Chapter 12: Research

After their brief celebration, Edythe launched herself off Beau's lap; he watched from the couch as she went to her bag and retrieved her laptop, returning to him once more. He adjusted his position so he could see the screen over her shoulder as she settled in his lap.

"I was thinking about it," Edythe began as she typed, moving to her browser and pulling up a map of the United States. "where we should go after graduation; I didn't want to put any concrete places down, since I wasn't sure about what would happen today. But I think it doesn't hurt to start looking now; what do you think?"

"'Go' as in move?" Beau clarified, working to figure out what she was talking about.

"Yes, and go for college," she said, "Do you want to go to college?" She asked suddenly, remembering how that she hadn't thought to ask him. It seemed like such a given for her and Beau to attend the same college, that that was the first step to their forever, but she didn't consider if he had thought about it, if he wanted to go or to stay in Forks with Charlie. But Beau nodded.

"Yes, I do," he assured her.

"What about Charlie, though?" she asked. Beau made a slight face; that was his biggest hesitance, to leave his father behind after he had just gotten him back. He didn't want to abandon Charlie to his own devices as he had lived for the seventeen years of Beau's life. But this was a decision he had been contemplating for some time before Edythe's change, so his answer came quickly.

"Charlie wants me to live my life; he wants me to have what he couldn't, and he wants me to be happy," Beau explained. "He'd understand, he'd be happy for me. And now, we can come back and visit him." He clarified, his lips turning up at the idea. Of course, once the Cullens left Forks, they wouldn't be able to return in Charlie's lifetime, given their physical frozen state of aging. But Edythe and he could; this extra opportunity made him happy, that he didn't have to give up his father as much as he had originally been planning on. Edythe smiled in response, partially to Beau's response but also in reaction seeing another good thing coming of her transformation.

"We can visit Renee too, you know," she hedged. Beau's smile turned fond.

"My mom will be okay; she has Phil," he responded. "Go on about college." Edythe grinned.

"We usually move to a small town, with as limited sunny climate as possible. We try to jump across a couple of time zones, just in case, to avoid people from previous places noticing us." Edythe explained; Beau raised an eyebrow.

"How many places like Forks are there?" he asked, skeptical.

"More than you may think," she replied, pointing out a few on the map. Ponchatoula, Louisiana; Snowshoe Mountain, West Virginia; Morristown, Vermont…

"Haven't you been to all these states? How do you choose where to go?" Beau asked.

"I've been to most of them; we take turns on who gets to choose where to go next," Edythe replied nonchalantly.

"You guys take turns on where to move?" Beau asked.

"We move often, Beau," she reminded him, "every eight to ten years. How else would we decide?" Beau shook his head indulgently; only the Cullens, who had all the time in the world, would choose where to pack up and go to on the whim of one of the family members.

"Whose turn is it this time?" he asked; he wondered where they would choose. Before Edythe could respond, her cell phone beeped shrilly. She glanced down to read her newest text message, grinning as she did so.

"According to Archie, you," she said as she looked up at him. Beau gaped at her.

"Me? Why?" he asked. Edythe shrugged as she leaned into his chest, reaching up to kiss under his jaw.

"You're the newest member of the family. You should get the honor," she said as she gestured to her laptop, offering the keys to him. He didn't take it.

"I don't think it would be best for me to make that call," Beau stammered, "I have no idea…"

"I just gave you the parameters, Beau," Edythe told him, "it's not a big deal. Just don't pick Miami or some place like that." Her teasing was intended to soothe his stress, but it didn't seem to help.

"I've never been further east than Albuquerque," he admitted, his eyes glancing at the suddenly large map. Too many cities, too many choices, he realized.

"All the more reason for you to choose, love," Edythe said. "Find a place where we can live and go to college, preferably on the East Coast or nearby. It's not hard." She watched Beau's eyes trace the line of states, his mind going a mile a minute.

"Can I…can I have a little time to think about it?" he asked.

"Of course, there's no rush," she said, settling back into his chest. His arms automatically came up to wind around her. He gulped, still put off, and he decided to change the subject.

"College, huh?" he asked. "What do you want to do?" Edythe grinned a bit to herself; despite he wasn't actually capable of reading her mind, he always seemed to know where her head was.

"Well, I was planning on going into medicine," she explained, "but after my episode yesterday, I don't think that would be the best idea." There was a hint of exasperation in her voice; she still couldn't believe after the past century of vampirism , she couldn't keep herself conscious around blood. She shook her head to herself.

"So if not that, then what?" Beau pushed, glad she had moved to more easily discussed subjects.

"Well…" she began, her eyes suddenly casted down; he waited for her to finish. "I was trying to think of something similar that I could do and I was thinking…maybe veterinary?" She looked up to see his reaction. His eyebrows rose; of all her responses, this one was not what he would have expected.

