Okay, PSA to start. I need to tell you all that when I wrote the Emmett chapter, I didn't know Carys or Carlisle the way I do now. This story has changed so much since I made my first plans. I could write an entire new story because I have plans written all the way to Breaking Dawn for it. That story was a lot sadder and angstier, and Carlisle and Carys weren't actually together in this chapter in that story... Don't write flashforwards too early, people!

Chapter 26

For two days, Carys maintained her normal routine outside the house, performing for the people who saw her.

She put her head down at work, agreed with everyone who asked that it was wonderful news the Cullens - specifically Doctor Cullen - were back, assured three people she hardly knew that she would be at Monica's birthday party (and she hadn't thought for a second that they had been talking behind her back for months), and even managed to choke down most of her lunch each day.

The moment she set foot at home, she fell to pacing, crying, or wrestling with an impending sense of doom. Carlisle gave her her space when she asked for it, but when he was there, his presence comforted her.

On Thursday, she worked a full day as promised, and was therefore present when Sandra and Andrew, the other general admin working that day, recieved the news Carlisle had been rehired.

She was also present for the intrigue that the addendum put into his contract - a two week holiday, to be taken at some point over the next three months, dates yet to be confirmed - caused.

When, on Friday morning, she woke lying across Carlisle's hard chest as he stroked her back with one hand and held aloft a medical journal with the other, she realised with a jolt that her mourning period was coming to a close.

She wondered what was next. Would it be painful to wait for? Would she find herself counting the days, marking them off on her calendar, existing only in anticipation of her death?

Carys was awake for a while before she stirred. Carlisle dropped the journal to the bed, rolling them both so that she lay on her back, with his face buried in her neck. She felt strangely exhilarated by the sudden realisation her life would end in much the same way.

So that was it. Exhilaration? She hoped so. She would much rather spend her last months being excited by her lingering humanity than squandering her time.

"Good morning?" he asked, giving her the option to have been going straight back to sleep, his lips moving against her skin. "Would you like some coffee?"

Carlisle hadn't mentioned how bad her addiction to coffee had become for the past few days - not since she'd foregone moisturising after Bella and Alice chased Edward to Volterra, on the basis that she didn't really need to anymore.

The bitter words had left Carys' mouth before she realised, and she'd felt terrible when she caught sight of his face in the mirror - though he tried to hide the expression her words conjured. He'd dismissed her apologies as unneeded.

"Carlisle?" she whispered, staring at the crack in her ceiling as her mind turned to what happened after. "Will I end up a snarling, blood-obsessed mess like that newborn? Too focused on the kill to notice any threat?"

He froze - then tightened his arms around her. "At the beginning, yes, to an extent," he acquiesced. "She was likely starving, otherwise she would have fought more... After your first hunt, things begin to change a little. Rosalie, for example, had as of yet unmatched will power."

"You mean," she asked when he loosened his hold enough that she could breathe, "I'm supposed to believe Rosalie Lillian Hale was a snarling mess once?"

Carlisle grinned.

"For around a month or two, yes. It only took her a couple of years to stand being around humans - though, of course, if they were bleeding..." he trailed off with a shrug. "She's the most like me, I suppose. In that way, at least."

Carys knew what he meant by that - Rosalie was the only other vegetarian vampire in known existence to have never tasted human blood. It was a source of great pride for her. For Carlisle as well.

"Are you really saying she had more will power than you?" Carys doubtfully asked.

"In some ways, yes," he said, a strange note to his voice.

"Was her hair all messed up when she hunted, at least?"

"Incredibly."

"Makes me feel a little better."

Carlisle pulled back to survey her. "Does it?"

"No," she laughed, shaking her head after pushing him back down so he wasn't in direct contact with her morning breath. "Not really. I just don't wanna end up with you being like: "This is our family, and this is our Carys", and I'm just snarling in the corner snapping at people."

Carlisle's chest moved, but he made no sound.

"There's so much I'm going to miss," she whispered later, running her hand through his hair. "I guess there was always time to think about it, to put it off for another day..." She sat up, onto her elbows and asked, "Would you do something for me?"

"Anything," Carlisle assured her, having raised up when she had, holding firm when she tried to squirm away and mumbled about her teeth. "I couldn't care less," he assured her.

"It's two things, really."

