Chapter Eleven

Christmas for us passed in a blur. We never paid much of any attention to any of the holidays. When you were immortal none of it really seemed to matter much. Ness spent the week off from school in La Push with Jacob while Edward and Bella also escaped to their little house in close distance to our Forks residence. I spent it hunting and frolicking around Tennessee. It was a nice getaway from everything. But I was ready to see Hanna. I missed her.

Our texts and phone calls were few and far between. I had received a few photos from her. One of her on the beach on a surfboard with some of her California friends. One of her with her grandma's dog, and another of her and her parents. She looked like she was having fun, but she looked exhausted. I just wanted her here. As I pulled into the garage at the house in Seattle my phone pinged with a text.

Hey! Are you busy?

I smiled and sent a quick reply to my girlfriend.

Never busy for you. What's up?

Come over? I grinned to myself and back out of the garage and down the driveway as quickly as I could.

~~~FH~~~

"The water was so warm! It was so nice to be in the sun and to be around my old friends. I baked cookies with my grandma and I just relaxed. It was so needed, especially after how brutal those finals were. What did you do during the break?" I smiled softly and watched Hanna as she was unpacking her bags and putting everything away. I loved listening to how happy and energetic she was. It was like she was almost a different person.

"I actually went back to Tennessee for a few days." My words halted her movement and she ungracefully plopped down on the bed, jostling me from the foot of it. "That was aggressive, ma'am." I winked and she rolled her eyes at me before smiling her Emmett smile. I took in her appearance before speaking again. She had her blonde hair piled up on the top of her head in a messy bun and she was wearing a pair of old vintage jean shorts and a green pullover. "It was really nice. I just did some sightseeing and some hiking, nothing super major or anything. Just kind of wandered around. It was a good break."

She cocked her head to the side and smiled widely at me. "Do you want your present?" I blinked several times at her words. "You didn't think I wouldn't have gotten you anything did you? What kind of girlfriend would I be?" She hopped up on the bed and stomped over to her walk-in closet. She disappeared inside for several moments before emerging again with a large blue gift box. She plopped it between us at the head of her bed before once again jostling me while hopping on the bed.

"Okay, open it." She squealed. I rolled my eyes and gently lifted the lid off the box. I slowly lifted the tissue paper that was covering the gift and lifted my eyes to meet hers. Her eyes were wide with anticipation and her lips were purses, apparently, I was taking too long. I chuckled before lifting the sweater out of the box and examining it in my hands. It was a deep green color and across the front it had LA's insignia.

"I love it, thank you." I leaned over the box and kissed her gently on the lips. It was like a little piece of her human life with me. The day she and I would inevitably break up, I would always have this piece of her with me. Sure, it was just a silly sweater to most but to me it was a treasure.

"Do you actually? It's kind of lame, but I figured it was like a little piece of me and where I came from with you all the time." I smiled widely at her and pulled her to me for another kiss.

Her small hands fisted in my shirt, pulling me closer while I smiled against her lips. One of my hands went to the back of her head, softly pulling apart the bun her hair was in. We continued like that for a few more moments, lips gliding against each other until I finally pulled away so she could breath.

"I really do love it, Hanna. I wish you had told me you were getting me something though," I confessed. "I would have gotten you something." She rolled her eyes and smacked my hands away before going back to putting her things away.

"I don't need you to get me anything, Em. I got you that because I wanted to, not because I felt like I had to. It's fine, really. I'm almost done unpacking; do you want to go take the jeep out and play in some snow?" I grinned at the wicked gleam in her eye.

She was my kind of girl.

~~~FH~~~

"What about this one?" Ness pointed to a boring, gold ring with a tiny diamond on it. I rolled my eyes and ruffled her hair.

"Too boring and looks too much like an engagement ring. I'm not Edward, I'm not trying to propose within a few months."

We were currently in downtown Seattle looking at rings. I knew what rings meant; I knew what a bunch of them represented. I had boughten several of them for Rosalie over the years. All huge, all flashy, all not anything like Hanna. Where Rosalie was obviously beautiful, Hanna was subtle. She was beautiful not in just her looks, but in the way of how she represented her soul. How she carried herself. Rosalie was loud, brash, rarely thought things through. Hanna was careful. She was smart. She was precise.

"What about this one?" I gestured toward a simple sterling silver band with a blue and purple opal on it in the shape of an oval. I caught the eye of the jewelry and had him pull it out for me. It was simple, and beautiful.

