Thank you for your review, Anita Simons! I honestly can't wait until three days' time when I can post my favourite chapter so far, I think you'll like their relationship even more! This chapter might hurt a bit though... At least, it hurt to write? I was going to split February into two, but I ended up nixing that and went for a long chapter instead, adding the rest into the start of the March chapter.

Chapter 10 - Forks, February 2004

At the start of February Carys decided to spend more time exploring the wider Forks area.

By the middle of the month, the decision had become more of a need.

February wasn't the best time to go exploring the still unfamiliar country, but she desperately needed to go on a long walk so she could try to clear her mind.

Carys had been feeling lower recently... Lower than she'd been before her parents had suggested she came to Forks in the first place.

Her homesickness had quickly overwhelmed her during the first couple of weeks of the month, but she hadn't known what to do about it.

She didn't think her feelings were bad enough to warrant seeking help nearby, but she was too far away from her friends and parents to have so much as a phone call without costing both sides an arm and a leg. Anyway, she found it almost impossible to discuss how she was feeling and so it wasn't something she wanted to worry anyone over in an email.

It had taken a week and a half for Sarah to notice Carys' depressive mood was overwhelming her and she had cornered her one day about it. At first, Carys had been hesitant to talk about things, but after a while, she'd stopped insisting she was fine and tearfully admitted how she was feeling and her need to get away.

She wasn't sure what she'd expected Sarah's response to be but she was forever thankful that her friend had begun by giving her a hug and finished by telling her that she understood how the younger woman was feeling.

Over dinner and heartfelt conversation at Carys' house that night, Sarah had refused to let Carys play her feelings down. She'd listened as Carys explained the depth of her loneliness and confusion now that she'd been in Forks for five months, and when Carys had explained how she usually dealt with things by taking long walks, Sarah had suggested her favourite hiking trail.

As Sarah explained to a faintly dubious Carys, it was a trail which was rarely as muddy as others even in the winter and followed the road with regular turn-offs in case you wanted to head back. It was one she tended to use when she was feeling similarly.

Sarah insisted that it was the best trail if you wanted to walk for miles without getting lost - the perfect trail to clear your mind, and so Carys found herself promising her friend that she'd try following it the next weekend, hoping it would help her as much as it did Sarah.

Carys usually loved the peace she felt in woods, but that day she felt as if she was constantly on edge and too consumed by her dark thoughts to take in much of the beauty surrounding her.

She wondered if it was her homesickness alone, or the pressures of being in a new place, in a new job.

Maybe it was the fact that everything was so different?

She felt...

Lost...


Sarah's insistence that she kept her eyes and ears open for potential dangers was the only reason Carys hadn't had her headphones on and music blaring as she trekked that day.

It was also likely the only reason she noticed immediately when her name was called through the trees.

The deep, musical voice came to her from further down the path, and Carys jumped at the sound. It was as if her morose thoughts had summoned Dr Cullen because she couldn't pretend that hearing him call her name didn't make her lips turn up in a small smile. His voice caressed her name in a way she'd come to expect but nevertheless still made her heart beat that little bit faster.

"Dr Cullen?" Carys replied loudly, forcing herself to continue on at the same pace as before. She tried in vain to tell herself her breathlessness came from the hike and surprise of company rather than her excitement over speaking to him again as she followed the trail around a bend.

"Hi, Carys!" Alice Cullen grinned and clasped her hands together at her chest when Carys came upon them.

Carys smiled faintly at the group as a whole and waved with a murmured hello, suddenly wishing she'd spent more time on her hair and makeup that morning and not simply needed to get out of the house.

Carys recognised Dr Cullen and his daughter Alice of course, but they were joined by the huge teenager from the car before Christmas and an equally pale bronze-haired teen who looked a lot more tired than the others and appeared to have far darker eyes. She tried to remember what Richard had told her about their family so she could work out which one was Emmett and which one was Edward.

They all looked as if they were dressed for a photoshoot rather than a hike, and in her coat, hoodie, jeans and wellies, Carys felt drab in comparison.

To make things worse, she knew she'd broken out from stress recently and their blemish-free skin put her own imperfections in even more stark relief. The only thing marring their features were the dark circles under each of their eyes.

