The Next Day: 3:30 PM:

No one was home when Carlisle and Esme got home with the girl and her cats.

Carlisle took her straight to his study and got her set up. Then between him and Esme, they watched over her.

Esme took the first shift while Carlisle got some mountain lion blood and brought it back.

Using a tube placed in her throat, Carlisle was able to get blood into the girl.

He just removed it as she didn't need it anymore; she looked better—for being a vampire. However, they wouldn't know how she really was until she woke up.

"Here they come…" Carlisle stated, hearing the car and jeep coming up the drive.

"Finally…" Esme impatiently sighed; she was so excited for the others to know about their hopefully new family members.

"Relax; everything will be ok. Rosalie may be the only one who doesn't take it well, but you never know." Carlisle sighed.

"We're home!" Emmet yelled through the house.

"Alice said you wanted to talk to us." Rosalie stated in a bored tone.

"Yes. Please come to the kitchen." Carlisle calmly spoke.

"Uh-oh. Who did what?" Rosalie demanded.

"Now, please!" Esme impatiently called.

"They have a surprise." Edward calmly stated with a perplexed look; that's all that was running through Esme and Carlisle's heads because they knew Edward could hear their thoughts.

"Is everything ok?" Jasper asked once they all entered the kitchen.

"Yes, everything is just fine. We just need to talk. It's important. We'll start with it's not for certain, but we may have a new family member." Carlisle started.

"What do you mean we "may" have a new family member? We either do or we don't." Rosalie interrupted Carlisle.

"Rose, please don't interrupt." Esme disappointingly spoke.

"Sorry." Rosalie mumbled.

"Yesterday on our way home, we ran into some interesting situations. We found a young girl—a weak vampire because she was refusing to drink human blood. She was not well; she passed out it was so bad. We decided to take her in, but we never had a time to ask her. However, she's not the only one we brought with; she had four vampire cats with her. Before any of you say anything; they are very well trained and disciplined. They're actually how we found the girl. We heard them feasting on a small bear, a feral dog, a deer, and a hawk or something like that. Now—it is important that we try to convince this girl to stay; we need her to stay. Not for us, but for her—and one of her cats. The Volturi are after them—mainly the girl. No, we don't know her name. Her one cat—the oldest, talk; he physically speaks. He says she most likely doesn't remember her name because she didn't have a very good live before becoming a vampire. Which—I guess she hasn't come to terms with—or understands what's going on. But the girl; she has a lot of abilities. And we mean a lot." "Edward, are you alright?" Carlisle started explaining; he was going to continue when he was interrupted—this time by Esme.

Edward, who had been intently listening to Carlisle, looked at the counter in front of Esme and just stared, horrified. It concerned Esme very much.

"Where did you get that?" Edward finally spoke, looking at a small pendant on the counter in front of Esme. It was the object that fell out of the girl's pocket.

The pendant was in the shape of a golden rose with small rubies encrusted in what was supposed to be the petals. Small emeralds were encrusted in what was supposed to be a leaf. A broken gold chain went through a small hole in the golden stem. It was one of a kind.

"What?" Esme and Carlisle asked, confused and concerned, while the others looked on.

"This. Where did you get this?" Edward asked again, almost demanding, as he picked up the pendant.

"That. It fell out of the girl's pocket. Bubby said it was giv—" "Bubby?!" Esme started only to be interrupted by a very panicked Edward.

"Edward, please calm down…" Carlisle started.

"The girl… Does she have brown hair and green eyes?" Edward asked, pacing.

"She has brown hair with honey-blonde undertones. When we first saw her eyes, they were blood red because she hadn't had any blood for a long, long time. She hasn't been conscious long enough to see her eye color. However, you know this girl will have amber eyes like the rest of us. Edward, what is going on? Do you know the girl we're talking about?" Carlisle calmly answered and then asked.

"All this over some necklace many women probably had? Are those real rubies, and emeralds?" Rosalie asked, looking at the pendant in Edward's grasp.

Edward sucked in a bunch of air to try to calm down.

"Not many women had this exact pendant. This pendant is a one of a kind designed and crafted by my grandfather in the 1840s for my grandmother. He didn't work in the mines but was down there just doing whatever it is he was doing—drunk and he happened to find some. He made jewelry for the rich and elite. He tired of it. So, he made this for Grandma and sold the rest of the gold, rubies, and emeralds he had left and moved them to Chicago with Grandma—despite her not really wanting to. She'd never leave him though. Before Grandma died, she gave me this and told me to keep it safe. I know this is that pendant because he etched to his one love on the bottom." Edward explained.

"So you loved this girl?" Emmet asked in a teasing tone.

"No…" Edward started, only to be interrupted.

"Do you want to see the girl to make sure it's the right girl?" Carlisle asked, watching Edward.

"You said her cat's name was Bubby? You're sure?" Edward asked, looking at Carlisle and Esme.

"Yes." They both answered.

"Is he orange and yellow with a little brown, and does his face look like a butterfly?" Edward asked, looking at the pendant.

"That sounds about right." Esme answered, watching as Edward leaned against the wall.

