I'm sorry this took a few days - it's been really difficult to write this chapter and I'm not entirely sure it makes sense at all, because I've edited and re-edited it so much.

Thank you so much for your reviews: souverian, KEJunge, GuestMG (I agree - far more exciting, and they deserve justice! I like to think Jasper and Rosalie are her favourites, but I should check with her haha), Ghostwriter71, magicbustrip, chellekathrynnn, Ella (I hope you don't think it's OP when you read it - it's definitely not a Bella level of power straight off the bat!), Jane (you're completely right - though I took the mention of the second part out of the chapter because I thought it was too much for the reveal).

Chapter 22

By the time they reached the airport, Carys had stopped trying to work out what exactly her 'talent' might be - for the time being at least.

Not because she didn't want to know what it was - in fact, she was rather desperate to find out, to know if it was a good thing or not that she apparently possessed one - but rather because she had other things on her mind.

Why are we flying to the Yukon if Denali is in Canada? Followed quickly by is it the best idea to have a stop-over in Vancouver when there's a vampire tracking me, and he's possibly still in Washington? And lastly, and most importantly, is there any word from the others?

She gave voice to the last after they'd cleared security and discovered just how busy Sky Harbor International could be on a Monday evening.

"Not yet," Irina admitted with a faint frown as they rushed to the gate, weaving in and out of the crowd beside Carys as her sister strode ahead.

"But I don't think it's a bad thing - he might still be taking the bait. Kate's got the cell-" she reminded her before they were parted by a couple of tourists who'd stopped in their tracks to gawk openly at her. When they came together again, she continued, "-so if there's any news-" they were separated this time by a pillar, "-we'll hear immediately."

"I thought you weren't supposed to use phones on planes?" Carys mused aloud, not needing to accommodate for Irina's hearing as much as the vampire had for her when they were forced apart again.

"She'll turn it off when we reach full altitude." Irina paused for a moment to let a couple pass with their buggy before she caught up to Carys. "But," she considered, "it'd be better not to just in case... And besides, what they don't see won't hurt them," she finished happily, shrugging her shoulders.

"I'm sure there'll be news soon," Kate added positively when they finally reached the gate, already in the process of pulling their passports and boarding passes from her bag, handing them out again.

"Remember," she told Carys under her breath when she took hers, "Thornton, not... Well, you know."

Carys nodded and stepped forwards, handing her passport and ticket over to be inspected, smiling as calmly as she could when the flight attendant looked up at her to double-check her similarity to the photo.

If she tried not to worry too much and believed they'd have news soon, maybe she could get through the next few hours without panicking.

As it turned out, Kate would ultimately be proved wrong, and despite two plane journeys - during which they plied Carys with as much food as she could manage - and the stop-over in Vancouver - at which point, they distracted her by propelling her into a duty-free shop, holding clothes up to her and declaring them "good enough" to purchase - there was still no word from the Cullens by the time they reached Erik Nielsen Whitehorse International and collected their car eight hours later.

Carys sat quietly in the backseat, eyes darting as she struggled to acclimate to the speed at which Kate drove, taking in as much of the Yukon landscape as she could as it flashed by.

Eventually, she had to focus on the back of Kate's seat to try and calm her stomach.

"Don't worry too much," Irina told her, leaning her head around her headrest to meet Carys' eye, "we'll be home safe and sound before you know it."

"You sound ridiculous, Iri," Kate commented dryly as she took a corner at speed. "You know that, don't you?"

"I'm-" Carys closed her eyes for a moment, then thought better of it and focused on the leather again. "I'm not worried, I just..." She didn't really want to admit she'd stared out the window so much that she'd made herself dizzy, but Irina seemed too concerned for her to let it go without a proper explanation.

Kate laughed when Carys admitted her issue and muttered something about "humans" before telling Carys to close her eyes and try to sleep.

"I'll wake you up if he calls," Irina assured her kindly, turning back to the front.

Carys dutifully closed her eyes and evened her breathing over the next few minutes, letting her head nod to her chest before she turned and rested her cheek against the seat.

But no matter how well she pretended or how hard she wished for it, sleep ultimately failed her.

Instead, she listened to the soft musical voices in the front seat and allowed them to lull her to a plane somewhere between wakefulness and unconsciousness until she was shaken lightly to life a couple of hours later.

