Tbh, writing this chapter felt like coming home. I haven't had a good, fun chapter in quite a while, and as much as I love Undertow, it will never have a scene like this of canon, Cullen vampires. These vampires, the other characters, and all of Eclipse belong to Stephanie Meyer, but I take better care of them.

Bella and I laid up in her bed, enjoying a quiet afternoon together after the morning's excitement. She curled up against my chest, using her littlest finger to trace the cover art of the album I brought for us to listen to together. She was trying to guess which lyric on the album reminded me of her; we were on the second playthrough and she still hadn't gotten it.

We were about to get to the lyric when my enjoyment of the music was suddenly interrupted by the thoughts of all of my siblings.

"What the hell?" I whispered to myself, too low for Bella to hear.

Rosalie's M3 slid smoothly into the Swan's driveway. Bella wasn't aware of her visitors until the slam of Emmett's car door.

I felt her head cock to the side under my chin. "Who is it?" she asked, knowing my telepathy would give us the answer without either of us needing to move.

"My siblings," it took all of my strength to not have the words come out as a growl.

"Really?" Bella chirped and hopped off the bed and out of my arms; they missed for her immediately.

I followed Bella as she scurried down the stairs, catching and righting her only once despite her haste. She flung the door open in time to see Alice and Jasper waiting patiently by the front door, and Rosalie helping Emmett get something out of the car.

"What is it, Bells?" Charlie asked, joining us in the doorway.

"We brought dinner!" Emmett called, revealing the stack of pizzas.

Jasper managed a tight smile for Charlie, "We heard Bella wasn't feeling well, so we wanted to cheer her up."

I felt Charlie's glare bear into the back of my skull like I had personally orchestrated this to ruin his quiet evening at home, "Well, isn't that something?"

"Emmett, are those seven pizzas for just tonight?" Bella asked incredulously.

"Yeah," he nodded, pretending to struggle with the boxes for Charlie, "One for each of us, right?"

I grimaced. Bella immediately looked to Alice.

My sister gingerly took Bella's hand and gave it a reassuring pat. "Everything's going to be fine tonight," she whispered, "No incidents or suspicions at all."

Arm-in-arm with Alice, Bella led my siblings into her tiny kitchen, and I fished out enough plates and glasses from the cabinets for all of us. We let Charlie take a pie into the living room for himself where he promptly turned on the sports network to catch whatever game was currently on. Bella helped my siblings take a believable amount of pizza. Jasper and Emmett followed Charlie into the living room, where Jasper promptly adjusted Charlie's reluctance into a warm feeling of camaraderie.

What I wouldn't give to have Jasper's gift.

I sat with the girls in the kitchen. As Bella ate her pizza, Alice recounted our morning for Bella, starting with seeing me run into the woods in a vision, and ending with me running the opposite direction in those same woods to get back to Bella. As usual, Bella took the news of being the prey of yet another vampire unnaturally coolly—which, of course, made me want to tear my hair out.

Over in the other room, Emmett and Jasper were still sitting on either side of Charlie on the Swan's couch, hooting and hollering with the game. While we were talking, Jasper and Emmett had taken it upon themselves to play a game of their own: to see which one of them could stomach the most pizza in front of Charlie. As the night went on, the game morphed into sort of a dare as well, as each of them created a stranger and stranger pizza combination for themselves to eat, just waiting to see if Charlie would say something. Jasper had already doused a slice in hot sauce, and Emmett had put all the onions from the entire pie onto a single since.

"Anther slice, bro?" Emmett asked—I could practically hear the cheeky grin that stretched across his face.

"Please," Jasper responded, ready to win this bet no matter what.

Emmett waltzed into the kitchen, ready to kick it up a notch. Without asking permission to do so, he began rifling through Bella's fridge.

"What's this?" he asked, holding up a container of leftovers.

"It's meatloaf," Bella answered.

Emmett inspected the container, "Well, it looks like a big pile of sh—,"

"Emmett..." I warned.

"It's perfect," he winked at Bella. He opened up the container and dumped its contents onto a slice of cheese pizza. "Jazzy!" he called in a sing-song voice on his walk back to the living room, "The Swan's had your favorite!"

Like always, Bella took my brothers' childishness like a champ. With a smirk and a shake of her head, she murmured, "Weirdo."

