They had set up a rotation of at least a weekly visit to Forks, just to leave their scents around the area fresh. Alice and Edward often fought for the honour, so when Carlisle took her call he was already sighing.

"I'm teaching, Alice. If you can't settle this between yourselves, ask Esme to step in."

"I've seen something," Alice's voice chimed through the phone. "One of us needs to go check if Izzy's okay."

He didn't have a heartbeat, but if he did it'd be racing. Carlisle withdrew from his group of residents and strode outside. "What precisely did you see?"

"Izzy was on a motorbike, and then he took off his gear and jumped off a cliff. After that, he disappeared."

I'll let you know if I ever become suicidal, Izzy had promised. Carlisle had believed him, shouldn't have been so eager to trust the boy. He'd never misjudged someone so badly.

A deep breath helped. "This can't be what it looks like," he decided. "Alice, take Esme and Jasper to visit. I have my students, and Edward isn't the best choice if this is a false alarm."

They let it hang between them, the If-Izzy-had-killed-himself eventuality.

The other end of the line was quiet so long that Carlisle thought the connection dead. Then Alice groaned. "Was Edward eavesdropping? He's just decided to visit Forks."

"Go now, Alice. Keep him from doing something stupid."

Carlisle hung up and practised breathing all the way back to his office. This would all turn out to be something banal, he reassured himself. Alice and Esme would handle it. He trusted them. Edward wasn't as stupid as he sometimes pretended to be.

Surely, Izzy was still alive.

.oOo.

Charlie stood by Sue during the funeral, tears running freely down his cheeks. He'd loved Harry like a brother, he'd thought it'd be the three of them for the rest of their lives.

Now it was just him and Billy, Billy who was scowling in the front row with his daughters on either side.

Jacob and Izzy should have been there with them, black suits and solid comfort. But Izzy had caught a bad cold cliff-jumping, and though he'd made it to Billy's house they'd agreed his hacking cough wasn't respectful. After shaking Sue's hand and speaking his regret, Jacob had run right back home. The kid was used to playing nurse.

One day Billy would die and it'd be just Charlie. Three boys he'd be raising then. Or two pups and one wizard, it was all the same to him. Beside him he was startled by how calm Sue's tears were, like she'd been expecting this.

Charlie should have been expecting this, with the obesity and the liquor, but he'd been wrapped up in yesterdays when they'd all sat on Billy's boat betting on who'd get the biggest catch.

Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled. Charlie wished he could knock his head back and howl right along with it.

.oOo.

"There's been a misunderstanding," Alice said. She was talking very quickly, pacing around the room in a frenzy of tidying. "Izzy, you need to come to Italy with me. I've booked us a flight from Seattle."

Charlie hoped his frown looked as severe as Izzy's. If the situation weren't so serious it would've been funny, father and son with matching red noses. "We just came from Harry's funeral and Izzy's sick. He doesn't have to go anywhere."

Charlie had the kid's passport in his safe. The picture in it was of a little boy called 'Isabella', who wouldn't be making it through border control without a real stink.

"Edward might have learned that you went cliff diving?"

Jasper stepped up to loom behind Alice, putting his hands on her shoulders. "It's not your fault, darlin'."

"None of this makes sense," Charlie protested. "You told Edward that Izzy got a cold from swimming? Now he's going to Italy?"

He saw Izzy shrinking into himself until Jasper put a hand on the boy's shoulder too. "No, Dad, look at the bigger picture: Edward knows I jumped off a cliff, then saw you crying at a funeral."

Charlie's heart lurched. It was achingly simple, what Edward's melodrama would have him do next. "Why Italy?" Renée had always wanted to go, but that was for the food and the buildings.

"The vampire police live there. Well, they're more like vampire royalty."

"Suicide by cop." It was the kind of thing cowards did, putting their death on someone else's shoulders. "Go to Italy, Izzy, but when you get home Eddie'd better be grounded."

He handed over the passport and a bit of spending money, then wrapped his son in a hug. "Don't do anything stupid," Charlie said, just on principle.

"I'll try," Izzy said, and then he was gone.

.oOo.

When a human landed before his throne to the sound of a car backfiring, it was the most interesting thing that had happened to Marcus in the past century.

They stood around, waiting for the human to finish vomiting into the grate in the middle of the room. Humans had such strange excretory functions.

Alec was holding Edward in place; the Cullen child had lunged at the human. Carlisle was mad for letting his coven mingle with humans, had he not taught his son control? The lot of them likely suffered from malnutrition.

Marcus watched the delight and interest warring across Aro's face. "Here he is," Aro beamed, "Alive and well. Miracles never cease. Izzy Swan, such an honour to meet you. You truly have a flair for ostentatious arrivals."

The room stopped breathing as their hands met. They could all hear Izzy's heart fluttering like a trapped sparrow. When had there last been a human here, besides their meals? But Izzy smelled of thunderstorms, and it was making Marcus' hair stand on end.

"Fascinating. Izzy Swan, you will be truly wonderful when you become one of us," Aro said. Marcus tuned him out, looking at the spiderweb of bonds that connected the human to the world. Family, friends, love like only humans were capable of.

Marcus used to loathe humans almost as much as Aro delighted in them. Nowadays, he didn't have the energy.

"What's his gift?" he asked once their visitors had been led back out into the world beyond Volterra.

"Izzy Swan is a wizard," Aro almost purred. "I could only see what he wanted me to. There is no-one like him. Perhaps, the venom will affect him much differently from how it changes the rest of us. Truly, he is marvellous."

Caius said something about eliminating unknown threats, about the security risks of teleportation. Jane complained about the smell and wanted to torture someone. Demetri said he could not track the Swan beyond the scent of ozone.

Marcus sighed and leaned back in his chair, waiting for the next interesting thing to happen. It might take another century, but sitting was no hardship meanwhile. For lunch, he chose a tourist with a flashing camera. The last photo was of Marcus, looking bored.

.oOo.

Next up: November, with Charlie's and Reeve's perspectives on the situation in Seattle. Also, Jacob's coming out.

I'm posting on average 2000 words a day every day of December 2021, bookmark your favourite fics and stop by here or on ao3 to read some new stories.