A/N:

Yes, I remembered this week! A miracle on its own because my brain is so mushy nowadays.

You can never truly get used to that first month at a new job. It always hits you like a concrete wall xD

Anyway, have a look at the date at the top of the chapter, and you might get a clue of what's coming around the corner very soon in upcoming chapters ;-)

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 17

FRIDAY, AUGUST 12th 1949 – MONDAY, MARCH 13th 1950

It was somewhat surreal as I sat at the very top of the impressive structure that was the Eiffel Tower in Paris with Rosie in my arms and looking out over the lights of the city. We were higher up than regular visitors were allowed to go because she and I had scaled the tower long past its closing hours.

The tranquility of being up there, so high above everyone else, was all-encompassing bliss and made it more than believable that she and I were the only two people in the world. And I had never felt happier, except for maybe on the day we had renewed our wedding vows.

After Alaska, the family relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where we started over again, but this time, Edward, Rosie, and I all attended high school. Just a couple of months ago, I graduated for the first time, and it had been a strange feeling. Sort of anti-climactic, but it had still felt very good.

Logically, I knew there would be countless other times in the future when I would graduate high school, but this first time felt a little bit special. It was as if I finally proved to myself and everyone else I was intelligent enough for academia even though none of the others had ever implied anything else.

Rosie and I had talked about taking a few classes at the university because, like me, she had never gone beyond her own high school competence. There had always been something hindering her. In her human life, there wasn't even a thought that she would need higher education since she was supposed to marry a banker's son. Two years after her own change, I entered her life, and she preferred staying home with me than going to school with Edward.

In Alaska, once an adequate amount of years had passed and she could show herself in town as someone of university age, she simply didn't want to, and there was no reason to force her either. The classes and programs at the University of Alaska hadn't exactly been what she was interested in anyway as they were mostly focused on the mining business up there.

But before we thought any further on that topic, or decided on anything, we renewed our vows in the month after graduation, and now we enjoyed some time to ourselves, away from the family, and traveling through Europe. We never had a first honeymoon since we spent it in our house in Portland. This "second" honeymoon sort of made up for both of them.

I had noticed a different light in Rosie's eyes for the past couple of days. It was already clear to me she blossomed when she and I were alone. She felt more capable of throwing away all the pressure she felt around our family, and I hoped she would be able to bring some of that calm back with us once we decided to go back to America. We hadn't gotten that far into our planning yet.

"Rosie?"

She hummed in reply.

"Are you happy?" I knew even before I formed the thought in my head that it was a very charged question. She and I almost never talked about it since she'd told me at the beginning of our relationship how she'd most likely never feel completely happy. What I hoped by asking was to hear her say she was at least content.

A light sigh left her before she turned her head to look at me. "You know I love you, Emmett, so please don't ask me to lie to you."

I had expected an answer like that, but it was still painful to hear that I would never be completely enough for her. "I don't want you to lie to me," I said with whispered words. "I never want that."

"You're so wonderful to me." She grabbed my arms to tighten them around her. "If you only knew how often I wished I didn't feel the way I do because every time I catch myself longing for more, I realize I don't deserve you. You don't deserve a wife who is constantly unhappy."

"Just like you don't want to lie to me, I won't lie to you," I said and kissed the top of her head. "Am I disappointed I'm not enough? Yes. Does that make me love you any less? Hell no. You have a right to feel what you feel, and I wouldn't ever dream of taking that from you. As for what I deserve, I disagree with you. I deserve a wife who loves me unconditionally despite all my many flaws and my inability to remain serious; I deserve a wife who puts up with my stupidity and my weaknesses, and you just so happen to be that wife."

Our eyes met, and I noticed how she searched mine as if she were looking for a lie. It was something she'd always done, and I knew it wasn't because she didn't trust me. She did it because she could never fully believe what we had was real.

"I didn't ask to make you feel bad," I said and cupped her jaw in my hand. "I will always hope there will come a day when something happens and you finally feel content with this life. Whether that's tomorrow or sixty years from now or never doesn't matter because I have vowed to you, not once but twice, that I will dedicate my life to making you happy. I'll gladly do it because just having you, being with you like this, is more than I could have ever dreamed of having before we met."

With the use of my hand still on her jaw, I pulled her forward until our lips touched.

"I love you, Rosalie Lillian McCarty, and I won't ever stop. Not even if you asked me to."

{=DITM=}

"I don't understand how you can find the patience to complete a degree," I said with a groan and threw myself, albeit carefully to make sure I didn't break anything, onto the couch next to Edward when I came home from the classes I was taking at the university. "I haven't even finished one semester, and I'm certain I could write my dissertation now and pass."

He didn't look up from his notebook where he was writing an essay for his own class, except he was still attending the high school. "Emmett, you might be more intelligent than the average human now, but not even you would be able to write a dissertation after two months of attending university classes. You haven't even chosen a major yet," he said with evident disinterest in his voice. His pen never ceased writing.

Feeling the challenge, I sat up straighter. "You want to bet?"

"No," he instantly said. "Because it can't be done. If you did, the teacher would assume you'd copied someone else's dissertation, and you'd never pass. That's just reality, Emmett. Accept it."

I let out another groan because I knew he was right. "But it's so boring."