After a brief check-in to see if Jasper could make it through his meatloaf pizza, Alice continued with her tail for Bella. I tuned in, now that we had gotten to the part I didn't know about. "After Edward peaced, the rest of us split up. Rosalie and I followed Jasper and Emmett into the woods, where we all decided to split up and cover more area: Jasper to the northern coast of the Pacific, Emmett down the Southern, and Rosalie and I followed the Sol Duc east. When we didn't find anything…"

"You didn't find him?" I asked, for this was news to me. Jasper had sworn he was going to eliminate the threat…

"No," Alice shook her head.

"And you don't see us finding him at all?" Desperation began leaking out of my voice. Bella put down her pizza to place a comforting hand on mine.

"No, we haven't made the right decision that would lead us down that path yet."

"Oh my god," I muttered, lightly squeezing Bella's hand with one hand and hiding my face in the other, "What are we going to do?"

"We're doing what we can do," Rosalie chimed in, "With all these threats building, we'll just have to focus on one at a time and hope for the best, starting with Seattle."

I hated it, but she was right. If we eliminate the threat in Seattle, we could hold off a visit from the Volturi a little longer. Victoria and a single vampire visitor we could manage, but a newborn fleet or the Volturi Guard was another story.

"And what are we doing about Seattle?" I asked.

"Carlisle and Esme are up in Alaska right now talking to the Denali sisters to come down and help us."

Beside me, Bella stiffened at that. Of course. A bloodthirsty vampire sneaking into her room to take away her life? No problem. A kind, vegetarian vampire who flirted with me once? Now, there was the real danger. I squeezed her hand once more, reminding her of who I chose every moment of every day.

"What do you see?"

Alice showed me several blurry visions, "It keeps changing. Irina is dead-set against helping us because of the whole Laurent fiasco, but Carlisle can also be pretty persuasive."

I sighed, "I hate sitting and waiting."

"Me too," Rosalie agreed, "But the way to beat a bunch of newborns is with thoughtful coordination instead of brute force, so we need to have all of our players and a plan in place before we go in there."

We had all heard that spiel from Jasper, "I know…"

When the game ended, Emmett and Jasper shuffled into the kitchen, disappointed that Charlie had not cared or noted on their eating habits, so neither of them could be declared the winner. They would, however, have a lot of pizza to choke up later. So, in a way, I was the winner, because I would get to watch.

Alice chatted up the room for after-dinner activities like charades or Pictionary, but Charlie had other plans. He put his dish in the sink, his pizza box in the trash, and said, "Come on, Bella."

"What?" Bella asked, rising from the table.

"The Blacks invited us over to the Reservation for a bonfire tonight. Billy said Jacob was going to talk to you about it this morning."

Bella flushed red, "Well, I told Jacob I wasn't sure I could make it."

"I'm telling you that you can."

"Dad," Bella said through her teeth, "We can't just ditch the people who brought us dinner."

"We didn't ask them too," Charlie muttered under his breath. Then, a bit louder, "Billy had called me at work, and I already said we could come. It's a rare event to have a clear Saturday night, and the Blacks are excited to share their traditional bonfire with us."

"Dad, I don't know if I can go to La Push tonight," she glanced at me from the corner of her eye, and I knew she was thinking of her last trip to La Push, and how I begged her not to go again, "I have plans with the Cullens."

I felt my chest tighten at the thought of Bella on the other side of the border, where I could not get to her. What if she needed me? What if she got hurt? There were a myriad of horrific incidents that could occur if she was not under my watch, and I could do nothing to stop them if she was in La Push.

But if I was going to give her the proper, human life she deserved and stay with her, she would need to go to La Push. Jacob was going to have to court her, and I was going to have to stand by and let it happen without breaking his hands or jaw.

"It's alright, Bella," I said, and then was immediately bombarded with four, astonished thoughts, "You should go. You can spend any night with us."

Charlie was surprised at my response at well, but it wasn't as clear in his thoughts, and even less so on his face, "And the first bonfire of the summer only happens once a year."

Bella looked at me for guidance, and I smiled encouragingly. "Okay," she agreed, "I'll come to your house tomorrow, then?"

"You're always welcome."

We helped the Swans clean up the kitchen and put away the leftovers. Charlie offered us some, but Rosalie declined, saying that Esme is very careful about our diets and wouldn't want so much pizza in the house. Charlie imagined my father's physique briefly and muttered to himself the importance of health.

Charlie herded us all out of the house, into the light drizzle that was due to clear up at any moment. While Charlie shuffled around in the front closet, I pulled Bella up and into my arms. My kisses were now numbered, and I needed to indulge in every one I had left. I savored her touch, her taste her scent.

When we broke apart, she put both hands on my cheeks and brushed my cheekbones with her thumbs, "I'm going to be safe there, Edward. I promise."

