. Her control was pretty good; better than Jasper's. I was more than a little nervous about the human/Vampire mix even though Alice assured me that she SAW my extended family getting on the plane to return to La Push tomorrow.

Looking at the clock by the TV I saw that it was approaching 7PM. Our human guests would be arriving soon. Alice had staggered everyone's arrival times, giving the Vampires a chance to adjust to the humans scent and not be overwhelmed.

Once they arrived I spent most of the evening, while I wasn't checking on Felicity or watching to make sure Alice was right and no one got thirsty, watching Tanya. After reading about her and my father's past, in his journals I was interested to see how she behaved towards my parents. I didn't see anything going on between them tonight, nor have I ever in the past, not that I was looking back then, but I was still curious to see if I'd missed anything. I mean, I know my father didn't return her feelings, but it looked like she'd actually gotten past her feelings for him, or at least she wasn't choosing to act on them.

It was almost midnight and all of our Wolf (Seth and Leah) and human (Billy, Charlie, Sue and Seth's imprint, Carol) guests –had left hours ago. Since they were in on the supernatural secret, no one questioned the other half of the guests red eyes, but being in the same house with a bunch of Vampires for a few hours during a party was one thing, (and a real test of the control of the others) but having a bunch of humans sleep upstairs from them was really tempting fate. In addition to flying them out, Alice had booked our La Push family some rooms at a five star hotel in town. Their fight home wasn't until tomorrow afternoon, so we would see them again before they left.

Our Vampire friends didn't require sleep so they would be staying, visiting, and partying, at least until morning; some longer, as they wanted to spend time with various members of the family.

"Alright Mom and Dad," Felicity said to Jake and me through a yawn. I could tell she was still sad, but she like me, was trying to put on a cheery mask. "I'm going to bed. Thank you for my gifts. And please thank Alice for the party. She really did a wonderful job, I would thank her myself, but she and Jasper seemed to have disappeared with Peter and Charlotte awhile ago."

Jasper hadn't seen Peter since I was a baby, they never made it to my last birthday party, and I know Jasper was slightly upset that he didn't get to see his friend. They must have gone off somewhere to reconnect.

"Wait a minute young lady," Edward called from across the room, just as Felicity was about to open the front door to head back over to our house. "There is someone who wants to have a word with you," he told her holding out his cell.

David called your phone? It was highly unlikely, but I asked my father nevertheless, to which he just shook his head so small I knew Felicity missed it. You called him. I sighed. He didn't need to nod.

Damn-it David!

Thanks, Dad. By the look on her face I could tell that the call had made my daughter's night, even if it wasn't at David's initializing.

Jacob's Point of View

It was getting dark outside. Nessie and I had been sitting on the couch, at Nessie's aunt's and uncle's house, for the past few hours, playing a game of gin rummy with Rose and Jasper. Alice wanted to play too but that would be kinda pointless. We'd tried before but Alice knew who would win after the first card was dealt, and wasn't shy about broadcasting her emotions, mostly glee, when she inevitably saw that she would win. Instead she stood by and watched. It was something to do to pass the time. For all of us. Nessie and I spent the entire afternoon packing to make the trip back to La Push tomorrow, for Embry and Colleen's wedding, and were now just relaxing before bed.

Not wanting more teens to turn to Wolves, we wanted to keep the Vampire presence down so no one else in the family, except Felicity, was coming with us.

Our daughter had been so strong for so long, when Nessie had broken down, after David and I went to La Push and didn't come back. She'd kept it together that whole time, but finally lost it when David refused to return for her birthday.

I wasn't sure how she was going to react, seeing him tomorrow. We would be there the entire week so we could visit with Billy, and Charlie and Sue as well as her brother. Hopefully this would be enough for her, until our next trip out there.

"Oh." Alice had that far away look to her when she was getting a vision. "I'm so sorry," she said looking over in our direction.

"What's it? What happened?" Nessie asked.

"He died. I didn't realize he was that sick. I would have told you earlier so you could have gone to say goodbye," she apologized.

My father died?

I felt sick. My chest tightened and my stomach started doing flip flops.

I know he hadn't been going great, but Edward assured me he'd gotten his diabetes under control and he was now doing much better. How had things got down hill so quickly? And why had no one told me? David, Kim, and Paul had all promised me that they were taking care of him, and making sure that he was taking care of himself – eating right, checking his blood sugar, getting a little exercise. All the things he was supposed to do. And what about the extra help Edward had arranged for? What the hell happened? Why had they not called to tell me he was so bad.

