~~Rebekah~~
"Are you sure that you'll be able to be alone?" Ness asked. "You know… being newborn and all that."
"I'm sure," I sighed as Jasper hugged me from the side. "I haven't slipped up, yet." Jasper strengthened his grip on me for a moment.
"Don't worry, I won't eat them. They smell absolutely repulsive."
"Well that's good." He sighed. "At least that part of her is normal…" He whispered and huffed the last part of the sentence, as if I couldn't hear it.
"I hope you'll get to know the Clearwaters and Jacob a little more, they've been our friends for over decade." Esme hugged me, my chin resting on her silky hair.
"I hope I do too." I let go and smiled at her. Especially Seth. "Now go, don't worry about me!"
Twenty minutes more of doubtful good-byes and they had finally left me be. Sure, I liked having my new… caretakers… around, but sometimes I'd wanted to be alone. Just because I was a newborn did not mean that I needed constant supervision. In fact, I think that I was going through the newborn phase a lot faster? No, that wouldn't be possible, or could it be? I'll ask Jasper when they get back, I thought.
For now, the plan was to focus on Seth. He was coming in about an hour and the more I messed around, the less time I had to get ready. There wasn't a specific outfit I had in mind to wear, but I knew that it had to be somewhat alluring and comfortable. But first, the smell of blood had to go.
After slipping out of the shower, it hit me; what was Seth going to eat? Of course he couldn't feast on my diet, so that left me with no other option other than… make something. Did Esme go grocery shopping? 'Cause if not, I'm screwed. I kept my makeup minimal, only choosing to exaggerate my eyeliner for a more dramatic effect. I quickly changed into a pair of black leggings and one of Rosalie's college sweatshirts and headed down to the kitchen.
Now… what to make him. Surely there's a recipe book somewhere in here. I mean- Esme is basically Martha Stewart. I rummaged around the cupboards in the five-star kitchen that even Gordon Ramsey would be jealous of. Finally, I managed to stumble upon a faded, torn, cookbook.
What is this from, the fifties? I thought while flipping through the recipes. There were things such as Ambrosia Salad and Mocha-Baked Alaskas. Looks too sweet, he'll be sick by the end of the night. Then it struck me. Why not make him my special salad? The refrigerator was about half-way full, thank god for Esme! I managed to pull something together before I heard the doorbell ring.
"Rebekah, hello?" I heard him call from the outside. "It's Seth!"
"Door's unlocked!" He walked in and looked around. His eyes met mine.
"Just wasn't expecting for the bloodsuckers to keep their door unlocked." He chuckled.
"Yeah… same. But Alice has been doing a lot of late-night Amazon shopping for me and everything arrives at her and Jasper's place, then she brings it here. It's mostly fabric and books. But she did buy me a new makeup mirror, which was nice."
"Aren't you worried about someone breaking in?"
"There is literally no one around! The surrounding houses are ones that Esme has renovated and the other members of the family live in and the camp we've set up for you three!"
"Oh, very well then. But who's house is who's?"
"Alice and Jasper's place is the one that looks like the cottage-core lesbian dream mixed with a Texan ranch house. That made no sense, but it's the only way I could describe it. Rose and Emmett's is the one that's very modern looking and the most structurely stable because… well." He grimaced.
"No need to explain further."
I shuddered. "Bella, Edward, and Ness' house is the one that somehow also looks like a cottage-core lesbian dream. Sometimes I intend to go over the Alice's place to pick up some clothes she lets me use as fabric, but I accidently wind up at Bella's place and vice-versa. I wish Esme hadn't made them so similar! On the inside, they're very different houses, but on the outside they look identical! I mean, I like the cottage-core lesbian asethetic as much as the next person- I'm rambling aren't I?"
"No, carry on."
"Anyway, then we've got this place which looks like a ranch house and a New York City penthouse had a love-child, and I can say that because I actually lived in a penthouse in the Big Apple."
"Huh, what's that?" He gestured to the bowl.
"Oh this!" I exclaimed. "It was for you. I really… didn't know what to make you, so I made you one of my former favorites; the special salad. Yes, I know, creative name."
"What's in it?"
"When I was living in my apartment, I didn't have much for food, so I would usually scrape something together. Usually, that meant whatever was in my fridge at the time, and those were usually romaine lettuce or spinach. The toppings were usually things I could find around the house. Tonight, I'd thought to play it safe with some spinach, yogurt, and peanut butter."
"Sounds… delicious…" He said uneasily.
"You really don't have to eat if you don't want to. I know it's quite unappetizing."
"No, I'll try it." He grabbed a fork from a drawer and stabbed the salad, taking a huge forkful and chewed.