Carys decided it was unfair that they even managed to make extreme tiredness look beautiful.

Well she wasn't going to start winning awards for her beauty or memory any time soon, she thought to herself bitterly, but at least Dr Cullen was there.

The tall lean bronze one, Edward she thought as she remembered a little, smirked lightly and Carys cleared her throat, hoping she wasn't as outwardly excited to see to his father as she was inwardly. It would be one thing to pine after someone, quite another for their children to know about it.

Maybe-Edward rubbed his nose lightly, his hand covering his mouth for a moment, and then the one she expected was Emmett grinned.

"Miss Vale-" Dr Cullen began, stepping forward with a grace that made Carys sigh internally as he instantly captured her attention. She sometimes thought he must have been a dancer in a former life.

Maybe-Edward covered a cough and Possibly-Emmett's grin grew wider whilst Alice smirked.

"Please, call me Carys," she jumped in quickly, trying to cover her embarrassment in case Emmett's grin and Alice's smirk were due to her. "We've known each other for months now, I'll start thinking I'm living in an Austen novel or something if we don't switch over soon!"

Carys made herself sound as if she was joking, but really she liked the way he said her surname so much that she was almost desperate to hear how her given name would sound by this point.

Edward choked suddenly and Emmett slapped his back, which pulled Carys out of her thoughts and straight back down to earth as she stepped forward with a hand out to him. He seemed to recoil from her, which hit her worse than she expected. "Are you okay?"

"Yes." He told her stiffly, recovering quickly with a slight frown on his otherwise perfect face.

Of course he wouldn't want her to go anywhere near him, she thought to herself. Not when she was so... So... She couldn't find nicer words for herself in her current mood. All she could think was how terrible she must look and sound. She fought the urge to cover her face and go back the way she'd come.

Dr Cullen looked on with an expression of interest when she stepped back quickly. "Carys," he corrected himself a moment later with a faint smile, "please allow me to introduce my adopted children. Alice, you've already met. Emmett is my oldest, and this is Edward, my youngest boy."

It seemed to Carys that there was something odd about the way he'd said that, a slight laugh in his voice as he indicated each in turn. Maybe they'd all realised what she thought of him and found it hilarious.

She'd been right about which boy was which at least.

Carys turned a brittle smile on them all, hoping they didn't realise how much Edward's recoiling or Carlisle's joke had upset her currently fragile feelings. "It's nice to meet you, and to see you again Alice."

"It's wonderful to see you again!" Alice told her sincerely, almost longingly. Her whole face and demeanour had changed so dramatically from when Carys had first rounded the bend that Carys now felt like she wanted to give the girl a hug and tell her that whatever was bothering her would be okay.

Instead, she smiled a little more encouragingly at her which appeared to take some of the seriousness from Alice's face.

"You're the one who stole my coffee, aren't you?" Emmett's deep voice which was obviously prone to laughter cut through Carys' thoughts.

Carys' smile grew a little though it didn't reach her eyes, and she forced a teasing tone as she replied. "Yup. And I have to say it was lovely! Probably the best the diner's ever made."

Edward smile slightly and Alice and Carlisle laughed as Emmett glared a little, but he joined in quickly and she knew in an instant that she'd judged him correctly. When they'd quietened again, she turned to his father and thanked him again for his generosity.

"If I'm going to call you Carys, you'll have to call me Carlisle," he told her, and she shuddered at the intent expression in his eyes but caught herself before she thought anyone could have noticed.

"Carlisle... Carlisle it is." Carys smiled again, and she was sure it reached her eyes this time as she looked back at him and stroked a hand over her long ponytail.

If she had his permission now, she was going to stop calling him Dr Cullen, even in her mind. Carlisle was a strange name, but then again she'd heard stranger, and it seemed to fit him. She was ashamed to recall the half-hour she'd spent looking it up one night over Christmas and how much she'd liked that it supposedly meant light.

As Carlisle grinned at her, she didn't think any other name could have suited him as well. It was as if he exuded so much light and kindness that even feeling as low and lost as she did, he somehow managed to make her slightly happier with a simple look. It made her think maybe he hadn't been laughing at her after all and it was just her mood telling her he had been.

Maybe that's why I like him so much - because he seems so kind sometimes.