"It could be a million and I'd do them all," he said softly, looking her over with a heartbreaking gentleness.

"Not sure there's time for all that!" Carys choked, then collected herself, adjusting the collar of his t-shirt. "I'm going to spend a few weekends with my family, but can we get married again? Properly? Or engaged, like rings engaged? Before the change, I mean..." Tears slid uncomfortably from the corners of her eyes, but she caught them with the back of one hand before they fell into her hair. "I want my mum to see it... To see I'm happy, you know? She'll think I'm just too busy to get in contact for a while."

After the change, there would be no real chance to see her mum again - to see her close up, to hug her. There would be the option to email, text, call, but at least the latter would require careful timing and as much lying as she could handle. The same would go for Shauna. Or Findlay. Or her friends.

When they had handfasted, Carys could remember thinking that it was just for the two of them, and their eventual wedding would be for everyone else. Now it was as much for her as it would be for them. More so. It would mean more for her. She knew she would treasure what little of the fuzzy memories survived the transformation; the pictures would be infinitely precious when one day there was no one left to remember her as she once was.

Carlisle nodded and kissed her tear reddened cheeks. "Are you happy?" he queried, then clarified, "Not right at this moment, of course."

"I'm happy with you. I know, whatever happens, eternity with you is exactly what I wanted; it's what I want. I won't have to do it all alone, and it's not like it's come out of nowhere, I guess... I just expected there would be more time to think about it, to come to terms with it all...

"Which brings me to the other thing," she whispered when she was able to say it, and he was able to hear it, "would you please get rid of the notebook...? I don't think I'll be able to, but I can-I can't... I can't look at it again."

"What if I-" Carlisle tried to counter, a pained look on his face.

"Please?"

"I... What if I hide it instead? In case you ever change your mind?" he attempted again, drawing her closer, rolling onto his back again when he had her secured, settling her against him. "There are so many things we could do before and after the transformation... I could hide it from you until you're ready."

Carys thought about it for a while before she agreed.

They lay listening to the sounds of each other's breathing until Carys couldn't put off her needs any longer.

She returned to the bedroom to find Carlisle missing and the sound of the kettle boiling in the kitchen downstairs.

He was finishing up a phone call when she joined him.

"Edward has agreed to his punishment," Carlisle told her, pocketing his phone and embracing her when she slid in front of him at the counter, locking his arms, his cold breath washing over her cheek. "He understands what he's done now. I doubt he would have objected if it were an out and out physical penalty, but this feels worse and therefore better."

Carys concentrated on the coffee pot in front of them for a while. "What did you decide in the end?" she asked, finally turning to him as she lifted her freshly brewed cup, blowing on the contents.

"His own brand of hell," said Carlisle. He wasn't exactly smiling as he said it, but nor was he serene as such. A little smug, she thought. It made the corners of her lips lift. "I've grounded him."

Carys felt her eyebrows raise, but Carlisle only stared her through as her mind ran over the implications. She narrowed her eyes.

"Grounded... As in... Grounded, grounded...?"

"Until you say otherwise," Carlisle told her, his lips twisting, "Edward is... Human grounded - and perhaps, beyond. He is under curfew between nine pm and five am, save for one night a week. Bella is his mate after all-"

"Makes sense," Carys allowed, "gives him something to hold on to."

"Yes, that's what I thought. He can spend a full day with her on a Saturday if you give him permission to," he continued, tipping his head, his smile growing as he spoke. "His piano has been confiscated, as has his car... Either Alice or Esme will drive him to and from school... And I've suggested they drive their most conspicuous cars."

"That's a really good idea," she said in between gentle puffs of air, eyeing him over the rim. "He'll hate that."

"I'm not finished," Carlisle told her with a conspiratorial wink.

Carys gasped, sharing an exaggerated wink of her own. "Do pray continue, then!" she insisted, cocking her hip and looking him up and down.

"No music unless it's disco - believe me, he hates disco with a passion. Yes, I know," he agreed across her protest, "Emmett and Rosalie agree, they are dusting off their dancing shoes as we speak... Rather, their platforms." He glanced at the ceiling and squinted. "Rosalie's platforms."

"Is that it?"

He looked at her again. "Not quite... Almost," he promised.

"What else?"