"We're almost there," Irina whispered when she opened her eyes.

She nodded her thanks and pushed up in her seat, redoing her hair as she shook herself. They'd given her just enough time to compose herself and use a chewable toothbrush before the car pulled up to a house larger even than the Cullens'.

It blazed with light from the entire ground floor, a beacon through the all-encompassing darkness in which it sat.

Carys wondered if Esme had designed theirs as she had the Cullens' because it had the same openness about it, the expansive floor-to-ceiling windows stretching across the front of the house.

The feeling of peace it gave her was compounded the moment she caught sight of the three vampires stepping out onto the front steps as if they'd been waiting to greet them.

Tanya - Carys knew she must be Tanya not simply because Carlisle had mentioned her months before, or the subtle command in her gaze as she glanced at her sisters, but equally because of how similar the three were in their mesmerising beauty - quickly detached from the others, her long strawberry blonde hair curling about her as she floated down the wide front steps and took Carys' hand when she left the car.

"Welcome to our home," she enthused, smiling up at her as Carys returned the greeting, and then turning to lead her towards the house. Irina fell into step beside them, carrying their purchases, and she purred contentedly, "I see you went shopping. Good. I'm afraid we wouldn't have much to fit you. I wouldn't want Carlisle to get here and find you wearing Eleazar's clothes, or trousers that ran half-way up your calves."

"Oh, he wouldn't have a reason to mind," Carys whispered gently, tempering her tone as a sudden urge to defend him, herself, - and for some reason their relationship - gripped her.

Tanya snorted lightly and turned a grin on her just before they reached the top of the stairs. "I meant rather that it would reflect badly on us - not to have considered your needs," she explained lightly. Too lightly.

Carys deflated. The feeling that she'd put her foot in her mouth grew as she struggled to work out how to bring herself back from it. She settled for whispering, "Oh, yeah, of course," in a suitably chastised tone as she ducked her head. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... You know..."

Tanya's grin softened before she turned to formally introduce her to Carmen and Eleazar, who, in contrast to the rest of their family, had an olive-tint to their pale skin.

An unbidden question rose to the forefront of Carys' mind, and before she dismissed it completely, she pondered over it for a moment or two.

How would she look as a vampire? Would she have a far darker tint to her skin than they did, or would the change remove more than she imagined?

"Welcome," Carmen echoed Tanya's sentiments as she smiled warmly - in contrast to Eleazar, who stood by her side and looked at Carys as if he was concentrating as hard as he could, as if puzzling her out had his full and undivided attention. "We've heard so much about you - though not as much as we'd like."

"I kinda feel the same," Carys admitted softly, beginning to feel uncomfortable by the strength of Eleazar's consideration.

After a few moments, his face cleared, and he too greeted her.

"So, do I have one?" Carys asked immediately, her eyes lit with the anxious curiosity that gripped her and pushed away any thought of polite inquiry. "A talent? Like they think?"

"Do you have a talent?" He asked the group as a whole, raising his hands in appeal. "Does she have a talent, she asks?"

He let his hands drop to his sides as he leaned forward, his eyebrows lifting.

"Carys," he continued slowly, "it's not an exact science, but yes, I believe you have something, though it may take me longer to decipher as you're human."

Carmen shook her head quickly. "No, no, no," she told him with a disapproving look, unhappy with the way the conversation was going. "No talk of that tonight - Carys needs to recover from her shock and the journey. You can discuss this in the morning."

"But I slept in the car?" Carys protested in a shrill voice, clearing her throat a moment later when she repeated herself and tried to sound a little less like she was a child, arguing for a later bedtime.

Carmen's lips tightened, reminding Carys of her mother when her hospitality was refused too easily.

"... I'd like to have a shower though - if that's okay?" She added quietly, appeasing Carmen if the return of her warm smile was anything to go by, but it did little to ease her own mind.

Thinking of how much better she'd feel after a proper shower made her think of the Nomads and just how long it had been since James had gained the bloodstain on his clothes, and a faint shudder ran down her spine.

Tanya swept an arm around her waist when she noticed her unease and guided her through the front door. "I'll show you to the room we've prepared for you."