"You know it's not the same, right?" he asked. Edythe rolled her eyes.

"Of course, I know that. But I think it may be something I'd like to do; I want to stay in the healthcare field, and if I can't work with humans because of the hematophobia, then isn't animal medical care the closest I can get? But, of course, I don't know I would have the same reaction to animals, given I don't think I ever had this reaction when I was human before…" she trailed off, her mind trying to remember back, to a different era. Even with her mind though, her vampire memories were a lot more discernible than her first human life.

"I don't react the same," Beau said. "Animal blood doesn't bother me."

"How did you figure that out?" she asked curiously.

"I used to work at a veterinary hospital," he said, shrugging. She sat up and turned around to look at him.

"Why did you never tell me this?" she demanded. He shrugged again.

"You never asked," he replied. She frowned; it was true, it wasn't one of the questions she had asked in the months since they had been together. She never expected him to have had a job, but then she figured, Renee probably didn't make that much as a preschool teacher, so it made sense for Beau to get a job to help supplement the income.

"So you know about it then? What it's like?" she asked, her eyes curious, excited. Beau's face turned a little hard, his expression almost reluctant. He nodded.

"Yes, I know what it's like, enough to know I didn't want to do it for a living," he said shortly. Edythe stared at him, confused by his tone, and he sighed.

"There's a reason the veterinary profession has the highest rate of suicide," he informed her. "It's not an easy career; it's hard on the body, the mind, and the heart. I don't want you to end up like some of the people I knew in that field." He internally cringed as he remembered; many of his coworkers were run ragged, submitting themselves to long hours, little pay, and abuse from the human owners that brought their pets to the clinic. He watched many of them burn out; he was one of them, leaving after only eighteen months. Though he left due to his move to Forks, he was not upset to turn his back on that job.

"Is it really that bad?" Edythe asked; she could see and hear the poignancy in his voice, the bitterness there. Beau shook his head free of the memories, not wanting to upset her with his own views on the field.

"It probably wouldn't be as bad for you, I don't think," he said, trying to erase the unsure and slightly discouraged look on Edythe's face. "You're definitely smart enough so the workload wouldn't be as bad, and you wouldn't be saddled with the debt to pay for school."

"I don't know how I would fare with the school work; I don't have the same mind flexibility and space that I did before," she reminded him; this was something she had been mulling over as well. How hard would it be to learn once she returned to school? Would she remember everything from before? More questions she didn't know the answer to.

"You'll be fine; did you take science courses in college?" Beau asked; he figured she had, considering Carine being such an influence on her. Edythe nodded.

"I did the first half of medical school," she told him, "but we always 'moved' just in time for the clinical rotations, for obvious reasons." Edythe tilted her head to the side as she remembered.

"I figured as much," Beau said with little surprise; he remembered all too well the doctor-like attitude she had donned that night in Bella Italia. "You'd probably be ahead of the game, then. A decent amount of the science transfers over; histology, pathology, and that stuff. Obviously, the anatomy would be different, and there is more than one species to learn."

"What about clinical stuff?" Edythe asked.

"I believe veterinary school runs very similar to medical school," Beau told her, "but I think you should try it first before you decide that's what you want to do."

"How do you propose I do that?" Edythe asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Get a job at a clinic, like I did. You'll be able to see the dynamics, the medicine, see if it's something you can see yourself doing. There's a decent amount of similarities between animal and human medicine, but there's a lot of differences too. Actually, maybe I could get a hold of Amanda." Beau mused.

"Who's Amanda?" Edythe asked, a different emotion shadowing her tone. Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. Beau hugged her tighter, a small laugh issuing between his lips.

"Amanda was the technician that trained me when I worked in Phoenix; she went to vet school right after I started. She should have graduated by now. She can give you a better idea than I can. I just worked in the back most of the time," he soothed her.

Edythe still had a slight pout at the mention of the woman, but tried to force the jealousy down in the prospect of getting a better idea of what veterinary medicine would entail. She'd never considered it before, too focused on the human medicine Carine practiced, and she learned that she had never really stopped to think about it, let alone consider a career in it. Beau obviously had experience in the field and, his warnings aside, she felt compelled to at least try.

Beau adjusted Edythe in his lap as he moved his fingers to the laptop keyboard; she watched as he typed in 'Amanda Thompson DVM' into the search bar. The first result came up with the webpage for Tompkins Veterinary Center. When Beau went to the link, a list of staff members for the facility was produced; the one with the caption "Dr. Thompson with her wife and their dog Sammy" showed a dark-skinned woman with warm brown eyes and curly black hair braided back neatly; she stood beside her wife, a young woman with light blonde hair and light blue eyes, smiling hugely with a Dalmatian with his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth.

