Next day found Emmett trailing like a puppy after Aly Black, he wanted to believe that he was not being invasive or anything, he just wanted to see how she was doing, but she seemed okay, she had been smiling with her friends and joking with that Ben kid, a kid that Emmett now wanted to drain dry. He refrained the urge to grumble as the kid walked away from Aly, finally leaving the girl alone for Emmett to approach.

"Hey munchkin," he called casually as he sauntered over to her.

She seemed surprised to see him, but was quick to cover her surprise with a smile, "Hey Emmett."

"I just wanted to thank you for last night's lasagna, it was really good," he said, putting forward his best smile.

"You're welcome, I can say that it was not my best one, it had been a while since I had done one," she told him softly.

Emmett figured that she meant since her parent's accident, "Nonsense, Aly, it was the best lasagna I've ever had," she giggled at him and he felt good with himself, "what class do you have now?"

"AP English," she answered as she closed her locker, "you?"

"Calculus, which is on the way, right? Why don't I walk you there, munchkin?" he asked, a grin on his face.

Aly shot him a look that could only be called suspicious, "Sure, why not."

As they walked Emmett prompted her to talk to him about what she had done after he had left. She told him that she had washed most of her clothes and then had fixed her closet before deciding to watch a movie, no mention of crying whatsoever. Emmett told her a modified version of his run with Jasper and then his talk to Edward.

"That sounds fun, I try to run every morning, I usually get to the crossing and then run back to the house, so like six or seven miles," Aly told him.

"And you run alone?" he asked, briefly panicking at the thought of something happening to the human.

"Sure, people rarely ever go there, so it's safe enough," she said.

"Mmmm… would you mind a running partner?" he asked.

Aly laughed, "Wouldn't that mess with your beauty sleep?"

"Ha ha, no, I wake up pretty early," he assured her.

Aly raised an eyebrow at him, stormy blue eyes searching his, "Well, if you want to be at my house at five tomorrow morning."

"Deal," he agreed.

"We'll keep my pace," she warned him, he smiled innocently at her before she walked into her classroom.

He turned around to head towards his calculus class when he was joined by Rosalie.

"What's the deal with you and the human girl?" Rosalie asked haughtily.

"What, angel, you jealous?" Emmett smirked at her and she slapped the back of his head, "ow?"

"No you dolt, I'm worried, she's human, you're not, I don't want you to expose us or for you to be hurt," Rosalie reasoned.

"I'm touched, Rose, I really am, but you should know better than that," he said flashing his dimples at her.

"Just don't do anything stupid, Emmett," she remarked.

"Stupid is his middle name," Jasper said joining them, "the human girl is his mate."

"I'm going to kill Edward," Emmett muttered.

"He didn't say anything, but his mood was sullen enough after last night," Jasper told him.

Emmett rolled his eyes at the blonde twins, "Edward is a fucking lurker, that's what he is."

Rosalie's face broke into a smug smile, "Aw, I think it's cute, so you do have a crush on the human."

"Alice thinks it's cute too," Jasper said with a conspiratorial smile.

"Quit it you two, I just want to get to know her better, I'm not planning to elope with her," Emmett hissed at them.

Jasper and Rosalie laughed at him.

"Don't you have a class to get to?" Emmett snapped at them.

"Yes, calculus, is it on your way?" Jasper teased.

Emmett huffed and stormed off, leaving the wonder twins behind, he honestly would have preferred Rosalie berating him a little bit more, when she and Jasper got started... he shuddered at the thought.

Aly walked into the cafeteria with Jessica, both girls laughing and talking about their plans for the upcoming weekend.

"I'm telling you, we can go to Port Angeles on Saturday, according to the weatherman it will be sunny, we can bully Angela into going with us," Aly told Jessica as they headed towards the food line.

"I'll have to ask my mom, you know how she gets," Jessica warned her.

"Fine, just remember that October is just around the corner, I need a new jacket and to get started on my Halloween costume," Aly said as she grabbed a tray.

Jessica scrunched her nose as she saw what food was available for them that day, "That pasta looks so weird."

"Preach, I'll be sticking to french fries and those wanna be chicken nuggets today," Aly whispered to Jessica as they moved in the line.

"I'll have to add an hour to my cardio routine," Jessica complained.

"You like it anyways, grab an apple if you feel so bad about it," Aly winked at her friend before moving to grab a couple of napkins.

The two of them walked towards their table, where Angela, Ben, Mike, Eric, Katie and Tyler were already waiting for them, soon enough they were discussing their weekend activities. Mike was going to go camping with his parents and was trying to get Tyler to go with him. Eric was going to Seattle with his older brother and Angela had chorus practice at the church, while Ben was hoping to sleep in.

The rest of the week was calm enough, Emmett continued to hover around her, and she was beginning to get slightly freaked out by it, since Edward couldn't read her mind, she was sure that the Cullens didn't know that she knew that they were vampires, and even though they were reclusive and generally kept to themselves, Emmett kept seeking her out. Whereas it was to walk her to class or for her morning runs, he always seemed to have an excuse to be around.