"An apology, of course, a fifty thousand word essay on the utter idiocy of thinking his mating bond was different as Bella is human - of which at least ten thousand words needs to focus on the faults of Romeo and Juliet. Another section must focus on the fallacy of Romeo and Juliet. Throughout it all, he's not allowed to complain, glower, or so much as grumble.

"Each infraction adds a day... Ah!" he added, dropping his forehead to hers. "And whether you decide to forgive him or not, his punishment lasts until graduation, unless special circumstances are cited, requested, and accepted."

Carys slowly nodded her head - from side to side and up and down. She was sure she looked like a bobblehead, but she was too happy with Carlisle to care. She understood entirely how Carlisle felt when she put her foot down with his kids. He was... She took a deep breath and bit her lip.

He gave her a little time to recover.

"I can't imagine Bella's very happy with that," she suggested.

He rolled back his shoulders, paused for effect, and gravely explained, "Oh, she's grounded as well. I coordinated in part with Charlie - Bella told him she would either move out or he could kick her out if he didn't immediately ease up on Edward. I'm his father and I'm shocked at how quickly he could be forgiven - having seen and heard how she was when he left her."

"Jesus... Well, then let me tell you, you, Carlisle Cullen, have an incredibly sexy vindictive streak, and the coordination makes it that much better... You're making me wonder what you're up to today...?"

"I...," he teased, drawing out the word as he leaned in, the coffee forgotten between them until he pulled away just before their lips touched, "am on call at the hospital," he finished quickly, grabbing his mug from behind her and taking a step back. "It's mostly so I can go in and get up-to-date with things before I return on Monday."

"So you'll have your feet up waiting for injuries then?" Carys asked, padding after him into the living room.

"Nothing of the sort!"

"Liar... But it's nothing so strenuous that you'll be tired when I get home...?"

"I will never be too tired," he informed her, sealing the words with a kiss when they had set down their cups on the table, cupping her face as he did so. "Promise me you'll eat properly before you go?"

"Dinner's part of it. But yes, I promise I will eat. And... I'm going to promise myself I won't drink too much either. If I say it out loud, it'll be harder to break."


Where were they? They couldn't have left her, could they?

Carys stumbled down the stairs of the club, searching over the heads of the crowd downstairs one more time in her drunken state. She had to lean an arm against the wall to prop herself up as her head swayed from side to side to the beat of the loud music.

They'd all been ready to go when she'd announced she needed the loo and ran off to join the queue, but Monica had said they'd wait for her.

Or, she'd slurred and yelled it in her ear at any rate.

Damn. Carys felt tears spring to her eyes as she staggered and pulled her bag up to her face, trying to concentrate on the contents. It took her two fumbling attempts to open the zipper and discover she only had twenty dollars left. Enough for her share of a cab back to Forks, but nowhere near enough to get there on her own.

Her phone had battery, but no signal. If she could find some, she could call and ask someone to pick her up - better still, she could ask where the hell everyone else had gone.

She continued to stumble as she closed and dropped her bag to her side, having to concentrate a bit too hard on undoing the knot of coat arms at her waist. One day she might start paying for cloakrooms again. This was not that day. Or, night, if she was being pedantic.

Carys pulled her coat on as she walked unsteadily towards the entrance. Weaving her way through the crowd, she gave no thought to how she must look, wearing a thick coat over her short sparkly dress and wiping tears from the corners of her eyes before they could fall and take her eyeliner or mascara with them.

She slipped as she stepped out into the cold air, and the bouncer had to grab her to stop her from falling to the floor. She thanked him as her face twisted with embarrassment, and he only let her go once she had both feet firmly under her.

"Wait, how're you getting home?" he asked her with concern.

"I've got her," a deep musical voice replied from her left, and Carys swung around to see who it was. It took a moment or two for her vision to stop spinning and settle as she stopped moving. "I'll make sure she's home safe."

"D'you know him?" the bouncer asked her, frowning and stepping forward - more than ready to insist she came back in, had some water, and waited for a cab.

Carys squealed as she realised who was standing in front of her and she leapt forward to throw her arms around his neck, hanging off him more than onto him. He brought his arms around her to hitch her back up onto her feet again.

He'd come to pick her up! How did he know?

"Emmett!" she exclaimed before turning to the bouncer and grinning widely. "He's my son!"

