Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephanie Meyer. I'm just playing with her characters.
A/N: Thank you to my awesome beta Laurie Whitlock, my pre-readers AlwaysJASPERsLOVE and Shadman, and my beloved sister Shelljayz who also happens to pre-read for me. :) Thank you to Belle Du Jour and Remylebeauishot, the betas and Project Team Beta, who helped me with this.
There is a link in my profile that you can go to to view the album I have set up on photobucket for Longing.
Thank you so much to everyone who favorited, put this story on their alerts, or took the time to review! You are all awesome! :)
Just a reminder: Edward's gift is a bit different than usual. Not only can he read minds but he can also put his thoughts into other people's heads as well as do something akin to a 3-way phone call. It's not limited to three people but, essentially, he and anyone of his choosing can have conversations that are completely silent through his gift. To denote this, conversations that take place through Edward's gift are in "italics with quotes" while Jasper's individual thoughts are in plain italics.
oOo
Late July 2080
JPOV
It had been decided on the run back to the house that, until the girl left, everyone would act 100% human. That meant no vampire fast movement, no suspicious feats of vampire strength, no indication of superhuman hearing, vision, or smell and no lightning fast conversation. We had never encountered anyone, human or vampire, that Alice couldn't see, and until Edward and I could use our powers to determine this girl's state of mind, it was better to be safe than sorry. It wasn't that we believed this girl posed a threat to us—attitude and criminal tendencies aside—she was just human.
By the time we reached the house, it was 6:00 am. I had felt Esme's elation at us "kids'" homecoming several hundred feet before we actually got there, so it was no surprise when the five of us were successively engulfed in tight hugs the second we crossed the threshold. Even though it had been a little more than a century since I'd parted ways with Maria, I still wasn't all that crazy about being touched—the only touches I was really comfortable with were ones that I myself initiated—but I knew how much simple things like hugs meant to Esme, so I did my best not to stiffen. Of course, I had other reasons to stiffen. The human smelled good … not singer-good but still really, really good, and the amplified burning in my throat told me I wasn't the only one who thought so. Surprisingly enough, I didn't feel the urge to rush upstairs to drain her dry. Granted, I hadn't lost control of my bloodlust in fifty years, but I hadn't come across a human that smelled this good in at least that long.
As soon as Esme had hugged all of us, she shoved a piece of paper into Emmett's hand.
Emmett perused it briefly and cocked an eyebrow at her. "And this would be?"
"It's a grocery list, Emmett," Esme said patiently.
"Are you planning to feed all of Forks?" he asked, scanning the list a second time.
"I have no idea what she likes," Esme told him with a shrug. On the outside, she appeared to be the ever-confident hostess, but she was really nervous about this. I knew Esme was fond of this girl; Edward had shown me how Esmehad acted during their meeting. Carlisle had made it clear that the girl wouldn't be staying for long, so surely he'd made that clear to Esme as well, but from the way she was acting, one would never know that.
Shit! I cursed internally. Esme was going to be fuckin' heartbroken when this girl left, but I kept my concern to myself and shot her a dose of reassurance instead. She smiled at me gratefully.
"So you're going to make every breakfast food ever invented by mankind?" Emmett teased, grinning.
Esme swatted him on the shoulder. "Just go to the grocery store, Emmett!" She turned to Edward and me. "You two are going with him."
Edward and I followed Emmett back out the front door without comment, knowing that to argue would be futile.
oOo
Esme knocked on the guest bedroom door. The en suite shower had shut off only a minute ago, and she had waited to do so until she heard the door that connected the bathroom to the bedroom swing open.
There was a long pause before the girl said, "Come in."
She was wrapped in a thick, fluffy blue towel that matched the color of the walls and was regarding Esme expectantly.
"I thought you might want these," Esme said, holding out a pile of neatly folded, brand new clothes that still had the tags on them, courtesy of Alice's latest shopping spree. There was also a brand new toothbrush and some toothpaste sitting on top of them.