"Hey," He swallowed. "This is is not the worst thing I've eaten!"
"Really?"
"It's not bad, it's not good... it's tolerable. Do you want to watch something?"
"Sure! Any show recommendations?" He shook his head. "Well, Carlisle, Esme, and I just finished watching The Queen's Gambit, which has been the best show I've seen in a while. Shortly after you left, we watched the last two episodes together and cried. Then, to cheer us up, Esme and I forced Carlisle to sit through two hours of Grey's Anatomy and The Crown. I prefer 'Crown to 'Greys."
"Why?"
"Because Carlisle is complaining that it's medically inaccurate and that none of the doctors are hooking up with the nurses in storage closets!"
He chuckled. "As a doctor and a husband, he better not." We moved towards the couch. "I take it he's gone back, to work- I mean."
"About a week ago, he went back. He was so hesitant at first, but Esme assured him that it would be okay, and it has been. Right now, he's taking time off to go on a 'anniversary trip with his fiancé'. But of course, you know the truth by now." Seth nodded and took another bite of salad and grimaced slightly.
In my head, I thought that this sight was quite amusing, I mean- he was actually eating it! Most people I had met thought that my little concoction was quite strange, and I didn't blame them. But Seth, he was actually eating it and not gagging, only mildly grimacing.
"Are they fun parents, despite being close in age to you?" Seth broke the silence
"What? Sorry, didn't hear you." I snapped out of my thinking.
"No, it's okay, you seemed deep in thought. I was just saying how cool it must be to have Carlisle and Esme raising you. I mean- they're incredibly wealthy, Carlisle is so compassionate and understanding, and Esme's the most genuine, sweet lady. Not to mention that those two are also not all that bad looking…"
"Well them not being bad looking is actually more of a curse because all the women want Carlisle and every man wants Esme, so going to the grocery store is a little awkward. What the hell am I saying? If I was old enough, I would lust after them." He laughed. "As parents, they're pretty amazing, but it is strange to have your mom to look like she's ten years old than you are. But she has her shit together, so it really doesn't matter. "
"Understanable. When we have get-togethers down at the La Push beach, we always invite Esme because she makes the best food."
"I'll bet." We sat in an awkward silence for a moment.
"Should we start watching The Queen's Gambit? Also, what is it about?"
"Oh yeah, that. The Queen's Gambit is this mini-series about a young orphan girl named Beth, who is a chess prodigy, but as she grows older, she unfortunately becomes a drug addict."
"Sounds… dark. Should we start it?" I turned on the TV and headed to Netflix.
"Starting now." I cued up the first episode and dimmed the lights.
We managed to get through four episodes before Seth conked out on the arm of the couch with Esme's favorite knitted blanket wrapped around him. Although I had noticed him slowly nodding off halfway through episode three.
I turned off the TV and lights completely in order to let him get some rest, but occasionally checked up on him just to make sure he didn't need anything. I put his bowl and fork in the sink, the ceramic dishes clattering against the stainless-steel sink. Fearing that I had woken him, I turned to look at him, but no, he was sleeping peacefully and lightly snoring. To me, he looked like a child with his messy hair and youthful face curled into a smile. I left him alone and sat at the bay window in the dining room.
Then, I heard something rustling in the distance and quietly slipped out the back door in order to investigate. Even though I was pretty sure it was just a deer or raccoon, I had a small knife in my hand just in case I needed to defend the house.
"Come out." I commanded. Something jumped out from behind a large shrub, it was Leah. "Leah…" I chewed my lip. "Sorry, I didn't know it was you."
"Where is Seth?" She asked in a concerned tone.
"He's inside on the couch, asleep. Do you want me to get him?" I asked, stepping back slightly.
"No, I wouldn't want to wake him." She sighed and then looked at me with a disapproving look on her face. "You stay the hell away from my brother."
"I just made him dinner, talked and we watched a mini-series! We did nothing else, I swear!"
"I believe you," Leah calmly stated and brushed a stray hair out of her dimly-lit face. "Just… keep your distance from him." She said harshly and disappeared into the night
She acted like I'd just spit into her face, even though I hadn't done anything to harm her. I decided to just brush it off and regained composure. To a normal person, she sounded threating, but her tone didn't frighten me at all as I had heard worse. I headed back inside to check on Seth, hoping he hadn't heard what just went down.
It was Monday, the day that the entire family was supposed to arrive back home. Seth was blissfully happy because it meant that he would see Renesmee again, apparently those two were close. Jacob was excited to chat and see Bella. Leah and I hadn't spoken a word since our little confrontation a few nights ago, and we were both agreeing to stick to those terms. I just couldn't wait for Esme to come home so she and I could talk about it…
"Rebekah!" I heard Esme call from a distance.