Emmett tried to cover his laughter for a second or two before giving in when he saw the incredulous look on the bouncer's face.

"He's your son?" the bouncer asked through a raised eyebrow. Carys nodded emphatically - and then continued nodding when he didn't seem to agree it was entirely possible and understandable a statement. "When did you have him? When you were two!?"

Carys shushed Emmett as his boom of laughter filled the street, holding a hand across his lips and giving him a stern look before turning back to the bouncer with a proud smile and nearly closed eyes.

"Yup. He's mine. It's not his fault he's so big. He... He's only 18, still a bay-by." She hugged him harder and placed a surprisingly dry kiss to his cheek whilst patting his head. "I was twenty-two when I got this one!"

Emmett tried, really tried, truly seemed to struggle not to laugh. It was likely a result of how incredibly drunk Carys was. Or, perhaps, the way in which she misquoted his age as the one he was masquerading in Forks.

The bouncer was just shocked enough at this stage to wonder aloud, "This one? As in..." The bouncer's eyes swept over her from head to toe, and he stepped back with his hands up when Emmett growled in response.

"As in...? Oh! As in, I've got five. Five children," she repeated, releasing Emmett finally and counting out her fingers to hold them up for the bouncer to see as she nodded again. "Five - two are fostered," she stage whispered the last as if it was a secret, swaying forward and covering Emmett's ears for a moment as she spoke.

"And you're looking incredible for it!" a woman standing in the queue called over, and Carys raised her arm above her head and cocked her hip as a round of applause and tipsy cheering went up from the people shivering around her.

Emmett, momentarily at a loss at the strange humans' behaviour, swept an arm around Carys' shoulders and turned her away towards his Jeep parked just down the road.

"How about we get you home before you confuse half the city?"

"How-erm. Yeah... What? Yeah. How'd you know..." She waved a hand wildly in the air. "I needed a ride?" Carys asked him when they were out of earshot of the people outside the club as she snuggled into his side as if he was far warmer than he was.

"Was I wrong?" he asked, shaking his head at her and opening the passenger door for her. When she staggered and went to hitch up the short skirt of her dress to manage the high step, he waved off her hands and lifted her in.

The exclamations from the club door went up again, and Carys grinned as Emmett reached across to take care of her seat belt too.

"T'was Alicccee, t'wasn't it?" Carys purred at him, before giggling uncontrollably for long minutes. She only stopped murmuring "t'wasn't" and giggling at herself when they left the centre of town and she saw a drive-thru in the distance.

Emmett winced but chuckled to himself when she yelled out, waving her bag around and pointing out the windshield.

"Emmett! Food! Please? Pleeaasseee? I've got money, and I'll get you a burger too? And fries. Fries. They're made from potatoes." she added the last as if imparting great wisdom.

"Are they now? I hadn't noticed," he told her dryly through a grin.

She grabbed his arm.

"Oh yeah. Well, English ones are. Don't... Don't know about American ones. But English ones are. You're Irish, aren't you? I mean, American Irish? That... Must..."

"Mean I like potatoes as much as you do?" he finished for her, biting his lip and shaking his head as she nodded and stared up at him from where her face was pressed against his arm. "One, I don't think anyone likes potatoes as much as you do. Two - and I'm just checking..." he held a hand up. "You do remember I'm a vampire, don't you Carys?"

"Please Emmett? I'll love you forever."

"Forever and ever?" he replied, looking down at her with an expression of sadness and hope.

"Forever and ever," she agreed happily before her face fell and she slowly pushed away from him to sit properly in her seat for the first time since she'd got in the car. Staring out the passenger window, she spoke quietly - knowing full well they could both hear her as she massaged her aching chest and tears welled in her eyes. "Well, maybe not forever... I mean, who knows what's going to change when I do..."

"Carlisle-"

"Don't. Emmett. Please. Just don't." Carys took a deep breath and her eyes rolled and began to droop slightly as she pressed her cheek to the cool window and steadied herself with a hand on the dashboard. "You know I didn't... It wasn't... I mean, I... I was going... I was going out tonight anyway."

"I know, Carys."

"It wasn't, you know. It wasn't because..." Carys broke off with a sob as she gave up trying to hold back her tears. "Because you all came b-ack, and I-I-I'm-!" Her shattered gasp filled the Jeep and Emmett wrapped his free arm around her, stroking her back as she cried.