"That's her," Beau confirmed. "She seems to have gotten married; good for her. And she always wanted a Dal." His musings to himself were low, but Edythe heard them. Her jealousy quelled after seeing the woman with her happy family, she saw in Beau's eyes that Amanda Thompson was a good friend to him, and as such, she felt more compelled to meet her. Beau copied and pasted Amanda's work email address and created a new message. Easily, he wrote a short message to her, asking how she was doing and congratulating her on her success and family. After sending the email, he moved the laptop to the couch before pulling Edythe closer.

"We can do a video call with her with you want," Beau proposed. "She can answer your questions better than I could. I could probably also persuade her to let you see a surgery, see how you are with that."

"I'd like that," Edythe agreed as she leaned into him, "but I don't know if it makes a difference in video versus the real thing."

"Well, we'll see," he said. They sat like that in companionable silence for a while, before a sudden ping of Edythe's laptop drew their attention. Amanda had already responded to Beau's email; he and Edythe read her response.

"Hey there Beau!

So glad to hear from you I hope you are doing well! Thank you so much for the well wishes; yes, I seemed to have gotten my dream haha. Sky and Sammy are doing very well, though Sammy just decided to tear his CCL a couple of months ago, so it's been a fun few weeks of cage rest!

I'd love to meet Edythe; I never thought there would be a girl good enough to win your heart, so she must be a keeper! I would love to talk her a bit more about the vet life; just name a time and place. And if you ever happen to be in Ithaca and need a job, just say the word. I would love to have you on my staff!"

Amanda ended the email with her cell number and hours she worked, saying to give her number to Edythe to text her if she wanted. Edythe was surprised; Amanda immediately jumped at the opportunity to help her. It wasn't what she expected. But when she mentioned it to Beau, he just shrugged.

"She had a hard time getting accepted to school, harder than most," Beau explained, "she loves what she does and wants to share that; and if there is someone else who wants to go down the same path, she will do everything she can to help, to make the journey easier on them than it was on her."

"Hmm," Edythe mused; though she had not met this woman yet, her tone from her email and the way Beau described, she could tell she would like her.

"Hey…" Beau began, and Edythe looked up; his eyes were calculating, planning.

"What about Ithaca?" he proposed. Edythe raised her eyebrows.

"Ithaca?" she asked, confused. He nodded.

"It's north, on the East Cost, small-ish town with a lot of forest and probably decent game to hunt for your family. And there's a few colleges there, and you could learn from Amanda, really get your foot in the door, see if vet med is really the way you want to go." Beau explained, ticking off each point on his fingers. Edythe considered it for a moment before she smiled, hugging him closer.

"I think Ithaca would be a great idea," she agreed. Beau hugged her back for a moment, before reaching over to respond to Amanda, letting her know they would work out a time soon to video chat with her. After the message was sent, Edythe felt another buzz in her pocket. She opened the screen to read Archie's newest text.

Ithaca is perfect. Tell Beau he has good taste. I'm looking into houses now.

Edythe smirked at her brother's words before she took the laptop, beginning a search for information about Ithaca.

The Cullens seemed pleased with Beau's choice; Ithaca did indeed have a decent supply of hunting opportunities, with Pennsylvania and nearby Canada as viable options for bigger game. The proximity of the local hospital gave Carine a place to continue her practice, and Cornell and Ithaca College were close for all the Cullen siblings to choose from.

Beau was trying to convince Edythe that it was okay for him to go to the community college for a first couple of years, quoting price as the deterring factor.

"Beau," she said flippantly, "you can do far more at one of the universities. It's not a factor of money. We can pay for it, so don't worry about it." Beau shook his head.

"I don't mind going to community college," he mumbled, "and I don't want you guys to pay for my education. I don't need to be any more of a burden on Carine and Earnest than I already would be."

"It wouldn't be a burden at all," Edythe insisted, taking his hand across the small dining table. "We have far more money than we know what to do with. At least we can use it for something other than cars and betting and donations." This just made Beau even more uncomfortable. He didn't like people spending money on him, especially that much money. He knew the Cullens were rich; he didn't even want to think about how much, and he knew his college education would not even be drop in the bucket of their funds. But that didn't make him feel any better about it.

Edythe reached out to place her hand against his cheek, asking him to look at her. When he obeyed, her eyes were soft, gentle.

"Please don't feel bad about the money, Beau," Edythe said. "I know how you feel about it, but I don't want you to feel that way. It's just money; and it's just sitting there. It's either we use it, or you can run yourself ragged applying to scholarships. And you may take out loans to make up the difference and then, in a few years, use the original money to pay it all back. Just please, let yourself not worry about it. Let yourself enjoy the idea of college without the burden of paying for it."