The girl frowned. "I'd rather just have my own clothes, please."
So she does have manners, Esme thought.
Esme gave her an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, honey, but I couldn't salvage them. They were practically ripped to shreds. Even your shoes had holes in them."
The girl's frown deepened, as if she'd never noticed her clothing had been in such awful condition. She accepted the pile of clothes hesitantly, just as she had the iPod.
Esme turned to leave so the girl could change.
"And what exactly was wrong with my underwear?" the girl asked irritably.
When Esme turned to face her, the strap of the brand new lacy blue bra was hanging off her index finger, the equally lacy boyshorts were hooked on her pinkie, and she was holding them away from her in distaste.
"Even that was ripped, dear," Esme told her gently, hoping not to cause her any humiliation.
Esme was much curvier than her guest, so nothing of hers would have fit the girl right. Unfortunately, that meant she'd had to steal something of Rosalie's, even though that wasn't going to fit right either. Of course, because it was Rosalie's, the matching bra and panty set was on the skimpy side.
"That's not embarrassing at all," the girl groused. Her words implied that she was embarrassed, but her tone was contrary, and she was so hard to read. On the other hand, Esme hadn't expected the girl to blush, but it was there, though it was only a very faint pink staining of her cheeks. She really did smell very good.
"Is this supposed to be some kind of torture?" the girl asked suspiciously, waving her finger and causing both undergarments to flap around.
Esme stifled a chuckle. "My daughters don't own anything plain. They don't really believe in wearing anything—"
"Tasteful?" the girl supplied.
"I was going to say that they don't believe in wearing things that don't make them feel sexy," Esme finished.
The girl raised her eyebrows. "I don't see how this," she waved the bra and panties around again, "can actually count as wearing something, but whatever."
Esme chose not to comment on that and was about to open her mouth to say something else when the girl beat her to it.
"You know," she said. "When you mentioned you had kids, I was expecting tots about yay high," she held her hand level to her hip, "not chicks with double Ds."
Esme smiled widely. "They're all around your age actually, and that," she said, gesturing to the bra and panties, "is the closest thing I had that might fit you."
"You been checkin' out my rack, Mrs. Cullen?" the girl asked, a brow raised in question and a playful gleam in her eyes.
Esme's mouth fell open in shock. She sputtered for a few moments before collecting herself and giving the girl a joking smile. "Well, it is quite a nice rack."
"She jokes," the girl said appreciatively. She glanced down at the lacy underwear again and let out a sigh. "I guess I'll just have to make do."
The girl didn't ask how a man and woman as "young" as she and Carlisle had ended up with high school-aged children, and Esme was a little disappointed. Maybe if the girl asked about it, and Esme could explain that they were all adopted … Esme shook her head sharply. She really needed to stop entertaining those kinds of thoughts. She'd been trying to, and she thought she'd finally gotten a handle on them. Apparently, she was mistaken.
"Breakfast is waiting for you downstairs," Esme said with a smile. "Come down when you're finished dressing, and Carlisle and I will introduce you to our children."
"If I told you I was just going to skip breakfast and take off, are you going to threaten to call the cops?" the girl asked, the corners of her lips turning up just the slightest bit.
Esme just barely managed to restrain herself from doing a victory dance. That was the first time the girl had smiled. Okay, so maybe it wasn't exactly a smile, but that, in conjunction with her earlier joking, was a start.
"Maybe," Esme said, giving the girl a sly look.
"And if I said I'm not hungry?" The girl's stomach chose that moment to groan loudly in obvious contradiction.
Esme laughed outright. "Your stomach clearly disagrees."
The girl grumbled, but there was no venom in it.
"Carlisle and I didn't tell the kids how we really met," Esme said quietly.
All the bedroom walls and floors in the house were double-soundproofed. After decades of overhearing private moments between couples, certain members of the family had wanted to give it a try. It hadn't worked to serve that particular purpose, but it had helped in other ways, which included muffling quiet conversation.
The girl's brows furrowed in confusion. "Why?"