"Rosalie, I'm so sorry," Alice then said.

Rosalie? Not Billy? Following Alice's eyes I realized Alice was looking past me to Rose, who was sitting next to me on the couch. While I was filled with relief that Billy wasn't dead, I was also confused. Who did Rose know that died? Who did Rose know that was still alive.

"Alice, what are you talking about? Emmett is in the other room. He's fine," Rose scoffed at Alice's apparently obvious mistake.

"No, not Emmett. Theodor," Alice corrected her.

"Who?" Nessie asked the question everyone in the room had to be thinking.

"He's my brother, or rather... he was."

"Your brother?" Emmett questioned her. He had rushed to her side, hearing everything, and was now exhibiting his not often seen (non-joking, non-wisecracking) empathetic side, comforting his wife's tearless sobs. Not that she was crying, but doing whatever the Vampire version of crying was. I don't think I've ever seen her show so much emotion; it was weird. I was use to the cold detached Rose. That or the one that sent me running from the room when her and Emmett… ew, nope didn't want to think of that. "I didn't realize anyone else in your family was still alive."

"It was just Theodor left, he must be… have been ninety-three years old by now. I lost track of him over the years. I was the oldest. My other brother, Simon, was in the middle, but he's been gone for awhile now. I heard he died during World War II."

"So I guess that if you had been a boy you would have been named Alvin?" I chuckled, trying to lighten the somber mood.

Rose scowled at me. I guess she wasn't a chipmunks fan.

"Too soon dude," Emmett leered. "Even I knew that."

"What?" She hasn't seen, or even thought of him, in what, like eighty-something years? Maybe I was wrong. "You're not really that upset by this, are you?"

"Of course I am. He was my brother. What's wrong with you, mongrel?" she growled.

She hadn't called me that in years. "Sorry," I said, realizing how upset she was. "It's just that I figured that if you really cared about him you might have-" I stopped when I really looked at her. This apology wasn't going so well. I don't think I've ever seen her looked so hurt and sad. Oops. If I hadn't seen Billy for years, I would still love him and was devastated when I thought it was him who had died. I should probably say something else, apologize more, or better, or something, but before I got the chance Nessie spoke up.

"Did you want to attend the funeral?" she asked Rose.

Rose then looked over to Alice "Will I be able to?"

She spaced out and came back, after less than a second, and let us know that it wouldn't be possible as the current plans stood. The burial was going to take place on a beautiful sunny day, in Cleveland, Ohio.

"Well, we'll just have to go at night and have our own, then," Emmett decided.

Jasper retrieved his laptop from the other room. "When should I book the plane tickets for?"

"Four days from now." Alice replied. "Delta flight, number 314. We'll get there just after sundown. If you hurry we should be able to book ten first class seats, for everyone.

"What about the wedding?" Nessie whispered to me, but then turned to talk to Rose before I could answer. "I absolutely want to be there for you, but Jake and I also need to go to Embry's wedding. It's taken so much for him to get to this point in his life and we need to be there for him. And Felicity needs to see her brother. She can stay in Forks with Charlie and Sue, and spend more time with Dave. Um... Jazz can you book Jake and I a flight for right after the wedding from La Push to Ohio that will get us there on time?"

"Already did, darling," he smirked as he printed us our tickets.

"It will be tight but with a little luck, and maybe some slightly faster than human running between flights you should make it there on time," Alice added.

"Thanks," Nessie beamed and then wrapped her aunt and uncle in a hug before moving over to the couch to wiggle herself in between Rose and Emmett so she could hug her aunt as well.

Seeing David with Janet during the wedding and then going directly to the funeral for Rose's brother got me thinking on the flight home.

Imprinting and death.

Normally Wolves didn't equate those two things together, but I did.

Yesterday's events took me back to when I first Imprinted on Renesmee. Of course, the circumstances back then were completely different than with Dave and Janet. I wanted to kill Nessie. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm shocked that Edward let me get so close. He would have known what I was thinking back then, even if he was worried about Bella. Nessie was his daughter and I was clearly thinking of going to destroy her.

"I knew you would not," Edward said to me from across the first class aisle, breaking me out of my delirium.