Beau closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. He knew she was right; ultimately, as he became part of the Cullen family, moved with them and lived with them, it would be harder and harder to argue the money, especially since he knew a decent amount of the money used in their daily expenses would be for his—and now Edythe's—benefit, including food, clothes, living costs, and the like. The prosperity of the Cullens was something that came with them; of course, it was not considered in any of his decisions, but apart of the package nonetheless.

He had never had a lot of money; Renee made just enough to keep them going, and even then, he had to pick up shifts in order to make ends meet. He had learned from the beginning to be frugal, careful, because there was not an endless supply of funds available whenever he needed it. But, he knew now that was not the case. He could live as comfortably as he wanted, for the rest of his life. He didn't have to worry about affording anything, because he would be provided for. He could pursue a career he wanted because he didn't have to worry about the salary he made to support himself. It was a comforting thought, but one he never thought would be an option. It felt so foreign, so unsettling.

"If taking money from me bothers you so much, we can drive to Vegas now," Edythe recommended quietly. Beau's eyes flew open in shock and she grinned a little, having gotten his attention, pulling him away from the spiral of thoughts that he was lost in.

"When what's mine is yours and what's yours is mine, it would be less of a problem," she said. Beau didn't know how to respond, wondering if she were just joking or if she was serious about eloping.

"I think Carine and Earnest would kill us both," he said finally, erring to the joking side. "I wouldn't put it past them—and Archie too, come to think of it—to hunt us down before we made it out of Washington." Edythe giggled at the thought, which turned into a full laugh when a resounding buzz of her phone accompanied it with a simple text: He's right. We would.

"They'd get over it," she teased both of them.

You wouldn't do that to Carine and Earnest.

Archie was right, she knew; she wouldn't have her parents miss out on her nuptials, no matter how superfluous they may be. But the joke had done its job; Beau laughed as he read Archie's text.

"Well, it's a moot point right now, as you haven't asked me yet," she responded, leaning back into her chair. Beau eyed her carefully.

"Isn't that illegal because of our age?" Beau asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Unless you got parental permission," she returned, her eyes sparkling with mirth.

"Well, then that's out of the question, cause Charlie would definitely kill me. Or, at the very least, ground me until I'm eighteen," Beau said, but even his lips twitched. Edythe laughed.

"Only for a couple more months, and then I'm pretty confident my parents would give you their blessing," she replied. Beau shook his head again at her antics.

"Let's wait a little while for that, all right?" He said, squeezing her hand. "If it means that much to you, I will try to be better about the money thing." Edythe smiled, glad her tactic worked, and glad he was willing to come around. Which he would, eventually, she was sure.

Sighing, she moved back to her work; she closed the tabs for Ithaca's real estate market—she was perusing for Archie to see any large homes in a secluded area that looked promising—and returned to the remaining few. The large colonial homes were replaced with images and drawings of horrific looking creatures, and painful transformations.

The family's work to determine the cause of her change had been unsuccessful so far. The trail of the creature had led nowhere, and the scent was unfamiliar. They resolved to research; Carine had looked through her old texts and contacted some ancient friends she knew, but none of them had ever heard of a vampire that had that kind of power, though the result was hardly one many vampires were yearning for. Aside from the Cullens, most vampires preferred their lives; so few even considered, let alone searched, for a being that could reverse their transformation.

The only lore Edythe had been able to find regarding human transformation had nothing to do with vampires, but with Greek gods. The myths included many times the gods had altered themselves or their enemies to fit their own purposes—Zeus even transformed himself into a woman for a time. But nothing on the internet or in any other source that Carine or she would deem credible give any inkling to the existence of a way to reverse such a transformation as permanent as vampirism.

The more she worked, the less progress she seemed to make, and the more she wanted to work, to find some kind of clue about what happened that day, about how she suddenly had a heartbeat, how she suddenly couldn't move with the startling grace of her family. And not just how, but why. For everything else, she wanted to know why this creature had done what it did, and why her. Why had it chosen her?

She couldn't believe it was God or some other fateful being that wanted to bring balance, to provide a gift to her that she didn't believe she deserved. Though many would say to not look a gift horse in the mouth, she couldn't shake the feeling that there was some missing piece of this puzzle that she would regret not finding, that she would regret not getting the answers to this sudden monumental change. She felt the need to know, to understand.

If only she knew.

A/N: Sorry! Just wanted to add that I changed the point about Edward/Edythe going to medical school; I couldn't see how he/she would have been able to attend considering clinical rotations are required for the degree, which most of them involve blood. So I just edited it for my own purposes! Thank you for reading!