"Let's get you that burger, eh Ma?"

"And fries," she moaned, sniffling gently.

"And fries, Carys."

"And a coke?" she whimpered.

"Whoa. You didn't tell me you had money!" Emmett exclaimed loudly, trying to lighten the mood in the Jeep. "Remind me, why am I driving you for free!?"

Carys wiped her eyes, streaking her makeup. She laughed brokenly through her tears. "Were Ja-sper an-d Rosalie too bu-sy?"

Emmett narrowed his eyes at the road even as a smile lifted his lips.

"Jasper would have eaten you."

"A-and Rosalie?" Carys questioned, trying her hardest to stage off a sob.

Emmett fell silent as he seemed to concentrate on the road for a few moments. When he spoke again, it was with a hint of sadness that Carys couldn't quite understand the reason for. "My angel told me to get you home safe, or not to come back at all."

It was only as they turned into the drive-thru that Emmett released his tight grip on the steering wheel.

"Carys?"

"Hmm?"

"The only reason I'm here and the others aren't... Is because I'm the only one Alice could see holding back my anger until you were sober."

"Oh..."

Carys rolled her head against the headrest, staring into the night while Emmett ordered. She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again, they were back on the road and a bag lay on her lap, her drink in the cupholder.

"What's-wha' d'ud I do?" she slurred, ripping into the bag to get at the food. Grabbing the burger, she unwrapped the top, sank her teeth in and, moaning, briefly closed her eyes again. She realised she'd fallen asleep when Emmett shook her shoulder, and she snapped to attention, chewing again.

"Angry?" she asked when she'd swallowed.

"I'm not sure you're awake enough to hear this," Emmett said.

Carys blinked at him, bleary-eyed, she took another bite and tilted her head back as she hummed that she was listening.

"Okay... Can you think of what you've done in the past week?"

"Erm...," Carys squinted into the night, trying to ignore the speed at which Emmett was driving. "The... Funeral?"

"No," Emmett informed her with a shake of his head.

Carys paused mid-bite and pulled away just enough to slur, "The... The... Bella thing...?"

"Nope."

"Edward?" she huffed, staring at the burger, wishing he hadn't responded so quickly.

"No, not really. I told you, Carlisle's punishments are inventive. Man, this one's great! Edward's the only one suffering... Maybe Bella too, but you should've seen her face when he and Esme told her how badly she messed up."

Carys grinned proudly and thought about how much she loved them. Even more than you, she told the burger. Forgetting what they were talking about for a while, she fell forward against the harness and slowly took bite after loving bite. Emmett raised her cup every so often, holding it beneath her so that she could sip from the straw.

A bump in the road reminded her they were talking about something, and she turned her head. "You're sideways," she accused, frowning in concentration.

Emmett fixed her with a mocking stare. "You're diagonal," he dryly replied.

Carys looked down at herself, twisted this way and that, lifted her head a little and happily exclaimed, "I am! I am! I'm diagonal! Am I alway-hic!-always diagonal?" She giggled at her question for so long that she whined, retched, and caught herself, holding on to the door with one hand, the last piece of her burger with the other, through a wave of vertigo.

"Unghhh!" The strangled cry emitted from the back of her throat. Gritting her teeth and tightening her grip on the door, she slapped her other wrist against the dashboard and pressed down so that she didn't accidentally squeeze the burger into oblivion. She was almost completely sure her soul had been left behind while the Jeep sped on.

Emmett stared at her as if she'd grown two heads until the road demanded his attention.

She slowly relaxed. "No... No, I'm okay... Oh my god... Phew..." Not taking any chances, she stuffed the last piece into her mouth, chewed slowly, and savoured it. When she was done, she sat up straighter, shuffled herself down in her seat, adjusted the hem of her dress, and said, "Em..." She forgot the rest... "Emmie... Mett...? Em? Ah-Memmie?" Emmett ignored her, his lips twitching. "Emmemememet? Emmie-ah-met-met? Memmet... You," she whined, poking his stone-hard elbow.

"Yeah, Ma?" he finally replied, sounding far more exasperated than he looked.

If she'd taken his expression alone, Carys would have assumed he was struggling not to laugh.

"Is it cuz I haven't been home for days?" He shook his head, and she tried, "Shouting at Alice?" Another shake. "You... You found the cam-era, didn't you?"