"Are you sure you didn't love this girl?" Rosalie asked in a condescending tone.

"Her name is Halley Moon; she was born Christmas Eve 1908. I remember because there was a snowstorm, and nobody could get anywhere. They had no choice but to do a homebirth—and there were complications. Mom, Dad, and I went over to help. That was fun. My parents were friends with her parents; we lived next door. Every now and then—more than often, her parents would go out and I'd babysit her once I reached twelve and she was four." Edward explained, ignoring Rosalie.

"What can you tell us about Halley? Bubby said she didn't have a good relationship with her parents." Esme asked; she wanted to know as much as she could.

"Ha! What relationship? She had an older half-brother, Cosmo Moon; he was from one of her their father's previous relationships and wasn't wanted by his mother. She also had a younger brother, Apollo Moon. Their parents only wanted boys to carry on their name. A daughter marries and their last name changes." Edward started.

"They certainly love their space names…" Rosalie mumbled.

"For the boys anyway." Emmet stated, getting looks.

"What? The boys are Cosmo and Apollo; they're space names. Halley is a pretty name from something else." Emmet stated, looking at everyone.

"She's named after the comet, Halley's comet. Yes, they liked their space name. Their dad was a self-absorbed prick, who, because his last name was "Moon," had decided that any child with his blood running through their veins would be named after something from space. Same with any grandchildren he may have; he'd get to name them. Anyway, their dad figured that even though they had Halley, he could get her to do whatever he told her. She could have a boyfriend once she was older but was not allowed to marry and any children, she had would have the last name "Moon." And her mom—she tried for a few years. She could dress her up and do her hair. Halley hated all that. She definitely had a mind of her own—and she usually did what she wanted—to a certain degree. Once she turned three it became clear that she was different—but it wouldn't be until she was six or seven that she was diagnosed with ADD—which was still relatively new to the states. I wouldn't say she was a hyper child; she just had trouble sitting still or concentrating. Her mine raced a lot. It was apparently hard to keep track of her. Well, when you're not paying attention or blaming your child for everything, of course, you're going to lose track of your child." Edward explained, pacing back and forth.

"Blaming for everything?" Esme asked, listening.

"If they couldn't control their child, why did they leave her in your care? You were just a kid. What are you supposed to do?" Rosalie asked.

"Halley always listened to me; she was always well behaved. I never had any issues with her. I didn't have any problems with her being up and moving all the time—until she got to tired to move. Give her something to read and she's content. And it's not that she wasn't listening to them; they weren't listening to her. They didn't care. And her having special abilities now doesn't surprise me now that I think of it; she wasn't a normal child. She could do a lot of different things that normal people couldn't. I don't know how well she was able to control any of her abilities—and sure as hell don't know about now. She had her routine throughout the day. Bed was supposed to be at 7:30 PM. But after some time, I figured her parents were never home until 11 PM or later, so I let her stay up to 8:30 or 9:00 PM. They never noticed; she was always up by 6:30 AM. But I'd get her to bed and after an hour I'd check on her; she'd be floating about five inches off the bed. If she weren't floating, she wasn't asleep; she'd only float if she were asleep. It was a little weird at first, but I got used to it. She was a weird, shy kid, but she deserved better than she had."

"It didn't matter if she were there or not—or close or not, if something weird happened around town or wherever, it was her fault. Some builders were placing windows in some new building when a sheet of glass slipped from the workers hands and cut some guy below him in half. It was automatically her fault, so her dad beat her. Her mom ignored everything until Apollo was killed when some horses ran over him when she was eight and he was four or five. Their parents were the only ones who blamed her; everyone else saw the kid tormenting the damn horses. He got himself killed. But it didn't matter; Cosmo and Apollo were their prides and joys. Dad beat her and Mom sent her away for a few months to be "treated." I don't know what they did or what happened to her there, but when she came back, she wasn't the same. The only thing that remained the same was that she floated as she slept." Edward explained.

"But that's a good thing, isn't it? I mean, maybe people would've viewed her as normal after that." Rosalie stated.

"She was normal before that; she was her. She came back and she was no longer her. At nine years of age, she attempted to cut her wrists. And when I found her because I had to watch her for the night, she begged me to kill her because she couldn't take it anymore. It took me days to get her to understand she's not nothing and was just fine the way she was. And then all that progress went down the drain when I caught Cosmo raping her; he was about nineteen, I think. She was only ten; and it only happened a few months after I got her feeling like herself again. And then shortly after that, I got the Spanish Influenza. I can only imagine how she took that." Edward explained, becoming defensive of the girl he claims he doesn't love.

In all actuality, Edward knew that night he caught her trying to slice her wrists how he felt about her. But she was only nine; he was sixteen. He's pretty sure that was frowned upon. Not to mention, she probably didn't even know what love was.

"When did you get her Bubby?" Esme asked with a soft smile.

"Who named the cat?" Emmet asked, curious.

"I got Bubby, from some breeder who said he was a "she" when Halley was nine. He was a welcome home present. She named because Bubbles didn't work for a male cat. He was three or four months. I'm sure—or I'm hoping he was able to help her." Edward answered, looking at the ceiling.