She must have been able to feel the desperation through my lips and figured it was from the fear of her wellbeing. Luckily, I was always fretting after her, so my concerns wouldn't be a lie. I took her hands from my face and held them in my own, "Please don't go too close to the fire or the water…"

She rolled her eyes, "Edward…"

"And the sticks. God, please don't get impaled by a stick with a hot dog on it."

"I think it will be S'mores, actually."

"Even worse," I shuttered, "The last thing we need is a fireball of sugary goo sticking to you."

"You're crazy," Bella laughed, shaking her head, "and I love you."

I kissed her hands in mine, "I love you, too. So, terribly much."

Bella and I separated as Charlie walked through the front door, eyeing me suspiciously. His thoughts surrounding me were more muddled than usual, and I figured he was deciding whether my family's visit made him want to hate me more or less. Rosalie, Jasper, Emmett took off first in Rose's M3 so the Swan's could leave the driveway. Bella and I shared one, last look before she ducked into the front seat of Charlie's car. Alice and I would ride together, following Bella and Charlie to the border, to make sure she remained safe from any more rogue vampires until she was under the protection of the wolves.

"What was that?" Alice demanded, sliding the front seat in my car.

I may not be able to lie to Bella anymore, but I could still lie to Alice. "You know Carlisle and Esme are encouraging Bella and me to have fulfilled lives apart from each other. We're just working on that."

"Okay," she eyed me suspiciously, "But I don't like it."

"You don't have to."

I remained a respectful difference between the police cruiser and my car, careful to keep the drivers around them in my mental range, but out of their field of vision. They crossed the border safely, and I pulled over onto the side of the road right outside, watching them until I couldn't see them anymore. Bella was in Jacob's hands now. I told myself to get used to it.

What I needed was a decent distraction.

"What do you want to do tonight?" I asked, turning the car around, "Go for a hunt?"

She grimaced, "We always go hunting. What about shopping?"

"If we're not hunting, we're shopping," I pointed out.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, "I know! Remember that thing I've been wanting to do for Esme that you four keep avoiding."

I decided to pull her strings—of course I remembered; we never forget anything, "No."

She playfully slapped my forearm, "Yes, you do! And this will be the perfect time to do it! She's away with Carlisle, and"—she dragged out the word—"it's so close to Mother's Day, we can use it as a Mother's Day gift!"

It had been at least ten years since any of us bought Esme something other than a plant, so we were long overdue for something big. And I owed Esme. Last Mother's Day, I spent the entire day whisking Bella around Portland, trying to distract her from missing her mother, and ended up forgetting my own. "Okay, I'm in. Do you think you'll be able to convince the others?"

"Please," she waved her hand, already pulling out her cell phone, "Jasper will do what I want, Emmett will join if you and Jasper are there, and if both me and Esme are busy, Rosalie will do whatever Emmett wants. Full-proof."

And she was right. In a matter of minutes, the five of us were in a loose semi-circle, around a secret project that Alice had hidden in the depths of these woods a few years prior. Alice tore out the large bush she had replanted to keep her project safe and tossed it into the trees behind us. Dug out of the ground and outlined with wood the shape of an enormous flower, six feet in diameter, with five petals.

"Now. We are going to fill this up with concrete, and each one of us is going to decorate one of the petals. Jasper, you got everything from the section in our craft closet labeled Esme III?"

He spun around and showed his wife his backpack.

"And?"

"And the emergency beads," he nodded, "Got those, too."

"Perfect," Alice clapped her hands together once, "Once it's done, we'll go hunting with Esme around this area, she'll come across it and BOOM," she flashed her fingers, "we're the perfect children."

"Isn't Bella going to get a petal?" Emmett asked. I stiffened, worried that I would have to explain that Bella wasn't going to join the family right then and there.

But Alice answered, "I made this before Bella. She'll have plenty of time to do crafts for Esme once she marries into the family, it'll be okay if she misses this one. Besides, you know how important the Golden Ratio is to Esme."

"Right," Emmett agreed, nodding his head, "The ole Fib Man."

"Exactly."

I picked through my siblings' minds for any suspicions, but they had none. Alice was just that anal retentive, so none of them suspected anything amiss.

"Eee! Let's get started," Alice squealed, shaking her fists in the air, "I already see Esme freaking out over this! She's going to love it!"

We all helped Alice mix and set the instant concrete, then took turns going through Jasper's backpack, looking for inspiration for Esme. I found a vile of tiny, black beads and decided to use them to draw out the score to Esme's Favorite. We only had about thirty minutes until the concrete would set, so we each picked a petal and got to work immediately.

