Disclaimer: I own Martha Cullen, and that is it. The rest is the property of Stephenie Meyer. In this story, I will have a modified excerpt from Midnight Sun. It is clearly marked, and there is no copyright infringement intended.

Chapter One

My siblings and I all walked into the house, and made our way to the dining room. Being that we were all vampires and didn't eat, the room was never used as a dining room. It was more of a boardroom, a good spot for family meetings to discuss serious issues and problems.

Problems like my idiot brother complicating everything for all of us, over some stupid human girl who just moved here.

Edward, the idiot brother, growled as he heard my thoughts about him and the girl, Bella Swan.

There had been a car accident at Forks High today. It should have killed Bella. She should have been crushed between her old truck and Tyler Crowley's van. Instead, she was at home, recovering from a minor head injury, because Edward risked exposing all of us to save her life.

Everyone took a seat around the table, and there was a moment of silence as we all thought about why we were all gathered here.


Modified excerpt from Midnight Sun, by Stephenie Meyer beginning. Found on pg 78 - 80


Edward took a deep breath, "I'm sorry," he said, looking around the room at all of us. "I didn't mean to put any of you at risk. It was thoughtless, and I take full responsibility for my hasty action."

Rosalie glared at him, "What do you mean, 'take full responsibility'? Are you going to fix it?"

"Not the way you mean," he said, "I was already planning to leave before this happened. I'll go now…"

What? No! Edward couldn't really be planning on leaving, could he? I stopped and thought about what this family would look like without Edward, and drowned out most of the conversation.

Rosalie had Emmett, Alice had Jasper, Carlisle had Esme. I had Edward. If he left...he had left before, when he was chafing at the rules Carlisle laid out. Back then, it was just Edward, Carlisle, Esme, and I, so it hadn't been so bad. In fact, part of it had been nice to be the only child for a while. But now, with all my siblings...I couldn't be the only one alone.

"It doesn't have to be any big production. The girl hit her head today. So maybe that injury turns out to be more serious than it looked." Rosalie shrugged. "Every mortal goes to sleep with the chance of never waking up. The others would expect us to clean up after ourselves. Technically, that would make it Edward's job, but this is obviously beyond him. You know I'm capable of control. I would leave no evidence behind me."

"Yes, Rosalie, we all know how proficient an assassin you are." Edward snarled. Rosalie hissed

"Edward, please," Carlisle said. Then he turned to Rosalie. "Rosalie, I looked the other way in Rochester because I felt you were owed your justice. Then men you killed had wronged you monstrously. This is not the same situation. The Swan girl is entirely innocent."

"It's not personal, Carlisle," Rosalie said through her teeth. "It's to protect us all."


Modified excerpt from Midnight Sun, by Stephenie Meyer ended


Carlisle shot that idea down quickly. He has a high respect for humans, as we all did. He also wanted to keep our hands as clean of human blood as possible. I kept quiet through most of us, but eventually couldn't keep quiet anymore.

"I agree with Rosalie," I said. Edward turned and snarled at me this time. I snarled back.

"This isn't her fault!" Edward growled.

"No, it's yours." I shot back, "And instead of facing it, you want to abandon all of us. You want to run away and hide, leaving us to either pack up and flee or deal with your mess."

"Martha! Edward, enough!" Carlisle said

"No one is touching her," Edward said.

"You can't protect her forever, Edward" I said, "Eventually, something is going to kill her. Old age, a car accident...hell, with how accident-prone she is, a papercut could kill her. She should have died painfully today. Maybe we should let Rosalie kill her - she'll do it painlessly."

Edward launched himself at me, and it was only because I jumped out of the antique chairs that it wasn't smashed to kindling as he hit me and we started wrestling.

"Edward! Martha!" Carlisle admonished, and jumped from his seat to break us up. Jasper and Emmett came to help, and they managed to pry us off of each other without any limbs being torn off.

"Both of you are to go to your respective rooms" Carlisle said, glaring at both of us, "I will come and deal with you soon. Can I trust you two to go to your rooms alone without killing each other?"

I nodded, although I found it pretty unfair that Carlisle was acting as if it was my fault that Edward had attacked me.

Edward growled, but nodded.

"Good. Now both of you, go upstairs and you can think about what you could have done to avoid this scenario until I come speak with you." Carlisle said.

"Even me?" I asked, "Carlisle, I was attacked! Short of saying I could have avoided sitting close enough to Edward for him to lunge at me, there is nothing I could have done differently!"

"I am sure if you stop and think about what led up to Edward lashing out at you, you'll figure out what you could have done differently, Martha. Now both of you go upstairs and start thinking."