She led her through the halls to a bedroom in the middle of the ones she pointed out as hers and Irina's, and left her with her backpack and new clothes, along with the request that she take all the time she needed.


After she'd let the heat from the water seep into her bones for far longer than she would at home and taken her time dressing, she sat on the bed, dropped her head to her hands, and began to cry.

She couldn't be sure how long she sat there, hunched over as all the pent up feelings she'd tried to lessen or hide completely forced themselves to the surface, spilling over in the form of hot tears cascading down her cheeks that made her breath catch in her chest.

No matter how hard she tried to stem the flow, they continued to fall - faster than she could wipe them away.

Eventually, she stopped trying.

Long after her tears had slowed and eventually dried, she remained in her position, staring unseeing at the floor.

When she did manage to tear her deadened gaze away and pull herself to the bathroom to splash cold water on her face, she was shocked at what she saw in the mirror.

"You're okay," she whispered to herself, her raspy voice barely audible above the running water as she stared at her exhausted, puffy-faced and tear-stained reflection. "This will all be over soon. It has to be...," she whined softly. "Doesn't it?"

Her expression began to crumble, but she fought against it, curling her hands into fists against the countertop and gritting her teeth.

"Your mum, Findlay, and the baby will be fine," she insisted, almost angrily. "Your friends. Will be fine. Everyone. Will be fine. Get. It. Together."

Nodding to herself, she splashed more water on her face - repeating the action again and again until the cold returned her face to normal, and only her red eyes remained as evidence of her despair.

Once she'd fully composed herself, she followed the well-lit halls back to the living room, where she found the family waiting for her, spread across two of the sofas whilst a third laid empty.

She knew as well as they did, when she lowered herself slowly onto the seat and pulled her legs up to her chest, that they'd heard everything - but she refused to hide her face as part of her wanted to. Her release of emotions had been cathartic - to cringe from it would almost be to dismiss it as less than it was.

No one spoke, but it wasn't her that commanded their attention.

They were waiting for Eleazar's assessment.

The look of concentration filled his face again as the easy silence that had been briefly interrupted by her entrance fell upon the room once more.

After long minutes, Eleazar's expression eased and his lips turned up at the sides.

"Have you sussed me out?" Carys asked quietly when no one else appeared to move or make to engage with him, pulling her sleeves down over her hands. "I mean... Just a bit, at least?"

Eleazar's faint smile grew slowly, until a wide grin wreathed his face as he spread his arms wide, laying one along the back of the sofa, the other along the armrest.

Carmen by his side, and Kate, Irina, and Tanya on the sofa opposite, looked between them. Their clear interest in the exchange battled with the expectation that they would wait for the moment they could voice their thoughts.

"You've taken well to the news of what Carlisle is... What we are, haven't you?" Eleazar mused aloud, steepling his fingers against the armrest.

"I'm... Not really...," Carys denied slowly. "I mean, I was sick when I found out, and I still get scared or worried..." She trailed off, catching her lip between her teeth again and sinking back, confused by his words and the tone he'd used. "What d'you mean?" she finally questioned, faintly disturbed.

"Do you really get scared?" He asked, mildly disbelieving.

"Well... With the Nomads, yes."

He cocked his head and watched her carefully for a moment. "And the Cullens? Us?"

"Jasper said it's apprehension...," she conceded. "But I trust you, as I trust them... Is that my issue? I trust people too easily?"

He laughed, though no one else followed his lead. The other women in the room sat still, only their eyes moving between the two as they spoke, so as not to disturb them for the moment.

"Not at all. Well," he accepted with a twitch of his hand, "it may be part of it, but only in so much as you know who to trust, and when to trust them." When Carys merely blinked slowly at him, he chuckled again. "I apologise," he told her, settling back in his seat as he lifted his hand again. "I'm afraid I'm being deliberately obtuse. I have my reasons," he assured her with a smile. "It's just nice to meet a kindred spirit."

Carys wondered if Carmen hadn't been right, and was too tired for the conversation after all. "I just wish you'd tell me something?" She prompted gently.

"Hmm..." Eleazar seemed frustrated for a moment. "I simply can't be sure what your final power will be as you're still developing it, but I can give you an idea of what you are and could be. You might lose anything, gain anything between now and your change, and I wouldn't want to promise something that might not be as easy to master as I expect."

