A/N:
This is what happens when I'm out of a job for too long! I completely lose track of time -.- I was so convinced it was Tuesday yesterday, so when I realized it's Thursday now and I missed giving you your dose of Emmett yesterday, I wanted to bang my head against the wall xD
I took liberties in this chapter. The inspiration for their house in Hoquiam is the Joseph Lytle home, and I know his wife lived there throughout the 30s, but let's say this house is a similar house that only exists in the Twilight Universe :-P
Picture available on my website!
Title: Origins: Destiny in the Mountains
Author: MarieCarro
Beta: Alice's White Rabbit
Pre-reader: BitterHarpy
Genre: Family/Supernatural
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Emmett Brian McCarty never had much in life, but growing up poor didn't stop him from enjoying life and all its pleasures.
However, always seeking thrills most often means it will end badly, and one day, while hunting for game in the mountains, Emmett meets his destiny. Canon. ExR
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
CHAPTER 10
THURSDAY, JULY 16th – SATURDAY, JULY 18th 1936
"It's time for us to move on," Carlisle announced one day about a year after I was changed. "I had a man relentlessly question my age today at the hospital."
"I'm sorry, honey," Esme said as she took his coat from him. "But you know three years isn't bad. We'll just start out younger in the next town."
"We started out young in this town," Edward sighed. "Maybe the humans are just becoming more perceptive. If we start out too young, you know they'll question that instead."
"He's right," Carlisle agreed. "We need to find smaller towns with fewer people in it."
"But wouldn't that do the opposite of what you're tryin' to do?" I asked, and they all turned to me. "I know small towns. I lived in one for most of my life. Everyone knows everyone in towns like that. We wouldn't exactly blend in."
"No, we definitely wouldn't," Rosalie agreed with me. "It sounds to me as if we should try larger cities. Not smaller."
Carlisle shook his head. "No. Larger cities mean more exposure if we're caught. It's better if we keep to what we know."
Rosalie ground her teeth next to me, and I knew why. Once again, Carlisle shot her down and praised Edward. I grabbed her hand in mine and kissed the back of it to calm her down, the ring I gave her sparkled in the light, before tucking her under my arm.
I knew it irritated her, but after a year with this family, I'd come to understand better why Carlisle so often agreed and confided in Edward. He was his first companion, and it wasn't a mystery to me that the two of them had a somewhat more special bond. I also knew Rosalie's annoyance had a lot to do with us having to re-plan several aspects of our upcoming wedding now. We'd planned it for so long, and now, we'd have to make changes to it.
Of course, it didn't sit well with my angel.
For a second, Carlisle disappeared up the stairs, and when he came back, he had a map with him, which he spread out on the dining room table and then asked us all to gather around it.
"Oregon is quite a rainy state, but we lived there only fifteen years ago. We'd risk coming across people we've met before there," Carlisle mused.
"What about Washington?" Edward asked. "We haven't lived there once since you changed me. There are a lot of forests there and not too many larger cities."
"Yes, that's a good option," Carlisle said and allowed his eyes to wander over the smattering of smaller dots all over the state. He left for a second again, and then came back with a thick volume. "There're two smaller cities in Grays Harbor County: Hoquiam and Aberdeen. Hoquiam's half the size in population though."
"What about employment opportunities for you?" Edward asked, obviously well versed in these sorts of discussions. "And occupations for the rest of us?"
"Both cities have high schools, but the county college is in Aberdeen."
Edward nodded, and the rest of us stood, mostly quiet, as we didn't feel we had anything of importance to contribute.
"Since we're going for smaller, I think we should try Hoquiam," Edward suggested, and Carlisle obviously agreed with him. "Even though the college is in Aberdeen, it's only five miles in-between."
"That settles it then," Carlisle said and closed the volume in his hands. "Hoquiam it is."
"Great," Rosalie breathed out quietly without even trying to hide her sarcasm.
I stroked her cheek gently. "You do this a lot, don't you? Movin' around."