"What are you doing, baby?" Emmett asked his wife.

"I'm making roses out of these glass beads," she said, opening her hand to show Emmett the red beads she had picked out of Alice's stash.

Emmett tapped Rosalie's nose with his pointer finger. "Isn't that a little bit on the nose, Rose?" he asked with a wink.

Rosalie smiled at her husband's silliness briefly and went into her serious, hard-working mode.

After only five minutes of silent working time, Alice was desperate for conversation "I think…" she mused, "We should all go around and say our favorite moment with Esme."

The rest of us groaned but eventually acquiesced after several hundred pleas from Alice.

"I'll start," Rosalie began, brushing her hair behind her shoulder, "It was after I had turned, right before we moved to Tennessee. As you all know I had some… difficultly accepting what I had become. For a long while I had refused to hunt—the entire concept disgusted and alluded me—and Esme or Edward or Carlisle would bring me back blood to drink from their hunts.

"One night, I was suddenly sick and tired of seeing Edward's face when he handed me the mug of blood and I had decided no more. If that pompous, little brat could hunt, then so could I. I went into the woods, letting my instincts take over for the first time. When I had come back to myself and saw the dead, bloodless corpses around me, I lost it. I hated myself more than I had ever dreamed possible.

"Esme found me in the woods a few hours later. She took me back to the house and sent Edward and Carlisle into the woods to clean up after me. Then, she led me upstairs, put me in a hot shower, brushed my hair. She pulled out a gorgeous dress she said she was saving for my Christmas present, but pretended she couldn't wait to give it to me any longer." Rosalie smiled and laughed to herself, "It was champagne with a plunging neckline and this gorgeous, but subtle beading."

"The one you wore on our first real date?" Emmett asked.

"Yes," Rose smiled, "After Esme and I were dressed, the two of us went into town, found a club, and watched a comedian who wasn't very funny. It was Esme's perfect way of reminding me that I was more than the monster that scared me."

"Aw," Alice cooed, "I love that."

"Mine was only four years ago," Jasper said, then added with a timid smile, "Isn't that sad?"

We all disagreed and encouraged him to continue.

"It had been so long since I had a mother or a mother-figure in my life, I couldn't remember what they were supposed to be like. I could feel the different kinds of love coming towards her from Edward or Emmett, and I could tell it was a different love than what came from Carlisle, but I couldn't replicate the former. It didn't make sense to feel love for your direct superior…

"So, at my first high school experience over in Hilo…"

"Hilo." Emmett's eyebrows drew together, "Why don't I remember that; don't I remember everything?"

Rosalie patted his knee, "Hilo was that rainy town in Hawaii we were testing out. You and I decided not to go to high school because we wanted to…"

Emmett chuckled maliciously and wove his fingers through Rosalie's, "Oh, now I remember."

I ran my fingers through my hair as if I could block out their memories from entering my head with my hands, "Can we get back to Jasper, please?" I begged.

"Anyway," Jasper continued once Emmett and Rose scooted apart, "I wasn't doing well… I wouldn't let myself breathe, I couldn't go near the other students. The teachers eventually started to notice my odd behavior, and soon I was called into the main office. Sitting there was the principal, my guidance counselor, the school psychiatrist, and Esme. Turned out, they thought something was mentally wrong with me and told Esme I needed special education classes and that the school would not be able to support my needs.

"I was suddenly nervous that I had ruined everything. It was my first time trying to belong in your world, and I had blown it. But instead of being disappointed in me, Esme blew up at them. She demanded them to look at my grades so far, and they all saw that I was a straight-A student. Then, to finished it up, she questioned why all those people thought it would be okay to alienate and punish a poor, traumatized kid for doing nothing but being shy and told them to reconsider their careers of working with children. She was so protective and defensive over me, and I realized. Wow. This is what a mother is."

When it was her turn, Alice suddenly got very intent on her work, "Mine's small. It was right before Jasper and I got married. At the time, I didn't understand why or how or what it really meant. All I knew was other couples got married and I saw a vision of myself in a white dress, so I must get married, too. But Esme saw right through that. And patient and loving as always, she sat me down and explained to me what love and marriage meant to humans, and what it meant to her. She was the first person to challenge me to ignore my visions and look inward. To do what I wanted, and not just what I felt like I had to do."

Alice's words reminded us that Esme lived by her advice in her human life: leaving her disgusting husband, despite her pregnancy. Listening to what she wanted, and not following the path forced onto her. She was strong, even without her supernatural strength.

