September

Crookshanks flicked her ears. Charlie looked up, checking the time. It was almost midnight, and he could hear socked feet creaking down the stairs. Turning off the TV, he waited.

"Dad, I want to tell you what's been going on. It's dangerous, but I think you'll be safe."

Izzy looked so small in his baggy sleepwear. Charlie wished the boy were just big enough to curl up on his lap. He patted the seat beside him, held Izzy's hand, and listened.

"You're a wizard," he summarised afterwards. "The Cullens are vampires, there are Quileute wolves running about, and all of this under my nose?" Charlie massaged his temples, swallowing his tiredness. "Did nobody think that as police chief, I should know?"

"There are secrecy laws," Izzy said. "They're bound by them, but I'm not."

"Because you're a wizard. From a different universe." It sounded mad, but it made its own kind of sense.

"I love you, dad." Izzy smiled up at him. "You're the best dad I've ever had."

Charlie sighed and rubbed his face. "Alright, kid. Thanks for telling me. Do you need me to do anything for you?"

"Everything's fine. I just didn't want to lie to you anymore."

With a nod and a yawn, they made their ways to bed.

.oOo.

"This is a bit strange," Izzy said, his voice crackling through Carlisle's laptop speakers.

"We will adapt, as we have to all other technologies so far," Carlisle said. He forced his eyes away from the small image of himself on screen to scrutinize Izzy instead. "Are you well? Is anything different? Your bloodwork is normal, if slightly low on iron."

"I'm fine. Things are fine. I'll eat more spinach, doc, thanks."

Carlisle nodded and waited.

"Edward's being a bit obsessive. Maybe you should talk to him about being a well-rounded person?"

Someone knocked on Carlisle's office door, then came in. He'd have to teach these students to respect his space better, Rosalie always said he was a little too nice, and Edward set a terrible example by barging in any time he liked.

"Jasmina, I'm on a call with a client, would you please?"

"Jasmina, huh?" Izzy crowed, "does Esme know she has competition?"

Carlisle sighed and waited, wearing the indulgent smile he practised whenever Emmett confessed to breaking another window.

"I told Charlie about me. He took it well. He's the best."

Things were difficult without Izzy's audible pulse, nor the smell of his sweat. This was probably the closest Carlisle had ever gotten to the human doctor experience. A teaching doctor with his own son as an intern, holding video conferences where his senses were unfortunately dulled. "And how does that make you feel?"

Izzy rolled his eyes before his expression turned thoughtful. "Grateful. Blessed. I feel lucky."

"I'm glad, Izzy. Truly."

They smiled at each other for a moment. Someone knocked at Carlisle's door again. He loved teaching, really, but these students could be incredibly needy.

"I'm alright, doc. Don't worry about me. I miss you a lot, but I have a good life here. School has started again, I'm taking art classes. I haven't been this okay in so long, it's like learning to breathe again."

The knock sounded again. Carlisle's smile was making his cheeks hurt. He wished he could reach out and hug Izzy through the screen. Instead he closed the laptop. "Come in!"

Alice and Jasper were holding hands. They moved too quickly, then sat like statues in front of Carlisle's desk.

"We need to be careful," Alice said. "Victoria is building an army."

.oOo.

Victoria said he had a gift, but Reeve didn't feel gifted. He loved each of the vampires he turned, first Anna, then Marius, Xavier and Nadezhda. He showed them how to hunt without getting blood on their clothes, how to move around without attracting attention.

They were vicious, scared, and hurting, but Reeve could only hold their hands as they transformed into something that used to be human.

Of all the things Victoria told him, Reeve most doubted her when she said she cared for him. There was only bitterness inside her; bitterness and despair. Even if she'd lost her mate to the Cullens, that didn't have to mean the end to her. Being so obsessed with your partner that your very life revolved around them, even after they were gone—it was unhealthy.

Reeve let Victoria believe she'd fooled him, and he let her think he was fighting for her cause. She'd chosen him for his ability to work with children, but instead he could see to the root of people.

Fred loathed himself. Nadezhda wanted revenge. Marius yearned for somewhere to belong.

Reeve wished he knew how to keep them all safe, wished their days weren't spent hiding from the sun and their nights weren't spent learning to tear each other apart.