She came running and hugged me with such force that she almost knocked me down. I hugged back and then a soft breeze blew, flooding my nostrils with a musky cologne. I looked down and noticed that she was wearing an oversized white button-down dress shirt over her black leggings. It hit me within two seconds what had happened.
"Oh dear God, you've only been home for ten seconds and you've already traumatized me." I sighed. "I guess an eternal family also comes with eternal therapy."
"Welcome to the family, little sis." Emmett snuck up behind me and slapped my shoulder. "These two have been doing it since- Eddie, little help?"
"1921." Edward nodded. 1921, almost a hundred years ago.
"Welcome home, Em." I hugged my largest sibling.
"Why does it smell like a wet dog inside?" Rosalie asked, stepping towards the house and wrinkling her nose. An hour prior, I opened all the doors and windows in order to air out the dog smell. I guess my efforts went to waste.
"Umm…" My cheeks stung with non-existent heat. "Well…"
"Come inside, Darling." Esme grabbed my waist and gently pulled me inside, Carlisle followed her shortly. Soon after, Ness followed. I was glad she had gotten me out of that sticky mess.
"Okay, I invited Seth inside." I confessed once the four of us were alone. "We didn't do anything like that, we just chatted and watched The Queen's Gambit."
"We believe you," Carlisle touched my shoulder. "Rose just doesn't get along with the wolves all that well. She doesn't like the way they eat, the way they dress, their smell, the fact they change into wolves..."
"Other than the smell, we think they're alright." Ness added.
"I agree with you."
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and when it opened, Seth was standing there. He must be here for Ness. She skipped over to him and they began talking. I excused myself and slipped upstairs to go work on some sewing projects. Not long after, I heard a knock on my door.
"Rebekah," She bit her lip nervously. She probably wanted to lecture me on the importance of… everything?
"Yes?" I was already dreading her reply.
"Could you… fix something for me?" She asked. I sighed with great relief and collapsed into my sewing chair.
"Sure! What is it?" I asked very perkily.
"My blouse…" If vampires could blush, she would be hot pink right now. "Alice told me that you were very skilled at fixing clothes that were badly mutilated."
"It took me a while to figure it out, but now I say that I'm not too shabby. How badly torn is the shirt?"
Esme shyly unbuttoned Carlisle's oversized dress shirt, and tossed it onto my bed. The condition of her shirt wasn't that bad actually, it was still in one piece… barely. There were large tears in the sleeves and smaller ones on the inside of the sleeve. There were two large slashes in the front, one on each side, and they revealed her bust slightly.
"Turn around." The back was so much worse from the front, it was basically just shreds barely clinging together. There was one long tear that split the back of the blouse in half.
"My goodness, what did Carlisle do?" I asked.
"Well, it wasn't just him." She said quietly as I slipped the blouse off her so I could start repairing the small tears.
"Huh?"
"Lunch fought me a little…" She chuckled.
"Mountain lion?"
"Brown bear actually, it created most of the damage. Carlisle only contributed a little."
"Again, I'm going to need therapy for an eternity. Oh, wait, I've got an eternity." She laughed and covered herself with a pillow, holding it to her stomach.
"You don't have to repair it, Alice can always buy me a new one."
"Too late, already tied the thread through the needle." I flicked on my bright sewing lamp and began repairing a hold in the bottom of a sleeve.
"Can't you just sew it up with the machine?" Esme asked.
"Nope, that's not how I do it… In order to make it look seamless and brand-new, I just…" I wove the thread in and out and then showed it to her.
"Wow! It's like it was never there!"
"Exactly!" I exclaimed and continued to repair the smaller to medium sized tears until I came to the ones that were too big and needed machine sewing in order to repair them. As I began setting up the machine and winding one of the bobbins, my door opened.
"How are my best girls?" Carlisle came and sat on my bed.
"Doing well." I replied and started to pin Esme's blouse back together. "Just fixing the blouse that you destroyed."
He didn't comment but did move from his position on my bed and came to look at the progress I was making. "Looks nice."
"Thanks." I clipped off the leftover thread that kept the back of the garment from splitting in half and began to repair the smaller tears on the sides. Carlisle moved closer to watch my hands work.
"You know that method you're using dates back to the 1700s." He broke the silence.
"What?"
"The method- it's from the 1700s. It was started by a seamstress named… goodness, why can't I remember it? Anyway, the way you're stitching up that hole is very similar to the way she did it."