Nessie and I were in the front two seats on the left side of the plane, with Edward and Bella on the right. Rose and Emmett were right behind us and Alice and Jasper behind them.

Carlisle and Esme occupied the last row on the right since some random guy took both seats, in the row, between them and Edward and Bella. Luckily he'd fallen asleep almost as soon as the plane took off, so we were free to talk without having to worry about what he might overhear.

The only people we did have to be careful talking around were the flight attendants and they were busy serving food to the passengers in the back of the plane. Apparently one of them was suppose to remain in first class the entire flight but Carlisle had said something to her and she took off to help the others after serving us our meals. Everyone then quickly piled theirs in front of me as soon as she was out of eyeshot.

"How could you know that?" I whispered back to Edward.

"I was fairly certain by the time you got to the bottom of the stairs that you had, in fact, Imprinted on Renesmee."

Suddenly everybody's heads shot up. I guess he hadn't shared this particular piece of information with anyone else in the family either.

"And how exactly did you know I Imprinted on Nessie when I hadn't yet?" I hadn't even seen her, not really, I'd refused to look at her at that point, a requirement of Imprinting. Or at least I'd thought.

"Your thoughts are fairly loud Jacob, especially back then, when you thought Bella was dead. But even before that, the entire time you were with her, with us, watching Bella suffer as Nessie was growing inside of her, I could hear the love, the pull, you had towards her. At first, I believed, as you did, that you were being pulled towards Bella, but then once you thought Bella was gone and you still felt the pull, only it was moving downstairs, it confirmed my suspicions and I knew instantly that you were really being drawn to my daughter.

"I'd noticed a similar feeling when I was able to listen to the thoughts of Sam, Paul, Jared, and Quil, previously. The way your subconscious reacted to the pull was similar to how you once described it - being like gravity, that you needed to be near her to stay grounded.

"You were thinking at the time that it was just hatred driving you, but I could see it was something else. Your confusion was understandable, especially considering the amount of sleep deprivation you were under at the time. It would be unreasonable to assume that you would be fully cognizant of your thoughts or reasoning back then.

"But since I don't require sleep and my brain is capable of functioning on many more levels, I had time to think about it while also dealing with saving Bella's life. Believe me, if you were, at any point, a real risk to my daughter, I would have been there with Rosalie, to end you," he sorta growled, but more chuckled.

I probably should have been furious at what he said, but I was actually relieved. The thought that I could have hurt my Angel back then had terrified me, and was the cause of more than one sleepless night.

"Your memory of that day is particularly clear Jacob." Edward was now the one that seemed shocked, for some reason. He must have been seeing the replay, in my mind that I was currently watching, trying to remember any details of him noticing my Imprinting that I'd missed.

"Yeah, well it was a big day for me. Imprinting on this perfect Angel was pretty important, you know," I said as I squeezed Nessie's arm.

"I don't know, Jacob. I've seen you recall that day many times before, and the days leading up to it as well, just as you're doing now. They were pretty fuzzy memories to begin with and had been degrading over the years." I started to growl, before he continued. "Like I said, you were so sleep deprived back then, and human memories aren't that good to begin with.

"But now your memory of that day is matching my own. Every detail is in place, perfectly correct and in order." Then he looked to Nessie, before turning back to me. "Has something happened that I'm not aware of?"

"Not that I know of," I shrugged. Why was he making such a big deal of this? I mean I know I was doing better in school. Tests this year had been easier, and I was finally making progress learning French, not that it looked like I would need it anymore, but it wasn't that unusual.

"His memory has been getting better," Nessie disagreed with me. I didn't think so but then she started listing off some of the occasions where she'd witnessed my recall being a little better than normal lately. "And I'm sure you have noticed the improvement to his diction and grammar over the years, but it has become even more pronounced lately."

It has? I hadn't noticed.

"What happened, did you get hit in the head and your brain finally turned on?" Emmett stood up and chuckled over the seat to me.

"Why? You worried you're gonna be the dumb one in the house now?" I teased back. This was weird though. Maybe Nessie was right. I knew my brain had changed when I first became a Wolf, obviously – Wolf telepathy and all. But in other ways as well.

I remember, back when we were still living in Forks, thinking that when I first became a Wolf I could recall precise smells and forest terrains with exacting detail, that I hadn't been able to do as a regular teenage boy, but I hadn't given it much thought since then. Were things really changing in me again?