"Unfortunately, yes. It's inevitable when you don't age."
"What about it do you dislike the most?" I asked her as she pressed herself tighter against my side. It had been a slow ride, but my angel had finally stopped being scared of the physical side of our relationship. Most of the time, she was actually the one who initiated it, and when we were around the others, she almost always made sure that we touched in some way, whether it was holding hands, or me having my arm around her shoulders.
"Right now? Everything. Moving means starting over, and with our wedding closing in, the last thing I want is to go to school." She pursed her mouth in dissatisfaction. "It feels as if every time a place starts to feel like home, we have to move again."
I could understand her frustration, but an idea almost immediately formed in my head, and I hoped she'd be open to the idea. "What if we got a place of our own?"
She leaned away to look at me. "What?"
"Yeah, you know when I have more control and all of that. We could get a place somewhere that's just ours, and whenever you yearn for a place to call home, you and I could go there to be alone."
Before Rosalie could answer, Esme came up to us. "Emmett, that's such a lovely idea. I'd love to help you design it when you know where you want it."
"Really?" I asked, a bit surprised. "You mean you wouldn't mind Rosalie and me bein' on our own from time to time?"
She gave us a somewhat amused smile. "As happy as all of us are for the two of you, I believe the entire family would feel some relief if there were intervals between having to listen to you being … together."
I laughed at her; it was impossible to keep it in, and fortunately, she took it in good stride. Since I was still waiting for an answer from Rosalie, though, I turned back to her.
She was looking at me in awe. "I'd love having a place that's just ours. It's what I've always dreamed of."
We kissed, and she tightened her arms around me.
"And you don't have to go back to school if you don't want to," Carlisle said over his shoulder and looked at us. "Emmett's not ready for it yet, so the two of you can claim you're attending the college in Aberdeen."
He faced us fully and gave Rosalie an apologetic look. "I know this interferes with your wedding, and I'm sorry. But I will personally make sure you have a wedding at least as beautiful as the one you planned here."
{=DITM=}
I climbed out of the car and stared at the house in front of us, but I couldn't really take it in. It was three stories tall and pale yellow. It sort of looked like a castle but on a smaller scale.
It was also situated in the middle of a popular neighborhood, and the streets were filled with playing children. The moist heat from the impending rain made their aroma smell even more enticing, but I was keeping my muscles locked up. If there was one kind of human I would never hunt, it was children.
"Wow, Carlisle, it's big," Esme commented as she also tried to take in the splendor of the house, then she worriedly looked over her shoulder at the playing children. "And busy."
"And the only house I could acquire with such short notice," he finished with the explanation why he'd chosen it. "I know it's not ideal, but we've lived in neighborhoods like this one before."
"You and Edward did," Esme reminded him. "But we left a week after I was changed, remember?"
"None of us are newborns anymore," he said gently and stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. "Don't worry. We'll handle it." He entwined his fingers with hers and turned to the rest of us. "I know this move was sudden—"
"When isn't it ever?" Rosalie interrupted with clear annoyance in her voice. She hadn't yet gotten over having to postpone our wedding. I just tightened my arm around her to subtly tell her this wasn't the time to give attitude. She wasn't the only one who was affected by it, after all.
Personally, I'd never been this far away from my former home, and pretty much everything felt foreign.
Carlisle ignored Rosalie's remark. "But I'm positive we can have a few nice years here. So the neighborhood is busier than we're used to, we'll still take the same precautions as we always have."
We walked inside the house together, and it was instantly clear to me that the house must have been built by one of the more affluent employees in one of the factories in the county that was focused on the lumber industry. The wooden floors and the details in the woodwork around the entry hall were of high quality, and I felt even more out of place in this house than I first did in the house in West Virginia.
This house screamed wealth in a much less subtle way, and I was positive our move into it would cause talk in town. It would already prove a challenge for me to live in a house in such close proximity to humans, and I could only hope there wouldn't be a stream of visitors knocking on our door to get a good look at the family who could afford this castle.