But reality did as reality was. He loved them all, just as they were, and gave every day his best.

.oOo.

"Hey, Billy," Charlie said, tackle box in hand and a smile tacked to his face. "Kids are back at school, d'you have time for some fishing?"

Billy thought hard for a minute before nodding. "I'll be out in five."

While he fetched his hat, Charlie packed their gear onto Billy's push cart, same as always. They went down to the beach side by side, the silence between them heavy. Jake might as well have been there, looming between them like a red elephant.

Billy cast his line without really caring. Today, his heart wasn't in it.

"Jacob ate his way through my entire pantry," Charlie said, huffing a laugh. "There was even a bag of chips that Renée had bought, he said they tasted funny."

"He's a funny kid." The words came out easy. Billy Black was proud of his son, so long as Jake wasn't kissing boys in his garage.

There were some things that didn't properly belong to La Push. Billy could wrap his mind around two-spirits and people like Izzy, those born into a body that didn't fit right.

Hell, Billy's body didn't fit right either. He'd felt it the first time when he'd been twenty-four, like a belt squeezing his chest. His hands and feet had trembled, he'd thought any moment he'd burst into a wolf. Like the legends his father had told him about, like that memory he had of three old men transforming for one last run through the woods.

He remembered how worried he'd been about hurting his babies. He'd slept on the porch, shaking, burning, but it had been all falling apart without the part where his bones and muscles fell into place again.

'Nerve damage,' the doctors said when Sarah finally made him go. 'Nothing we can do. Very rare in indigenous people.'

Billy Black had not felt lucky. He'd made it work for as long as he could, after Sarah died and his girls left, until it was just him and his boy and then his legs stopped working, and his eye stopped working, leaving him with the multiple sclerosis and his grief.

He'd wanted to be a wolf to give back to his people, but he'd wanted it for selfish reasons too. If he'd shifted, it might have made him whole again. Billy's body had never felt right, but though he'd wished the wolf for himself, all he'd wished for his son was normalcy.

"I can pay you for the food," Billy said then. He was tired, felt crushed from his skin to his bones.

Charlie sighed, put his arm warm and solid around Billy's shoulders. "You know I don't want that. You treat your boy right, is all. He loves you."

There was a lump in Billy's throat. He didn't have those words, couldn't remember ever having said them. The waves lapped against the stones, wearing them down into nothing one day at a time.

"There's nothing wrong with boys kissing boys, Billy."

The arm was still there. Billy wished Charlie'd let it drop. He wished a fish would bite so he could stop cradling his warm beer while listening to his friend's accusations.

Billy's reply came out as a whisper. "I just want him to have a normal life, you know?"

Charlie caught a fish then, a big rainbow trout that fought all the way until Charlie bashed it on the head.

"You can't wish things for your kids, Billy. You just give them your heart and let go."

Billy didn't like that, but he pondered it for Charlie's sake.

"I'll try," he decided, reeling in his line. "But for now, I'm going home."

That night, when Jake came in, once they'd gotten Billy ready for bed, he reached out and squeezed his son's leg. Jake sat on his bed gingerly, limbs long and strong.

"I—" Billy swallowed, then tried again. "I love you."

"Are you okay?"

The crushing in Billy's chest got a hundred times worse. How had he reached this point where his son couldn't believe him?

"I don't mind if you want to kiss boys," he said.

"Okay, dad. But you could have talked to me about it. Izzy and me were just playing around is all. I don't even know if I like boys."

"But if you do, I still love you. You have to know that, son."

A frown crinkled across Jacob's face. "Do you need more pain meds, dad? I could even get you some weed if you want. Are you—are you dying? "

Billy sighed, his breath leaving him. "Good night, Jake. We can talk about it tomorrow."

"Alright, dad." Jacob stood and moved to the door. "I love you too."

.oOo.

As usual there's more of all of my stories already up on AO3. I'll be posting a chapter a day across all my fics for the entirety of December, so remember to bookmark/favourite me.

I'm really excited to share all my writing with you wonderful people. See you in the comments!

.oOo.

Coming up: October, where there is drama around whether or not Izzy has killed himself. (Spoiler: Edward is a bit rash.,)