The thought made tears spring to her eyes for some reason and she blinked them away awkwardly before anyone noticed, covering herself by looking down as she toed an exposed root by her feet.

"What're you doing out here?" Alice questioned seriously after Carys had had a moment to compose herself. "It gets dark quickly in the winter, it's not safe to walk through the forest alone."

Carys looked up at the now completely solemn Cullens and shot them a practised smile. "I like walking, it relaxes me... And we're not too far from the road either."

It suddenly occurred to Carys that she didn't know how long she'd been walking for, or what time it actually was. She shot a glance upwards but couldn't see much through the trees though there was still more than enough light to see, so she knew it couldn't have been too long.

Still, she should probably head back before she wandered too far.

When she looked back towards the family, Edward was covering another cough, and she wondered if he was ill - it would explain how tired and sickly he looked. She hoped it wasn't something too bad.

"We're just heading back to the car," Carlisle told her suddenly with an emotion she couldn't quite place, "could we give you a lift home?"

Carys' eyes flitted over the family. She didn't want to impose on them, and she wasn't sure she'd fit if they'd brought Dr Cul-Carlisle's car.

Her mind raced through the different seating arrangements, but she didn't know many teenagers who'd be happy to squish in a car so they could give their father's kind of colleague a ride home.

She shook her head and lied with a smile. "Thank you for the offer, but I'll be fine. My car's not that far away."

"Please?" Alice asked her, widening her already large eyes. Her brother Emmett seemed to echo her wish as he nodded behind her imploringly.

Edward looked more agitated and pensive than his brother, which sealed things for her.

She shook her head again.

"Please, I'm really fine. Thank you, but I should be heading back now anyway."

Carlisle stepped forward and waved a hand in the direction she'd come. "Let me walk with you then."

"No." Carys spoke quickly this time, firmly as she shook her head again. "Enjoy the rest of your walk, I'm fine, really."

"You don't look fine," Emmett told her seriously, which earned him a jab in the hip from his sister's elbow.

"I am," Carys assured him with a brighter, more brittle smile, mildly annoyed now that they didn't seem to want to let her go. A moment later, she added, "I'm just a little homesick I think, but the walk back will help."

Edward rubbed his nose again.

"If you're homesick, maybe Carlisle can help!?" Alice questioned, suddenly brighter as she pushed up onto her tiptoes.

Carys chuckled quietly to herself, wondering for the first but not last time if Alice could read her mind, and shook her head again - something which Carlisle seemed to take offence to.

"I'd be more than happy to." He spoke calmly, his face and tone were so much at odds with the passion she thought she could see in his eyes that she realised she must have been too tired and was imagining things.

Carys glanced up at the trees again and shook her head for the last time.

"Please," Carlisle tried again, "allow me to drive you home. Edward and Emmett won't mind waiting for a little while, will you?" He directed the last to the two boys, who shook their heads in unison, Edward's eyes seeming to bore into her in a far more disconcerting way to his father's.

"We'd be happy to wait," Edward assured her with a small nod Carys thought he must have picked up from his father. He smiled briefly and brightly which put the dark circles under his eyes in even more stark relief against his pale skin before he added, "Emmett and I wanted to go for a run anyway, so it would give us a chance to test who's faster."

Carys smiled at Edward's mischievous tone and the look Emmett shot him. It was the first fully genuine smile she'd shown them, and it made Carlisle's expression turn hopeful.

"Thank you again, but I'd really prefer to be alone." She didn't say it out loud, but she didn't think it would be fair to Edward if he was left out in the forest - not with his coughing and nose rubbing. Being stuck out there for a while would probably make him feel worse if he was already coming down with something, and he wouldn't thank her for that. "It was nice to bump into you," she told them all before turning a smile on Carlisle and heading back down the path.

"We'll see you again soon?" Alice called out after her.

Carys turned with a smiling nod before she moved out of sight of the family, her face falling immediately.

All the way back to her car she felt as if she was being watched again, and made a mental note to ask Sarah about less secluded routes.

A/N: Oh Carys, they're vampires! They don't get sick! They were going hunting anyway! Ahh, one day she'll learn the truth... This chapter was meant to be very different, but it just came out like this and I'm not going to argue with my characters today.