"If there actually is something going on with your brain, Jacob, I believe we should conduct some tests," the Doc now chimed in.

Tests? I really didn't want a bunch of Vampires poking wires, or electrodes, or whatever they were planning, into my head, at least not anymore than Edward already did. As comfortable as I was with the Cullen's this just seemed a little strange, even for them.

"No, nothing like that, Jacob," Edward snickered. "Carlisle was just thinking of an IQ test to start with."

"Sure, sure. I guess that'll be alright." Why the hell not.

"Wonderful. You will probably want to get a good night's sleep before you take it. I'll download and print an appropriate one tonight as soon as we arrive home. You can take it first thing tomorrow!" the Doc gleefully exclaimed. Why did he have to look so happy about this?

"Err... first thing in the morning, Doc? How about after lunch. Give my brain a chance to wake up first."

"Of course, if you prefer."

The next day, just like planned, as soon as I'd finished eating, Carlisle slid my plate aside and put a stack of papers and a number two pencil in its place.

If I'd known how long and boring the test was gonna be I would have declined. But I was an hour in and only had two sections left.

It was the most tedious thing I've done in a long time. Over one and a half hours of just sitting there filling in little circles. Really, they couldn't come with some sort of a Wii or Xbox version of an IQ test?

Finally when I finished I handed the test to Carlisle, who had lingered nearby the entire time. Not oppressively on top of me, but close enough that I knew he was just out of sight.

I hope they all get a good laugh out of this. The more I thought of it the more I'd become convinced that Eddie was wrong and there was no way I was getting smarter. But still, I was a little curious.

"How long before I get to know the results Doc? Do you really think you're going to tell me am a genius or something? Seems pretty late in the game, to me, to suddenly realize I'm actually super smart." Or am going to be, I guess would be more accurate.

"It will take me about fifteen to twenty minutes to calculate the results, Jacob. But I've a feeling, if suddenly your memory has exponentially improved then at your age there certainly is nothing natural about it and there will be no way to predict the extent of the changes or the possible outcome -" he trailed off, not finishing the thought. "To that point I surmise it's more supernatural, something to do with your Shape-Shifter heritage that's at work here."

"Sure, sure."

They were probably wrong. They had to be. If they were right, you'd think Sam would have told me, since he was the first to phase, that after a certain number of years of being a Wolf, his memory started improving.

Edward walked into the kitchen, and opened the frig. He emerged will all of the ingredients to make pasta. He either had heard my stomach rumble or heard me thinking of food. "Lasagna," he corrected, before returning to the subject at hand, "It probably didn't happen for him."

I'm going to have to get used to him being in my head, all over again. I'd gotten lax guarding my thoughts during the year and a half he was gone.

At least we were not living in the same house anymore. There'd been some musical chairs going on with the bedrooms. Nessie and I had taken over Edward and Bella's old room when they were in France and we added Felicity to our family, so when they moved back they moved into the guest room at Carlisle and Esme's. It was the one Nahuel had been staying in, and he in turn was now staying in David's old room, since my son moved to La Push. If he, or Jennifer, or Huilen ever move back we were going to have add some additions onto one, or more, of the houses.

Wait. What did Edward just say? "What do you mean," I asked him out loud.

"You might be the only one who is experiencing a boost to your memory, since your Imprinting on Nessie was different than the other Wolves." Why were people always thinking my Imprinting was so different? He ignored my fuming thoughts and kept going. "There may even be other changes you may someday experience... possibly,"

"Why do you think that?" I wanted an answer. Seriously, why is everyone always thinking that my Imprint was different? I love Nessie just as much as any other Wolf loves their Imprints, possibly more. It wasn't some sort of platonic guardianship, like a few people first thought it might be. We have a true, romantic love connection, a normal Imprinting. What makes it so different from everyone else's?

"Every other Wolf Imprinted on someone from the Quileute or Makah Tribe, for starters," Edward replied as he started browning the ground beef. "Renesmee is barely related by marriage, so that doesn't count."

"Excuse me?" What was he talking about? He knew I never married his daughter. There wasn't some secret Vampire marriage ceremony that I didn't know about, was there?

"No Jacob, that's not what I'm referring to," Edward chuckled, before looking more sullen. "You and my daughter are definitely not married." After regaining his composure he began again, "Charlie's greataunt, Molly Swan, was married to Old Quil, before she died.