Emmett raised his hand and mimed the action of ringing a bell as he said, "Ding ding ding!"

Carys, who had followed the movement and realised there wasn't a bell at the same time as his eyes flicked to her face, smiled and shifted in her seat, trying to cover her mistake. "Did-um... Didn't my lovely..."

She lost her train of thought. Were there fries? She felt like there were fries... Ah! She found them, pinched a few from the box, and stuffed them in her mouth.

"Didn't Carlisle explain?" Emmett waited for Carys to nod. "He was called into an emergency surgery three hours ago. Alice sent me to intercept you - friends, or not."

"Not my fault... Lost-lot... Lots going on, you see? Very... Very much dying soon...," she said, waving her index finger back and forth through the air. "Mm... Got distracted."

Emmett slid his arm back around Carys' shoulders and shook his head. "No, I didn't say it was anyone's fault - Carlisle told us but I guess we didn't really realise how close you got to them... Looks like I'm getting my fight after all," he added gleefully.


Carys woke slowly.

For a few moments, before she remembered who and where she was, she entertained the notion she was floating on clouds.

Then the nausea hit, rising, burning it's way up from her stomach.

She scrabbled for the edge of the cloud and something hard wrapped around her the instant before she fell off the end, righting her.

It felt as if someone had their hand in her skull, squeezing her brain like a set of bagpipes. She opened her eyes. The squeezing suddenly extended to them as well.

Carys moaned, opened her mouth to beg them to stop, closed it again when the bile took another leap. Whoever was playing the steel drums in her head had wedged cotton balls into her mouth. Batting urgently at the restriction around her waist, she covered her mouth with her hand and-

The arms firmed. Lifted.

When she lost the contents of her stomach a few seconds later, she was kneeling before a toilet with someone stroking her hair.

"Is this-urgh-no... Why?" she groaned between rounds.

Her throat grated like sandpaper. Just when she thought there was nothing left, a far more bitter acid left her and the shivers wracking her body intensified. "Is this hell?" she quietly rasped, collapsing back against the cold floor.

Only, the arms seemed to be attached to a body, and she fell against that instead.

The body chuckled, and the movement was too much for her head and stomach.

"Sorry, love," it said minutes later, stroking her back as she gasped for breath. Strange that the body had an English accent. It sounded like Carlisle... So it wasn't hell? "I hear this can happen when you go out dancing."

"Can it?" she moaned. "I thought it was all the rum and cokes. Oh god, and the shots."

And the wine with dinner, she reminded herself with another groan.

She didn't want to think about what else she might have-

"Cocktails," she whispered aloud, bending over the toilet once again.

Carlisle looked after her throughout the morning, keeping his voice low as he gave her pain medication, ran her a bath and helped her bathe, convinced her to eat three bacon sandwiches, and refilled her glass over and over so that she could hydrate properly. Unfortunately, he cut her off before she felt she was completely done, citing the risk of accidental drowning.

It was well into the afternoon by the time she recovered to the level at which she deemed herself "human" and made her way downstairs.

The living room was empty except for Edward, who, in the process of setting up the rest of the Christmas decorations with a smile plastered on his face, said nothing. Carlisle walked alongside her - his hands in his trouser pockets, he studiously avoided looking at his son, as if doing so would make him laugh.

Carys sat down on the sofa, blinked, and Esme, Emmett, Rosalie, Jasper, Alice and Edward appeared on the sofa directly opposite.

"Look," she began, having been warned about their potentially dramatic arrival. "I know I-"

"How many are there!?"

"Did you see Victoria, or was that only Bella-!"

"I'm sorry about your friend, but you must have known how dangerous-!"

"Newborns, Carys!? They shoulda killed you-!"

"I didn't see anything! How did you-!"

"How much do you know about the werewolves!?"

Carys waited for the cacophony to come to an abrupt halt, all of them waiting for a response, and tried again. "I should have-"

"-photographs. You must have been so scared-!"

"-the strongest, Carys!?"

"Don' get me started on runnin' away from a newborn army!"

"-get so close? They may well have your scent-!"

"-they're growing in numbers-!"

"-Jacob Black or Sam Uley-"

Carlisle met her eye and sighed just as heavily as she did. Raising one hand, he opened it - then slapped his fingers to his palm. The overlapping voices cut off as one. The group returned to staring expectantly at Carys.