"Edward?" Carlisle asked, watching Edward.

"Who the fuck rapes a ten year old?! And wasn't she his freaking sister?! Even if they're only half-siblings, they're still siblings! What the fuck was wrong with him?!" Rosalie snapped.

Her ex raped and left her to die in the street; she was eighteen. This girl was ten—only a child.

"Jasper…" Alice started.

"Right." Jasper replied, using his ability to calm Rosalie down.

"What happened to the bastard?" Rosalie asked, slowly calming down.

"The only thing I can tell you is that I beat him into a coma just after he—yeah. After that, I don't know. I died." Edward answered. That seemed to relax Rosalie—at least a little.

"I would've killed him." Rosalie mumbled.

"You were just a baby at that time. But trust me when I say I wanted to. I wanted to so bad." Edwards stated.

"Why didn't you?" Emmet asked, looking at Edward.

"Why? Because of Halley. She was already traumatized enough; she didn't need anymore. I helped her, called the police, told them what happened to a certain degree, left. But not before I gave her the pendant. I was just coming down with the Spanish Influenza at the time. I gave her it as a memento. But more than anything, she was having a difficult time and I knew she liked roses; she was always growing them. That was the one thing her mom was actually proud of her for. If she grew roses, her mom kept her dad from beating her. Honestly, I don't know what was going to happen. Clearly, I didn't make it—in a sense. I told her I was going away and to keep it safe; she knew what it was and what it meant. She said she see me again and that she'd give it back the next time we saw each other." Edward explained.

"And you're telling us you don't love this girl?" Rosalie asked, narrowing her eyes.

"You are such a liar, Edward. You know, back in that day, it was so bad if you liked someone quite a few years younger than oneself. Just think if you had survived and you both grew up together and you knew her as a teenager. There would've been no problem whatsoever." Alice dreamily told Edward before going off to her own world.

"Whoa! Alice slow down. Do you know how long it's been since I've seen her?" Edward asked, becoming flustered; she was imagining Edward and Halley dancing, kissing, being married, and so on and so forth.

Well, actually, because she doesn't know what Halley looks like, she was imagining Edward and a small blur with long brown hair doing all those things.

"Over a hundred years. It'll be so romantic!" Alice happily exclaimed with big ideas coming to her.

"You said Bubby's a vampire as well?" Edward asked, looking at Esme and Carlisle, cringing at the thoughts popping through Alice's head.

"Yes. Him and three others: Buttons, and their two kittens, S'mores and Snickers." Esme happily answered, making Edward cringle a little; he could see the thoughts running through her head.

Seeing the girl in both Esme and Carlisle's minds, Edward recognized her instantly.

It was Halley; she looked the same—just a little older, taller, and beautiful.

'She grew up—that's for sure.' "Why am I not surprised?" Edward thought to himself before kind of mumbled.

"What was that?" Carlisle asked, watching Edward.

"Sorry. Halley's pretty easy to read. Aside from roses, she loved cats; she was determined to become the crazy cat lady with God only knows how many cats. At least she got one of the cats she had on her list of cats she wanted. She's always wanted a calico like you used to see in fancy places back then. I told her she just wanted one because they were pretty cats—and to name them after her favorite campfire snack or candy bar. She always said no; she was going to get one and name it something sophisticated like Sophia. I knew she'd name it after her favorite snack foods." Edward answered, chuckling a little at the memories.

"I'm kind of surprised the Volturi haven't killed the cats yet. What? I'm not trying to be that guy, but you know how they feel about animal vampires." Emmet stated.

"He has a point." Jasper spoke up.

"Bubby talks and can get in and out of different places; he'd make a great spy for them. I mean, really; who's going to suspect a cat? All four of them are well disciplined, and don't go after humans; they only go after wild animals. Not to mention, the Volturi want Halley. Bubby told us that they were desperate to get her and her cats to stay—and that no matter how many of their abilities they used, Halley wasn't affected. Bubby was until Halley picked him up; he said Jane's pain ability made him feel like his body was being twisted around. She stayed a few nights and then left. But I guess they told Halley that none of our kind will kill the cats; they will be protected." Carlisle explained, shocking everyone.

"I have a question. Earlier, you said she had ADD, and yesterday, Bubby said she wasn't the brightest bulb in the box. Is that true?" Esme asked, concerned.

"Just how smart is that damn cat? I wouldn't say she's stupid. However, no; she's not all that bright. But that probably has to do with her birth. I said she was born at home and there were complications; her umbilical cord got wrapped tightly around her neck. By some miracle, they got it off and she survived, but she did have lasting effects. I suppose it doesn't help she was born three weeks early. But she didn't get enough oxygen to her brain, so she's a bit behind. So what ability does she have that the Volturi want her so bad?" Edward answered and then asked.

"Abilities; she has multiple." Esme and Carlisle stated, watching Edward, motioning him over to the counter before telling them all that she could do.

"I'd hate to be her…" Rosalie sighed.

"So we'll just have to protect and keep her safe! No one will hurt my new sister!" Alice determinedly declared.

Edward was going to say something, but with one spoken word, he froze.

"Hello?"