"We thought you might not want to have to deal with the stigma of it," Esme explained, still keeping her words vague in case their conversation wasn't as secure as she hoped.
The girl considered this for a moment. "What did you tell them?"
"That we found you alone and stranded on the side of the highway in the middle of the storm," Esme said.
The girl nodded.
"Will you tell me your name?" Esme asked. She didn't want to undo any of the progress they'd made by pushing her, not that there had been much, but she thought the girl might be tired of being called "dear" or "honey;" especially since she'd become so upset when Esme had gotten maternal with her the night before.
The girl thought this over for a long time, sucking her bottom lip between her teeth. She seemed to be at war with herself as she tried to decide whether or not to reveal this information, and it was the first time Esme had seen the girl's confidence waver.
"I'm fine with 'dear,'" she said.
oOo
JPOV
It was now 10:00 am, and Esme had enlisted all of us in helping cook the human's breakfast. We'd all been at it for three hours, starting small and continuing to add to the menu until we heard the guest shower turn off. The sheer amount of food we'd made really could have fed the whole fuckin' town. There were pancakes, French toast, white, wheat, and rye bread for plain old toast, blueberry muffins, omelets, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, hash browns, breakfast potatoes, biscuits and gravy, oatmeal, a variety of fruit, cereal, bacon, sausage links, sausage patties, turkey patties, tofu links, ham steaks, and four different kinds of juice: apple, orange, cranberry, and tomato. Esme had also had us get coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and cider; plus milk, half & half and a bunch of different flavored creamer to go in the coffee. We were never going to get the god-awful smell of human food out of the house.
Esme had just gone to give the human some clothes since the ones she'd been wearing hadn't survived. Even if they hadn't been ripped all to hell, they would have literally made Alice faint, which was something I would have liked to see. I could picture it clearly and theatrically in my mind and projected the thought at Edward. His snicker and spike of amusement told me he would have liked to see it too.
"I can't hear her," Edward said, moving on from that mental image, clearly listening to the exchange between Esme and the human.
The double-soundproofing really only worked to muffle quiet conversation, doing nothing to deter Edward's telepathy. He could still see and hear everyone's thoughts just as clearly with the soundproofing as he had before we'd gotten it.
My eyebrows shot up in surprise. Someone Edward couldn't read was another first.
"Are you sure, son?" Carlisle asked, his tone both serious and bewildered, as he arranged all the different kinds of bread on a platter.
"Yes," Edward responded positively, plating the French toast he'd been making
"How is that possible?" I asked.
"How the fuck should I know?" Edward snapped irritably, and I couldn't help but be amused by his rare curse.
I could feel how much his gift "malfunctioning" scared him, though he really would have preferred that I didn't. He was also confused and miffed; hell, so was I. Carlisle was more curious, his scientist's inclination to solve mysteries kicking into high gear.
"She's not blocking me," Edward continued, pretending he hadn't just lost his shit a little. His tone was certain, and I knew it was difficult for him to contain his earlier irritation, but he was doing it in an effort to try to figure this out.
"How do you know?" Carlisle asked my next question before I had a chance to.
"She doesn't know about my gift for one, and it feels different from when Jasper shuts me out," Edward responded.
"What does it feel like when I block you?" I'd never thought to ask before.
"With you it's like white noise. This girl is like a black hole," Edward told us. "It's almost like, in my head, she doesn't exist. Can you feel her?" he asked, shooting a look at me out of the corner of his eye.
"I'm not sure," I admitted, flipping a pancake. "But that doesn't necessarily mean anything. It'll be easier when we're in the same room."
"Have you ever not been able to feel someone before?" Carlisle asked, avid curiosity leaking into his emotions.
"No," I said. "When I was first turned I had a hard time figurin' out which emotions were comin' from whom, but I've never met anyone I couldn't feel before." Then I paused, remembering. "Actually, that's not entirely true. I met a gifted vampire I couldn't feel once."
"What was their gift?" Edward asked with interest.