In the end, Aly went alone to Port Angeles, since Jessica had been tasked to babysit her little brother Max. It was fine, it was an uncharacteristically sunny day in the Olympic Peninsula and Aly was more than sure that she was not going to have a Cullen run into her. She visited several shops, prepping her fall/winter wardrobe and even got a beanie and a pair of mittens for Jessica since the fluffy beige pair reminded Aly of her friend.

She had lunch at La Bella Italia before returning to Forks, she stopped by Charlie's house to drop him the service of food that she had ordered to go with that purpose and then went home. At home she put her things away and decided to lounge by the deck with her easel as she tried to capture the sunlight filtering through the forest that surrounded her home. She painted until the sun went down and then walked into the house to make dinner. She ended up eating mozzarella sticks with french fries because it was the simplest to do and that night she went to bed early just because she could.

Emmett, from the tree branch he was perched on, observed as Aly walked back into her house and into her kitchen, golden eyes followed the small figure around.

"You know, for calling Edward a lurker you've been doing much lurking on your own lately," Rosalie said as she perched herself on a nearby branch.

"I'm not lurking, I'm just watching over my human friend, she's small and lives alone in that huge house, something could happen to her," he explained exasperatedly.

Rosalie offered him a small smile, "and if something were to happen to her, what would your presence here accomplish? It's not like you can expose us."

"I'll burn that bridge when I get there," he stated.

Rosalie hummed noncommittally at him, "Are you sure she's the one?" she asked after a moment.

"I know that you would like the answer to be no, angel, but I feel this pull to be close to this girl and I just can't help it," he told her softly.

"I don't necessarily want the answer to be no, I just want you to be happy, Em, I condemned you to this existence," she said.

"You didn't, you gave me a new family, a new purpose," he corrected her.

"I just don't want another girl to be restricted to this, Alexandra Black has so much to live for, she could have children one day," Rosalie said mournfully.

"It will be her choice to make, I promise you, I will give her the choice," Emmett assured her.

Rosalie smiled sadly at him, "Either way, I'm going to think she is stupid, if she picks you, I'll think she is stupid for not chosing to have a child and live her human life, and if she picks a human life over you, then I'll be dissapointed too, I can't win this one."

"Hey, we'll make it work, angel, you know we always do, and maybe one day you'll find someone worth chasing too, mmmm?" Emmett grinned at her.

"We'll see," Rosalie said before she jumped from the branch she was on and ran away.

Emmett returned home after he had seen Aly fall asleep. The next few weeks were more of the same monotony, during October, Aly received a girl from the reservation at her house, Emmett made sure to keep his distance since he didn't want to be accused of breaking the treaty, the girl spent an entire weekend over at Aly's and Emmett knew because he had spent the entire weekend perched on the branch of a tree in the proximity.

Soon enough it was December and the students and inhabitants of Forks were preparing for it. Emmett was quick to notice that Aly didn't seem as excited as the rest and chalked it up to the fact that it was going to be Aly's first christmas without her parents. As the winter holidays began, Emmett continued to watch over Aly and was thoroughly confused one morning when he saw her packing her vehicle, he followed her up to Chief Swan's house and he smiled when he realized that she was not going to spend Christmas alone in her house, although his happiness was short lived when he realized that both Aly and Chief Swan were actually going to spend Christmas at the Reservation. It took Jasper and Alice to get Emmett home from the treaty line in the forest.

Aly allowed Charlie to drive her SUV to the Reservation, she had felt extremely grateful to have the Clearwaters invite her and Charlie over for Christmas. When they arrived, Leah and Seth were waiting for them on the porch, the youngest Clearwater almost bouncing, a low rumble was heard and Aly spotted Billy and Jake arriving in the red truck. Aly was quick to pull Jake into a hug as soon as he got off the truck.

"Nice ride, Aly," Jake said as he walked around her SUV.

"You know me Jake," she winked at him.

Jake and Seth helped Aly and Charlie with their bags and then with the food that Aly had made for the night. Sue was a little surprised to see the pans full of food enough to feed a small army.

"Aly, sweetheart, you shouldn't have put yourself to it," Sue said as Aly carried the last pan inside.

"Oh, it was no problem, I love cooking and it was nice to be cooking for a group again instead of just myself," Aly said as she placed the pan on the table.

Sue pulled the girl into a hug, "oh, sweetheart, I bet everything is fantastic."

"Thanks for inviting me, aunt Sue," Aly said softly.

Christmas happened without a hitch and Aly returned to her house two days after christmas day. Emmett was relieved to see that she seemed to be happy and unharmed and so he needled Esme into cooking something so he had an excuse to visit his friend. Esme had agreed amusedly and made a quiche, Edward and Alice were starting the Cullen betting pool, since apparently Aly Black was not a figure that Alice could see clearly in her visions. Emmett flipped his siblings off before holding the pan containing the quiche and jumping into his jeep.