"Mine involved my own Mama, actually," Emmett smiled. "Rosie and Carlisle were so nervous to let me see my Mama, and I got it, they didn't want me to hurt her. And I didn't want to hurt her neither, so I listened. Mostly.

"One night, I just had to see the farm again. I snuck away from where everyone was hunting just to check up on the crop that year, maybe peek in a window or two. I found Esme there, already at the farm. Turned out, she had Eddie describe the farm that I lived at so she could find it," Emmett's expression waivered, his goofy grin grew somber, "she would go any chance she could and go through the gardens, take care of weeds or pests. She said it was because she knew how worried I was that I couldn't help my family that year, and wanted to do what she could. Because of her, my family had the best crop of their lives that year. She didn't just take care of me; she took care of my whole family."

Rosalie took both of Emmett's hands in hers and held them against her cheek. Emmett moved his hands so he was tenderly stroking her cheek with the back of one of his hands, "I swear, that woman knows just what to do to make you feel cared for."

My siblings all looked to me to go next, all guessing that my favorite moment with Esme happened after my vigilante days when Carlisle and Esme welcomed me back into their good graces with opened arms.

"It was when around when I came back, so you're right about that. However, it's not the moment any of you are thinking. I was practicing the piano, getting into composing for the first time. As a human, my goal as a pianist was merely to perfect the greats, but never to write anything. Anyway, I was writing Esme's favorite, and for some reason, what was coming out of my hands wasn't matching what playing in my head. It was driving me crazy. Before I could get irrational, I began playing those classical pieces, and the same thing was happening. Random notes were playing out of nowhere. I thought I was losing my mind—or my skill.

"Then, I discovered what was happening. Apparently, Esme had figured out that if I was concentrating on something heavily enough, she could think of a memory and do something else and I wouldn't notice. Turns out, Esme was remembering a day she spent in the kitchen, while she was actually running past the piano as I played, plucking a single note every time she passed. When I caught her, we laughed and laughed. It had been the first time I smiled, really smiled since I had come home."

My siblings laughed along with my story, Emmett especially.

"Esme pulled a prank on you?" he confirmed.

"Yes," I chuckled.

"Man," he sat back on his heels, "I love that woman even more now."

As I finished up my petal, using tweezers to place each of the little beads to create each note, beside me, Emmett was trying to open another container of beads. He overestimated his strength, efficiently shattering the plastic, causing round beads of primary color to rain over the concrete petals. Chivalry failed me because I reached to catch the beads over Alice's petal that she would not be able to reach, leaving my own completely defenseless. Where the rest of my siblings were able to save their artwork, mine had now been defaced.

"Oh man," Emmett muttered, looking at my ruined artwork, "I'm so sorry, bro."

"It's fine, I'll work with it," I sighed, glaring at red, yellow, and blue balls scattered around, destroying the neat, black lines I had created for my music notes, "It can be a map of my pathetic DNA."

My siblings burst out laughing, and I found myself joining in.

"Lord, everything that comes out of your mouth," Jasper chuckled, "Perfectly normal statement. Horrific follow-up. It's good to have you back, buddy."

"Yeah," Emmett shook my shoulder, causing my teeth to rattle, "We've missed your emo ass."

"I've missed you all, too."

I had realized with a heavy heart that I meant it. I wished I could bring my two loves together: my Bella and my family. It felt like I was constantly straddling between the two, never quite being and to hold them together.

I thought of the lovely moments my siblings shared, and all of the times I spent with Esme that were just as lovely as the story I told. I suddenly missed Bella more than usual, wishing she were here. But, Bella was off somewhere for better for her, taking the proper steps to get to the full, human life she deserved. She may never partake in any of the silly, little projects we created for Esme, but she would get so much more. She would become a mother and then a grandmother herself, and receive these kinds of gifts from her own children. And I would be there, celebrating her and her life along with her as her eternal friend.

"Edward," Alice's voice pulled me out of the train of thought and I was suddenly worried. I hadn't been paying attention to her or her visions—had my decision shifted the future? Had Jacob already won Bella's heart from me? "Bella and Charlie will be home in forty minutes."

I sighed, fully relieved. I wasn't sure if it was at the fact that Bella was okay, or that she was still mine, or that my secret remained safe. Perhaps it was a combination of all three.

As I rose to go to my Bella, and I felt a familiar ping in my chest, that I usually only felt when I was leaving Bella. I looked down at the smiling faces of my siblings, enjoying our evening together and, I realized how much I really had missed them. And for a fleeting moment, I thought to myself: would it really be so bad for Bella to cross over to this life if this family was waiting for her on the other side?