"So," she began, pulling her legs up to sit cross-legged, one thigh laid over Carlisle's, hugging his arm to her. "I get why you're upset, or, as Emmett said, angry... It was pretty stupid, to say the least. Yes, there's a group of newborn-"

"You called them babies last night," Emmett cheerfully reminded her, bringing back memories of her later drunken rambling that she would have preferred to forget.

"Thanks, Emmett... There are ba-newborn vampires in Seattle. Richard seems to have been taken in January, and I think it started back in April last year."

Carlisle took over without missing a beat. "Victoria is in the area, and she's searching for something. Laurent scouted on her behalf, but we have to operate under the proviso he was killed before he could relay the information about our whereabouts.

"That, in and of itself proves problematic as, during his time in Denali, he grew close to Irina," he told them, glancing at each in turn as he spoke. "However, it also suggests that if Victoria's sole wish was to kill Bella or Carys, she could well have done that already."

"It's probably a coincidence," Carys went on while he tangled their fingers together in her lap, "but Carlisle thinks it might not be. And, now she knows about them, Victoria's running around La Push baiting the shapeshifters, testing their defences as well."

"On top of it all, yes, as we all know and Carys has just said, there are once again shapeshifters in La Push."

Carys settled back, grinning, and briefly squeezed Carlisle's hand, explaining, "I guess what we're saying is..."

"Don't say it, don't say it, don't say it," Rosalie chanted, sitting up and glaring a warning as she shook her head.

"There are-"

"Don't say it, do not say it."

"-werewolves to the left of us, vampires to the right. Here we are, stuck in the middle with you."

"Dear lord, she said it," Rosalie groaned, slumping against Emmett in defeat.

He grinned down at her and tucked her more securely to his side, dropping a kiss to her forehead when she looked up at him.

"Now... If you're going to be heard, you should probably speak or shout at me one by one," Carys said once Rosalie's grumbling complaints died down to nothing. "I'm only human, after all."

The sound of five vampires demanding her attention filled the air, near-deafening Carys in the process. Jasper and Carlisle caught her eye one by one, giving her meaningful looks until her eyes sparked, and she remembered what each of them had spent months teaching her. Her training hadn't simply been about her abilities - it had given her the skills she needed to wrangle both herself and others.

Jasper had learned to exert his dominance using both the strength of his ability and his natural skill - his determination, knowledge, and strength. Carlisle, on the other hand, tended towards firm but fair, often taking the soft approach at first - letting them have their heads until they ran off a little of their steam and he could tighten the reins whilst letting them think they each had their fair turn.

"OI!"

Esme, Emmett, Rosalie, Alice, and Edward fell silent once again.

"You're right," Carys said quietly, looking between Jasper and Carlisle. "Just like wrangling horses... I imagine, anyway..."

A/N: And thus ends New Moon. If If It's Not Too Late was about Carys pre Carlisle, and Twilight was about the two of them and their love story, New Moon was definitely about her becoming the matriarch of the family... Epilogue to come.

P.s. I don't personally think Bella properly realised Carys' place in the family (I know Carys didn't remember the level she was, but it goes deeper with Bella) - she's so hung up on the vampires that she pretty much ignored Carys as she was a human. Things will be changing...

Thank you so much for your reviews - I'm honestly so amazed by the incredible response! Thank you all! Thanks to: strawberryfruitsnaxs, chellekathrynnn, famawoo, derniermon, Mixie18, 19irene96, Bimbumel2, TheLadyO, souverian, JosieNightOwl, jigglypuffs, OoKittenoO, BMBMDooDoo- Doo- Doo- Doo (Thank you!), Ghostwriter71, vancabreuniter, Ella (Thank you! He was honestly SO stupid for that, and really, really, so beyond selfish he was blind to even Carlisle and Esme being at risk! I often wonder if Bella actually wanted to be a vampire more than she wanted Edward at points... She even began to entertain the thought of being with Jacob more when he was a werewolf, and thought of the day he told her more about being one as a "date"... Carys definitely had more than 5 haha!), ReadLikeHermione, Adela (Thank you! And I agree about Carlisle too! I just want to give him a hug!), TDI- Ryro- Eclares, and BlueMetalXavier.