The lights of Aly's house were on when he arrived, it was still early for human standards so he hoped that Aly was still awake. His jeep rumbled comfortably until he killed the engine and jumped off, he grabbed the pan easily and walked towards the door, ringing the bell and waiting for Aly. Said girl opened the door, hair tousled wearing a black Ramones t-shirt that looked well worn and a pair of plaid cotton shorts that looked to be part of some pajamas and barefooted, to Emmett she looked adorable.

"Emmett?" she asked, yawning.

"Merry Christmas, Aly," he told her with a smile.

"You too, come in," she said, stepping aside so he could walk into the house.

While Emmett's plan had initially been to drop the quiche and go, he found that he couldn't refuse the invite, so he stepped into the house, minding the much shorter girl. Aly led him into the kitchen and he placed the quiche on the counter before turning to her.

"Mom made you a quiche, I stopped by on Christmas but you were not here," he told her as he sat on one of the stools.

"I… uh, thanks," Aly said as she removed the tin foil that was covering the quiche, "I was at the Reservation, the Clearwaters were friends with my parents and Chief Swan, they invited me over for Christmas," she explained.

"Oh, that was nice of them," Emmett told her.

Aly nodded at him as she moved around the kitchen retrieving two plates and a couple of forks, Emmett stood to retrieve a knife so he could cut the quiche. Aly watched him as he cut and placed a decent sized slice of quiche on her plate and a slightly smaller slice on his.

"I ate before coming," he told her as she raised an eyebrow at him.

Of course Emmett couldn't tell her that he had tackled a bear to the ground and sucked the bear's blood, that was slightly anticlimactic and could scare the human girl that he cared about. He watched as Aly took a bite of the quiche and hummed in content.

"Damn, this is heavenly," she said before taking another bite, "I'm going to have to bake cookies for your mom or something."

"She'd prefer flowers," Emmett said as he also took a bite of his slice, doing his best not to cringe at the taste of dirt.

Aly tilted her head to the side, managing to look even more adorable, "She doesn't like sweets?"

"She's not overly fond of them, but she loves flowers," Emmett assured her.

Aly bit her bottom lip and nodded at him, she looked so young like that, and she sort of was, she was sixteen, four years younger than Emmett's physical age, the part of him that remembered how to be human was a bit wary of pursuing a relationship with such a young girl, perhaps after she turned seventeen he could consider it again, until then he would be her friend.

"What were you doing before I got here?" he asked with a smile on his face.

"Oh, I was watching TV, but I sort of fell asleep, the house's too silent," she said, smiling back at him.

Emmett figured that it was, not even his family's house was as eerie and silent, and they were all vampires that could remain as immovable as sculptures, Esme was usually humming old nursery rhymes as she tended to her garden or painted, or you could hear the music coming out of Edward's room or the piano. If he really focused, he could sometimes hear Carlisle turning the pages on the books he constantly read, or Jasper typing on a computer, Rosalie tuning up cars or Alice rummaging through her closets and magazines. Aly was right, the silence of her house was eerie and depressing, Emmett made his mind up in a tizzy and hoped that Alice got a vision of his decision.

"Why don't you come over to my house? You're friends with my sister Alice, right?" he asked.

Aly blinked at him several times, clearly confused, "I… she's in one of my classes, she's really cool."

Emmett grinned at her, "then it's settled, pack a bag, lets go!"

Aly walked upstairs to her room a little freaked out, she was certain that Edward couldn't read her mind, one hundred percent certain. She didn't know why Emmett had taken an interest in her either, not when he was supposed to be dating Rosalie, nothing made much sense. She sighed as she pulled an overnight bag from her closet and began examining her closet, she grabbed a pair of pajamas that consisted of minnie mouse, long, pajama pants and a red long sleeved shirt with the mouse ears outlined in black, she grabbed several pair of underwear, a pair of jeans and two dark t-shirts, she walked into her bathroom and retrieved her bag of toiletries.

Damn confusing vampires, she thought as she continued to pack. Since she needed to play the oblivious human until they revealed herself to her she had to go along with whatever the Cullens asked of her. It wasn't that horrible, she liked the vampires, Edward was a bit awkward and perhaps Rosalie scared her a bit with all the weird looks and stuff, but they were cool, and Aly couldn't wait to meet Carlisle Cullen, the man that had started it all.

Aly grabbed a pair of jeans and shimmied out of her comfortable pajama shorts and got into the jeans, she already missed the soft fabric. She grabbed a pair of socks and slid in her high top black leather chucks. She kept the t-shirt but put on a bra and grabbed one of her jackets. She brushed her hair and packed the brush, she tried to remember if she was leaving anything behind, when she reviewed her mental list she was set and ready to go.

Emmett was still in the kitchen when she walked downstairs, he had cleaned the plates and had put the remaining quiche in the fridge, he seemed to be checking his phone, a Sony Ericsson T610, Aly was not surprised that he had one, it was the latest on the market, and god wasn't she praying everyday for smartphones to be a thing again.

"Emmett," she called and his head snapped up from his phone.

"All ready, munchkin?" he asked grinning.

Aly nodded at him, fiddling with the strap of her bag.