"Before we do anything else, we need to go over our new cover story," Carlisle said. "The previous one will no longer work now that Emmett's with us, and it also has to allow for your romantic relationship."
"I don't think we need to make too many changes," Edward said. "Emmett and I could be brothers—Esme's nephews—and Rosalie can be Carlisle's little sister."
Carlisle nodded to himself. "Yes, that could definitely work. Easy, simple enough for humans to accept. If it works for the rest of you?"
"As long as I can be with Rosie without inhibitions, I'm fine with whatever," I said to bring some lightness into the conversation, and it worked well enough. It caused Rosalie to giggle and pull me down to give her a kiss while the others rolled their eyes.
"I beg you to practice some restraint," Edward pleaded with a look toward the two of us. "At least, while the rest of us are around."
Carlisle ignored us and continued. "Great, then all there is left to do is to convince our new neighbors we're good and honest people." We all heard the steps on the porch stairs as our new, curious neighbors approached.
"I'll sit this one out," I said and started to move up the stairs, and Rosalie wasn't far behind. "I'm not ready to be in the same room as a human just yet."
"Of course. You two can choose a room in the meantime."
"Sounds like a plan," Rosalie replied, but she was giving me the look that I knew meant she was in the mood. I was about to lift her up and run us both up the stairs when Esme sighed. Unfortunately, she had picked up on the same thing as I had.
"I don't think it's a good idea for you two to engage in those activities when we're about to have guests," she reprimanded softly. "You have a tendency to break things, and those sounds will be heard by humans."
We were both disappointed, but we also knew she was right. Therefore, we made a show for her that we were only holding hands while walking calmly up the stairs.
"If I hear one crack from up there, you will have to live with a broken room until we move because I will not pay for the repairs," she threatened, but it only caused me to laugh. Not because I doubted her sincerity, but more because she knew her threat was necessary.
Out of respect for Esme, Rosalie and I pushed our desire aside, but I still placed my arm around her shoulder as we walked down the upstairs hall to look at the rooms. It was as if a part of me slowly died whenever I wasn't touching my angel, and I had a feeling she felt the same. What was strange was that the feeling hadn't really been there before we had sex the first time.
Maybe we needed to ask Carlisle about that. While I had nothing personally against being constantly close to my fiancée and soon-to-be wife, I had a feeling it wouldn't be plausible once I needed to go out in the world and contribute to our cover story.
"This will be the first room you and I share from the beginning," Rosalie said with a smile. "I hope you're not going to make me choose by myself."
"Definitely not, although, I'll leave the decoratin' for you," I replied with a wink and gave her a kiss. "I believe my interior decoratin' skills are a bit simple for your tastes."
"Are you calling me high maintenance?" she said with an expression of mock offense.
"Of course, I am," I replied with a grin. "But it's the way I like you, babe."
A sweet smile took over her face, the sort of smile she reserved for only me, and it made my silent heart clench with love each time I saw it. When she gave me the privilege of seeing her soft and loving side, I felt like the luckiest man on earth, and I couldn't be more thankful that I'd been given the chance to be hers.
I was aware there were still things she needed to work through, both in her past and present life, before she could be completely happy. There was also a part of me that knew and recognized there were things I'd never be able to give her—things she longed for passionately—but I was grateful for those fleeting moments when just being with me was enough.
Still, she was my angel by being the exact person she was, and I wouldn't ever dream of changing a single thing about her. She hated being a vampire, and I knew that her deepest wish was to become human again; however, I was happy she had been strong enough to save me when I needed it.
It was my turn to save her now. Not from a physical threat but from the darkness inside her, the darkness that would consume her if she allowed it.
I'd be damned if I ever let that happen, though.
A/N:
They're in Washington now so I'm certain you guys can figure out what's about to happen ;-)
A reminder from up top: All visuals can be found on my website and the link/address is on my profile :-D