"What's the method called?" I sighed and set the blouse down. "And how old are you?" I noticed a smile creeping onto Esme's face.
"I was born sometime in the spring of 1640, and I was transformed in the fall of 1670. The method you are using… I can't remember what it's called exactly, but I know the seamstress' name started with an 'A', or had an A as an inital in her name. That should get you somewhere."
"I've never heard of it."
"I wouldn't think anyone your age would know, it's really not all that common anymore." I nodded. "Wow… you're doing it the way she did."
"You met her?" I asked. By now I had noticed that Esme somehow silently slipped out of my room, possibly to go find another shirt or to give me and her husband some privacy. Carlisle and I hadn't had a private conversation ever since he went back to work.
"She was the daughter of two friends of mine, both of whom died shortly after she was born. Her mother was nobility, and after she died, she had her bodyguard take the girl and her brother, whom they left their entire fortune to. The bodyguard raised them from there. I hadn't seen her since she was a toddler and now I say it..."
"What?"
"She looked a lot like you." He took my face into his hands and started examining it.
"I swear that I've never time-traveled." I threw my hands up.
"Of course you haven't, but I'm just saying." He stopped examining my face. "You have the same eyebrows, cheekbones- everything! Although her face was much more severe, her cheekbones stuck out a lot more. She was extremely skinny even though she was well-fed. Apparently she had many food intolerances, which of course meant a limited diet."
"I was allergic to gluten as a human," I sighed. "But now, I guess I'm allergic to everything!" He chuckled.
"If only I could remember her name…" He sighed. "She was quite a talented seamstress like you, but of course her methods are now considered outdated. You might be her descendant, Rebekah." I swallowed. Must. Tell. About. Genealogy. Project, I thought. Well… tomorrow wouldn't hurt.
"I've gotta go finish looking at patient forms." He walked towards my door. "We can talk about this more later, okay?" I nodded and went back to working on the blouse.
We didn't end up finishing that conversation because Bella and Edward were hosting the monthly Cullen Family Game Night. Apparently, it was a competition of life and death because of… Emmett. That's all I can say; Emmett. The wolves were invited but ended up politely declining their invitation because of… something- I couldn't remember why they said no. I didn't even know why they were still here, as they said that they would leave the day after they met me.
"Rebekah, if Emmett gets super mad at you, then punch him. I don't care what Rosalie says, just protect yourself!" Esme told me as we walked down the road to the cottage.
"I know how to defend myself, I lived in New York City."
"Okay then, you're all set." Carlisle rang the doorbell and Ness answered.
"There you guys are, we were starting to get worried! Come in, everything's all set up. Rebekah, do you want to be partners in Five-Card-Draw?"
"Sure!" I exclaimed. Once we had moved into the living room, I whispered to her. "Don't worry, I once went to Vegas when I was nine and played poker with my adoptive father. Cleaned out all those wealthy businessmen like it was nothing.
"Nice!" Ness' eyes lit up. "So glad I picked you because I have no idea how to play poker." She laughed as we took our places. Carlisle shuffled the cards and dealt them. Ness and I eagerly picked up our cards.
"These suck!" She whispered. "And the ones that are showing to them aren't that good either!"
"Calm down, I know what I'm doing." I whispered back and put three cards down as Carlisle handed me three more. We got a king, queen, and jack.
"Is this good?" Ness was holding the last two cards from our original hand. I subtly nodded and we continued into the next round.
"How many cards would you like?" Carlisle asked.
"None." I replied statically.
"They better have a good hand," Emmett whispered to Rose. "'Cause our's is good!"
We went through the next round with no issues as I had instructed Ness to keep her poker face on. Edward and Bella had decided to fold when we reached the final round.
"Pair of twos." Alice and Jasper showed off their cards.
"Three kings." Esme and Carlisle showed off theirs.
"Three aces." Emmett said gleefully and then turned to me. "What about you two little girls?" He asked in a snarky tone.
I calmly and quietly turned our cards over. "Royal flush." I heard Emmett curse under his breath.
"You've never even played!" He screamed and turned to Alice. "Did you see this coming?" She shook her head.
"Her poker face is so good, I would've never known! Plus, I can't see her future anymore…" Emmett shook his attention away from her and back to me.
"Never play games, especially ones involving money with a government man's daughter, you could get into serious debt." I calmly stated and turned my gaze to Carlisle. "So, should we play another round?"
The games ended up going until two in the morning. After fifteen rounds of losing to me and Ness, Emmett finally decided to give up on poker for Monopoly, which Carlisle and Esme ended up winning. Before we ended, he yelled "I can never win in this house!" which I found to be quite amusing.