"I never met her, but he had very fond memories of her. She seemed like a very kind lady. But I don't think that's enough of a connection for a normal Imprinting to you, Jacob. I believe there's something special about yours. A reason why you Imprinted on a Half-Vampire."

"I Imprinted on her because she's my Soulmate!" Was he trying to say that Nessie and I really didn't belong together? That we were just shoved together by some screwed up Quileute magic for some other reason? That our love wasn't real? That we were being forced together for some other, abet higher, reason? The more I thought about it the more pissed I got.

He added some chopped onion, garlic, and parsley to the sauce he'd started. "No Jacob, that's not what I meant, but since you found your Imprint in a Half-Vampire, it's requiring you, and your Wolf magic, for lack of a better word, to change to her super-naturalness.

"It's not very often, never really, that a Wolf Imprints on someone who is going to live forever. All previous Wolves who Imprinted eventually gave up their immortality to grow old with their soulmates. That's not going to happen for you. Certain adjustments would need to be made."

"And you think memory improvement is one of these adjustments?"

"It seems like a good place to start," he shrugged. "I'm sure you wouldn't want to forget a moment of your life, or yours and Nessie's lives together. In fifty to one hundred years a normal man, if they were still alive, that is, but after all that time, a normal man with a normal memory, would forget.

"Remember the first time you saw my daughter, the days you took her to the beach to play in the water, holding her hand while walking down the street, her first day of college, the first time you..." he turned to get a pan for the lasagna, and took longer than I expected, "kissed her." That explained it. "They are simple memories but they're important, especially after a few decades, let alone a century or two, pass; you'll be glad you remember them. We all," he looked around the room now to each of the Cullen's who had gathered around us, "have lost most of our human memories and would give anything to get them back. You're very lucky if, what I think is happening, is actually happening, Jacob."

"And just what do you think is happening to him?" Bella asked.

He continued to direct his words to me, even though he was answering his wife's question. "Not only are your new memories more permanent, and accurate, but your previous ones, those from last month, last year, ten years ago, twenty even, they seem to be crystallizing in your mind. I can see it happening as you think them. It's very strange. If I'm right you'll never have to worry about forgetting anything. You're very lucky."

I didn't really see that it was that big of a deal to remember things from my past. Well... except for Nessie. As long as I remembered my time with Nessie, that was all I really cared about.

He put the now assembled lasagna in the oven. "Jacob this means you'll never forget your sisters, your mother, Billy, your Pack. You'll carry their memories with you always. None of us have that, just fuzzy human memories, and very few of those."

Hmmm, when he put it that way I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not. Sure I was glad I would remember my family and Pack. But that also meant I would remember that they were no longer with me. I know we were not together right now, but soon, someday in the all too close future, it would be more like it is with my mother. They would be gone, dead, like her. Did I want to remember them, if their memories brought me pain? It didn't look like I had a choice regardless.

"I have the results, Jacob," Carlisle said sauntering back into the living room.

"Okay, what's the verdict Doc?"

"I'm afraid you're not a genius... yet. But by the results of this test it looks like Edward is right and you will be soon. Your test results are much more improved than previous scores."

How'd he know that? I've never taken an IQ test before? But then again, they could have been tested me all these years without me knowing it. No one responded. It's not like I said anything out loud, but Edward surely had heard me and just gave me a smirk, letting me know I was right.

Sneaky Vampires.

Excusing myself I went back to my room. The lasagna would need a little while to cook before it was ready and I needed to think, alone.

Once there I saw the shell that Nessie had grabbed from First Beach. Next to it was the one she got in remembrance of our home in Hoodsport, and a third for this one. There was also a rock hidden in back that her parents had brought back from France. She'd labeled each one with the location and a date.

Nessie had gathered these little trinkets for me over the years so that I would have a reminder of all the places we lived. If Edward and Carlisle were right I wouldn't need them but there was no way I would get rid of them. These shells and rocks, seemingly worthless items to anyone else, were more than reminders of my past. They were evidence of Nessie's love, and thus priceless.

A.N. Sorry this chapter was so long but I loved the idea of the chapter title, so I didn't break it up into two, like I originally planned in the original story and then when i went back to edit added even more.

Thanks for reading. Please review.