"He was a physical shield," I explained, trying to shut out the memories associated with that particular vampire. That had been during the Southern Wars, and he and his gift had been a serious pain in my ass.
Edward frowned. "But she's human. Humans aren't gifted."
"It isn't out of the realm of possibility for a human to have some level of supernatural ability, even if it may not be on as strong a level as a vampire's," Carlisle told us.
I already knew that. There had been times when Maria had chosen a human for her army specifically because she suspected they might turn out to be gifted when changed.
"If she is some sort of shield, it would explain why Edward can't hear her and Alice can't see her," I said.
Carlisle nodded thoughtfully and said, "At any rate, I'd like to keep this between us for now. I'd really rather not give Rosalie another reason to hate this girl."
Edward and I both gave him a slight nod in acknowledgment.
Esme descended the stairs a few minutes later, entered the kitchen and cleared her throat. When she had everyone's attention, she fixed us all with her patented Mom-no-nonsense-don't-you-dare-argue-with-me look.
"We're all going to sit down and have a nice family breakfast when our guest comes downstairs," she informed us, using Edward's gift to communicate this. Her tone brooked no argument.
"Please tell me you don't mean you expect us to eat," Edward said. He meant it to sound willful, but it came out sounding more whiny than anything.
"Of course I do," Esme responded matter-of-factly.
Everyone, with the exceptions of Carlisle and Emmett, groaned. Emmett was down for anything if it meant getting to play with a human for a day.
"You have got to be kidding me," Rosalie snarled, glaring.
"We all agreed to act as human as possible around this girl. That includes eating. I'm not asking you to clean your plates," Esme said sympathetically."And Carlisle and I will be doing it right along with you, so it isn't as though you'll be suffering alone. It's only one meal."
"Alice, Rose, please set the table," Esme said out loud this time. "Edward, Emmett, Jasper, please start arranging the dishes on the counter. I'll make the coffee. Carlisle, dear, will you pour the juice into the carafes and set it out?"
"Of course, sweetheart," Carlisle agreed affably.
"Is there any particular way you want us to set this up, Mom?" Edward asked, always polite and respectful.
"Kiss ass," Emmett snarked under his breath, causing Rose and I to snicker. Alice rolled her eyes, and Edward grabbed a dish towel, proceeding to snap Emmett on the ass with it. It made a loud thwapping noise, and even though it didn't hurt him, Emmett shot up into the air with a yelp, grabbing at his ass like Edward had lit it on fire instead of just swatting it with some damp fabric.
There were only two of us who didn't crack up at this: Esme, who was still elbow deep in planning mode, and Rosalie, who still hadn't shit the stick out of her ass for not getting her way in regard to the human.
"I was thinking we could have a buffet," Esme answered, ignoring our childish idiocy.
"Has she told you her name?" Alice asked as she rolled forks, knives, and spoons up in the linen napkins we never used.
That was one of the first questions out of Emmett's and Alice's mouths when we got home.
"No," Esme said sadly. "She still just doesn't trust us enough to share that yet."
"It's just her name," Rose said with exasperation. "I don't see how telling us that has anything to do with trust."
"Trust means different things to different people," Carlisle said patiently. "Please don't make her suffer because her definition is different from yours, Rosalie."
No one, not even Rosalie, had anything to say to that, because there was no contesting the truth of it, so we set up the ridiculous meal in silence while we waited for the girl to join us. We were just finishing up when we heard the sound of her bare feet padding down the stairs.
"Here comes the human," Rosalie said through Edward's gift. Her inner voice sounded rather gleeful, and it was clear that, no matter what Carlisle had requested of her, Rose wasn't going to make anything about this day easy on anyone.
Oh joy, I thought to myself sarcastically. Let the games begin.
oOo
A/N: Hi Everyone! I know a lot of you are really impatient to see what everyone's reactions are to Bella and vice versa, and that will be happening in the next chapter. Just know that this chapter is really important in setting up events that take place in the next couple chapters, and I don't think you will be disappointed. :)