"Rebekah," Esme wrapped one of her slender arms around me. "I never knew you were so good at poker!"
"Meh, just a little hobby of mine, no big deal."
"We should take you to Vegas for your birthday." Carlisle stated. "By the way, when is your birthday?"
"October fifteenth," I brushed a hair out of my eyes. Then I remembered it was the tenth, my birthday was in five days. "You don't have to plan a big fancy party." They nodded.
"I went to Vegas when I was nine," We kept trudging along. "It was for a business trip for my dad, and I either don't remember or care why we went and he took me. Anyway, for some reason, one night he took me out to a casino."
"Why the hell would a man take a nine-year-old to a casino?" Carlisle asked.
"I don't know, extremely flawed parenting there! For some odd reason they let me in, and all my dad's old businessmen friends were charmed by me. They even let me play for a couple rounds, and I won all of them. Still don't know today if it was beginner's luck or something else. I cleaned all those men out and when we got back to our house in Connecticut, my dad took me out for a nice dinner and some ice cream the next weekend."
"That sounded like fun."
"It was, we went out for two reasons. One; to celebrate my victory, and Two; because we hadn't had a father-daughter 'date' in a long time. Even though he didn't really pay much attention to me on a normal day, I still cherish those little moments we spent together. My mom was the same way, being head CIA Forensic Artist and all."
My newest set of… parents- Yeah, I'll call them that now, I thought, But only in my mind. Looked like they were about to cry, even though we couldn't produce tears. We walked the rest of the way home in silence. Once we arrived back home, I heard a rustling sound in the woods.
"What was that?" I asked.
"What was what?" Esme looked out the window.
"It's probably nothing," Carlisle brushed past the both of us and headed upstairs. Once he was gone, Esme discreetly passed me a small knife.
"Go see what it is." She whispered.
"I will." I slipped out the back door and disappeared into the night.
Once I was out of hearing range, I quickly started running towards the sounds I had heard earlier. As I got closer and closer, I realized that they were footsteps and immediately I knew they were nomads trying to steal our territory. I pulled the knife out of my pocket and gently shoved it up into my sleeve.
"Who's there?" I called out. I had ended up stopping in the middle of a clearing in the dense forest, a rarity. The moonlight was brightly shining down onto me.
"Rebekah…" I heard a voice ring in my ears. It was definitely female but it was low, being slightly deeper than Leah's voice.
"Leave now." I hissed, gripping the knife. I was so glad Esme provided me with one. "This ranch is ours and I will fight to protect it."
"Calm down," A man's voice replaced the female's "We are not here to threaten you."
"How can I be sure of that?"
"Because, Rebekah, we are people of your past." Another male voice spoke. So two males and one female, sounds like a recipe for a love triangle. I thought to myself.
"My past? My past is behind me now, and if you are apart of-"
"No, we are not a part of that specific time in your life. Rebekah, we are a part of you that you don't remember. Memories that you cherished, but were taken away."
Cherished memories that were taken away? These three were a part of my life that I couldn't remember? What were they talking about? I had only lived only lived to be sixteen, and I surely remember a majority of those sixteen years!
"Leave now, or I will call in Emmett." I stepped closer to where their voices were coming from.
"You will remember us one day, Rebekah, I swear." A thin stick cracked as they walked away, and when I ran to the place where they were standing, they were gone. All three magically vanished into thin air. With no other choice, I ran back to the house, dazed and confused, where I was met by Esme, who ran out the back door and engulfed me in her arms.
"What was it?" She asked, releasing me.
"Herd of deer." I lied. "I'm going up to finish repairing your blouse." She nodded and let me run upstairs.
Once I reached my room, I locked the door. I didn't even stride over to where Esme's almost-completely-repaired blouse was sitting on my desk because my head was swarming. Why would three strangers whom I didn't even know, show up at the place I know called home and told me they were from my past? Even though I tried my hardest to block out the part of my past that scarred me the hardest? I sighed and looked up at the ceiling. I knew that I had to tell someone because sooner or later, Edward would find out about it. Or maybe he already knew, who knows?
Not knowing what to do, I sighed again and stood up. Maybe a shower would help? I did reek of werewolf, and too much of werewold tended to give all of us a headache. I dragged my feet towards the shower without even seeing the note left on my desk.
AN: I somehow managed to write this entire chapter, edit it, and proof-read it within three days! How is that possible? Now I know why I'm so dang tired all the time! It's coming out early because I know I'll be having some trouble with the next one...
I hope y'all had an amazing Thanksgiving and got to spend a lot of quality time with your families, no matter what circumstance you are in! I know I did, even though it was just me and my parents.
R