"Oh, I'm..." Carys grimaced and sniffed, forcing fresh tears from her eyes. "Carlisle and I agreed to bench that discussion..."

"Which discussion, dama?" Carmen asked, finally adding her voice to the conversation as she watched her carefully.

"Whether I'll become a vampire or not," Carys admitted, dropping her legs and pulling her feet up to cross her legs.

The three sisters appeared faintly alarmed, and she didn't need to think to know why that was. There were only two options when a vampire revealed themselves to a human - change, or death.

"Oh! But you must." Carmen told her, shaking her head as if all was already decided. "If you didn't, you'd destroy him!"

"Exactly," Eleazar agreed, dismissing what Carys thought was a very undismissable issue with a wave of his hand despite her horror. "We move to brighter things. Tell me, what brought you to Forks? I hear it was a rather quick decision?"

Carys, thrown by both the interlude and change in questioning, answered immediately and wrapped her arms around herself. "My-my parents had a house there, and they offered it to me. It just... Happened. I saw Forks, and I loved it, so I moved."

Eleazar nodded curtly. "And how did you feel when you first met... Kate, for example?"

"Um...," she shook her head a little, trying to follow his path of questioning as he interrogated her. "Safe. Protected I guess?"

"But you didn't know she would be there when you left Forks? Or that she had a power?"

"Uh... No, I just knew we were splitting up in Phoenix and Carlisle told me to trust him, so I did-can I ask why you're asking this?"

"I'm making sense of what I see, but I should stop before I annoy you."

"You're not," she denied vehemently, but his response - a small smile as he shook his head - showed he would stop anyway.

"I'll explain it instead... Our abilities manifest in a way that suits us - serves us. It can be difficult for me to pinpoint a human's powers as well as a vampire's because they're less defined and developed. Even when we change, each ability is so much a belonging of the person that it can sometimes be less obvious at first... I cannot be absolutely certain as to what yours will manifest as, but it will be something that feels as right and easy as breathing - the same way it manifests at the moment. Something you can hone, as Kate or I have ours."

Carys closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead, trying to make sense of the explanation. "I still don't understand, my ability is there and you can see it, but you also can't...?"

"Kate, if you would be happy for me to use you as an example?" He waited for Kate's nod before continuing, "Thank you, well as a human, Kate was a warrior - a protector. She was well versed in defensive and offensive combat, and fiercely loyal to her charges. When she was changed, this developed itself into the ability to create and channel an electrical charge of varying strength and an unbreakable loyalty to her family.

"Though at first it was only concentrated in her palms, after many years of practice, she can now radiate it anywhere on her body. Your power is like hers - a natural aptitude that can be amplified and honed when you become a vampire.

"I actually think you're honing your talents as we speak, but you adapt to them so easily that you don't notice the change.

"Edward, for example, said that you quickly began to speak to him through your thoughts, and that it's rare you would slip and show him some of your more private ones. He told me, when Carlisle shared his suspicions, that you'd even managed to convince him to accept your complaints once - authority he rarely cedes to others. You were angry, and a far more dormant part of you rose to the surface.

"Alice mentioned to Irina and Kate that she has begun to anticipate your movements or questions when you want her to - not in the form of visions, but as a soldier might their comrade or superior officer. That previously dormant part of you may now be growing in strength, or perhaps it merely comes of use when your emotions are heightened and always has done.

"But what-" Carys cut across him, sitting forward. "-I'm sorry, are you saying I'm controlling them!?"

"No," Eleazar reassured her again. "You've observed the way they and their powers work, and you've adapted to them. You do not control them, you simply pay attention to their individual needs as a good commander would, and they, therefore, do the same for you.

"When you met Kate, after being with our cousins, you didn't need to know her power to know that you were the safest you could be whilst by her side, but equally knew when you weren't."

Carys dropped her head to her hands and wished again that Carlisle was there to help her make sense of things.

If she was supposed to be so good at observing and adapting...

"Carlisle tells me he told you what he was after you'd made a list of things you'd noticed since meeting him?"

She lifted her head and sighed heavily. "Yeah, I erm... I had this list of things I saw and dismissed? Or ignored? But..." She raised her head further as realisation dawned. "I knew it all deep down? I just didn't let myself believe in it, I thought I was going crazy a times... Until... There was a point I snapped and wrote it down...?"