"Oh! I love that. It's simple, too. Hanna doesn't like flashy things. I think that's perfect." She smiled widely up at me and then danced out of the shop and to the clothing store next door. She really was Alice's niece that's for sure.

I had the jeweler wrap up the ring quickly and I paid for it before stuffing it in my pocket and exiting. For a Saturday afternoon, downtown Seattle was slow and dull. Not a lot of people on the street. It was nice, relaxing to spend the day with Ness. We didn't get to spend a lot of time together often; it was good to get away from the rest of the family. I drifted into the shop next door that she had dove inside of and was watching her pile clothes in the arms of a retail worker.

"Having fun?" I asked, coming up behind her and seeing what she was browsing.

"Kind of. There isn't much here, unfortunately. But! I did find a few things that piqued my interest, some things for Hanna too. Some of her clothes are too ratty." I chuckled loudly, drawing the attention of a few too eager shoppers looking my way. "Alright, that's everything. Thank you, Tracey." I rolled my eyes and went outside to wait for her to purchase her things.

I was leaning against the wall tapping on my phone when a blur of blonde hair streaked past me. Too fast for human eyes to follow. I quickly scanned the streets, but it was gone. Or she was gone rather.

"Fuck."

~~~FH~~~

"Are you sure, Emmett?" Carlisle asked. He was pacing back and forth in front of me in the living room, my head was in my hands. This could not be happening, but I would notice that blonde hair anywhere. Even if it was just a glimpse.

"Yes, Carlisle. It was Rosalie." I looked him in the eye and if I could cry, I would be. Rose coming back would ruin everything. She was too jealous, too impulsive. She was so against the idea of Edward and Bella dating, hell even I was at first. I couldn't even imagine if she had found out about Hanna and I didn't even want to.

"You're going to have to tell Hanna. Before Rose catches wind of anything."

~~~FH~~~

"Hanna!" I called, jogging at a human pace to catch up to the blonde at the end of the hallway. She spun around at the sound of my voice, a bright smile on her face.

"Hey, everything alright?" She asked, concern gracing her features.

"Uh, yeah." I said. "Actually, not really. I need to tell you the secret I'm keeping. Can we ditch? Just for today?" She cocked her head to the side and nodded her head yes. She grabbed my hand and gently pulled me out of the school and toward my jeep. I had been taking the liberty since school started back up of picking up her and dropping her off.

The ride to her house was long and silent. She was looking out the window and watching things as they passed. Her hand on my leg, comforting me without even realizing it. When I pulled down her long driveway, I put the jeep in park next to her red Toyota and jumped out and grabbed her bag from the backseat for her. I followed her up the steps to the front door and waited while she grabbed the hideaway key to let us in.

Her house was nice, it was rather large for a family of three. It opened to an open floor plan of the living room and the kitchen. It was divided by a kitchen island and the living room was like the old houses from the seventies with a sunken living space with a white sectional. The dining room was off to the side and the stairs leading up to the second floor was on the opposite side of that. I set her bag down on the kitchen counter and allowed her to lead me up the stairs to her room.

"Okay, go ahead and tell me at your pace. I won't ask any questions until you are done." She said, plopping down on the bed and smiling her Emmett smile at me. Fuck, this was going to be hard.

"Hanna, look. This isn't easy to tell you okay?" I took a deep breath and stood at the foot of the head. My hands stuffed in the pockets of my jeans. She nodded slowly at my words, moving to sit crisscrossed. "I'm… different. Like, different. Like, more than just a vegetarian different." She giggled softly at my words and I smiled lightly at the sound. "Have you ever noticed how cold I am all the time? How I never eat? How sometimes I move really fast?"

"Well, yeah. But I just assumed you were anemic or something. That would explain why you're so pale."

Hanna was careful. She was smart. She was precise.

She was naïve.

"I'm a vampire."

I was expecting several reactions from her. Disgust, fear, shock, her running away. But I was not expecting her to suddenly burst out into laughter.

"I'm sorry, you're a what?" She was wiping the tears from her eyes and I looked at her sadly.

"A vampire, Hanna. I can prove it to you." I gently grabbed her hand and brought it to my chest, right over where my heart should have been beating. She was still giggling, and then she stopped. She looked at me, her eyes wide and her mouth open. She yanked her hand out of mine and stood up, backing away from me. Fear overtaking her features.

"Get out," she stuttered.

~~~FH~~~

R&R