"Exactly. Though, rather than snap, I would say you subconsciously knew it was time to put the evidence together. You're human, therefore your talents aren't like ours, they aren't what they could be... They may aid you when you need them to, but if you'd not found Carlisle, I wonder if you'd ever have noticed your natural aptitude, or it would have continued to develop itself below the surface to suit your needs. For instance, what did you think of the people you might meet before you arrived in Forks?"

"When I got to Forks..." Carys ran her hands over her knees and recalled, "I wanted to fit in, and to get a job in town rather than Port Angeles..."

"And so you somehow did, but only because you instinctively found who best to fit in with and who would share the information you needed. Perhaps you gathered the information to know who to trust, who to hide information from, who would grant you information more easily? Humans do that, you simply managed to do it faster and more easily, but not fast enough that it could be remarked upon."

"I don't... Sorry, so when I got together with Carlisle and fit myself into the family... I began to understand how each of them worked, and built my relationships from that...?

"Yes," he agreed. "If your ability is allowed to manifest as it is, you'll be a scout. Or a commander. If actively developed, you may be both.

"I, for example, am also a scout - though not in the same way. I'm able to assess talents and abilities, as you know. It's unusual to see it naturally apparent in the way of ours, but not as rare as you might think. Most vampires of this sort turn their abilities outward, using their talents of gathering to hunt. There are far more trackers than there are scouts in the way you or I exist."

"Trackers!? I-?"

"You saw Forks," Eleazar cut across her fearful cry and attempted to put her mind at ease. "And I think from what I can see, that far more than liking it, you recognised it as a terrain and culture you could exploit. You wanted to fit in, and if Carlisle is to believed, people were more than happy to share what you needed to do that. Your reconnaissance skill allowed you to gather the information and evidence required to convince your reluctant conscious mind that there was something irrefutably wrong with-"

"I had a feeling!" Carys announced suddenly, pressing up onto her knees. "I-I-I get these feelings," she explained, gesturing wildly. "I saw Forks, and I had this feeling - my... My mum called it compulsion growing up? And-anyway, that bit doesn't matter, but what does is that-that I had the same feeling when I started my list. And-and I don't usually get angry, but I did that day with Edward... And..." She searched her mind and sat back on her heels slowly, frowning in concentration. "And... I knew James was the leader of the Nomads even though Laurent pretended to be, and Edward confirmed it for me... I... I don't think there's anymore, but... I guess that's just... I don't notice most of it...?"

Eleazar grinned when she trailed off. Carmen, Tanya, and Irina wore matching expressions of mild surprise, whilst Kate's lips lifted at the corners.

"Scouts observe, they do not engage in open battle," Eleazar pondered. "They do, however, give their commander all the information required for defence and offence before they engage - perhaps that's why you react to the others as you do, or perhaps it's where this aptitude for leadership comes in... Over time, you could become more sensitive to your ability.

"If you could hone your skills once you change, Carys, you could be truly formidable. Not simply a scout, of which we two are rare but not unheard of, but potentially a commander as well - as Carlisle, Jasper, Tanya, and Kate are."

"But I'm not now?"

Eleazar chuckled. "Not yet, but I think you may have missed your calling as a detective. Eventually... If you stopped being so unwilling to trust yourself that it takes a year to realise what you could have deduced far sooner."

Just when Carys was about to reply to the strangely complimentary insult, the mobile phone finally began to vibrate from the coffee table.

A/N: sorry/not sorry we had so much Eleazar this chapter. Also, Ghostwriter71 brought up their route because it's not too clear - they flew to Vancouver and then Yukon and drove across the border to Alaska - both to confuse the tracker, and because apparently there aren't any direct flights unfortunately.

So... What d'you think...? I'm just going to post it now because if I don't, I fear I'll just keep editing it and never get there. P.s. this conversation is going to continue because... Yeah... If you re-read it now, it'll be through fresh eyes, I think... Kudos if you can pick up on the other way her powers of adaptation come out...

I'm being ridiculous perhaps, but should I go back and just change it so she is normal? No one noticed until I brought it up - maybe it'd be better for the story to redo the last few chapters...?