Finally, he looked over at me. "You really want to talk about being bored with me?" he asked and then turned his notebook to show me the title of his essay. "Counting my human high school experience, this is my sixth time, and I am yet again writing a sociology essay about what social structure is and how it was affected by the war." In his own frustration, he tossed the notebook onto the coffee table. "I did the exact same thing before Alaska. The only difference is that it's a different war."

"Okay, fine," I acquiesced. "You win."

He chuckled at me. "I wasn't aware there was a competition."

"Do you know me at all?" I asked with heavy sarcasm. He should have known after fifteen years in the same family that I liked giving most anything a competitive twist as it kept things interesting. Then I had a brilliant idea.

Edward gave me a contemplating glance. "I'm up for it," he said. "It's still the middle of the week, though, so I'm not certain we'd get Carlisle with us."

"So just you and me, then," I pressed. "You and I rarely go hunting alone. It would be fun."

"There is a reason you and I don't go alone," he reminded me with one eyebrow raised. "We need buffers to keep from killing each other."

I placed my right hand over my silent heart. "I'll be on my best behavior. I promise."

"Mhm." He nodded. "Still not particularly reassured."

"You think I'd break a promise?" I asked, and I actually felt rather offended he thought that of me.

He shook his head. "Not at all. I just know your definition of 'best behavior' is vastly different from my own."

I smirked, unable to disagree with him. "Just c'mon. Both of us need to get out of here, or we'll grate on each other's nerves more than usual, and that's not pleasant for anyone."

"You have me there," he said, and then a smile stretched across his face. "I'll raise your suggestion with staying away for an entire week. My grades won't be affected if I skip a few classes, and my essay isn't due until next Friday. How about you?"

"I doubt my professors will miss me. They think I'm a nuisance anyway." I shrugged it off, but Edward looked at me with renewed interest.

"How is that possible? What exactly are you doing?"

"Oh, a little of this and little of that," I teased. "I've perfected the art of making indiscernible annoying sounds, but the professor keeps giving me the stink-eye so I think he knows it's me." I guffawed at the memory of what I'd done the previous day.

"So you haven't exactly perfected it," Edward questioned, but I waved him off.

"Technicalities."

He stood up from the couch and grabbed the notebook from the table before he started for the stairs. "We'll go tomorrow before dawn. We'll ask Carlisle tonight if he wants to come along, but I think I already know what his answer will be."

{=DITM=}

As Edward had predicted, Carlisle wasn't able to take time off on such short notice, so he declined but told us to have a good time.

"I'll come along on the next hunting trip," he promised before giving Esme a kiss and disappearing out the door.

"I swear, sometimes I believe that man has another wife and family hidden away at that hospital," I joked, and because all of us knew how ridiculous that statement was, we cracked up. "I guess it's just you and me then, Ed."

"Looks like it. Will you be okay here alone?" he asked Esme and Rosie.

"Of course, we will," Esme insisted. "We'll have some bonding time of our own." She gave Rosie a conspiring look, and I was dying to ask what she had planned, but before I could, Edward had already said goodbye and disappeared out the door. I hurriedly gave Rosie a kiss and then followed him.

We had talked about where we wanted to spend our weeklong hunt, and while we'd both agreed the Appalachian Mountains was a given, the ridges and valleys stretched across several states. Since I didn't yet feel ready to return to Tennessee and my old stomping grounds, we remained in the central ridge around Virginia and West Virginia as both of us knew the wildlife suited our different tastes there.

However, when Edward suggested it, I'd been worried we'd be too close to our old house in Blackwater Falls where I'd been changed, but he reassured me we'd stay at least a forty or fifty-mile radius away from the park and not venture any closer than that.

The first couple of days passed by without anything too dramatic happening. Of course, I couldn't resist teasing my brother at times, and while he took most of it in stride, I knew he sometimes felt I took it a bit too far. Those times, he stayed away from me for a couple hours, and I at least had the sense to respect that. I was a jokester, but I wasn't stupid enough to encroach on someone who clearly wanted to be left alone, lest I wanted to lose a limb.

About halfway through our week, we were taking a break from hunting and just sat in a tree and talked. Or, Edward sat, and I was lying down on the thick branch below him.

"I'm not holding it against you for being gloomy," I said as we were talking about stuff we never really brought up while around the others. "I get you, and you know I do. I wouldn't be able to be married to Rosalie if I didn't understand."

"I know you do," he replied morosely while pulverizing a piece of bark in his hands. "But Rosalie's reasons differ from mine."

"Don't I know it. She all-together hates everything about this immortal life, but I somehow doubt you feel the same."

"Why do you think that?"

"You laugh more often than she does," I explained using very simplified examples, but it made my point. "You let go of your melancholy if you think it'll make Esme happier, and just the fact that you can do that tells me you're not stuck in your despondency like she is."

"I guess you're right."

"You guess?" I snickered. "Of course, I'm right! I mean, c'mon, you can't tell me there's absolutely nothing you enjoy of this life. Not without lying." When he didn't disagree, I grinned and felt very pleased with my analysis. "I think your problem is you're lonely."

For some reason, my statement made him laugh. "You're not the first person to say that."

I shrugged. "Which just further implements how awesome I am at seeing the core of the problem."

Edward looked down with amused eyes to where I was. "Okay, then, Dr. McCarty with an imaginary Ph.D. in psychology tell me what the solution to my problem is."

"You need a woman"—he rolled his eyes, but I continued—"or a man or whatever, I don't judge, but I am serious. You need someone you can just let go with—mentally and physically. You have so much pent-up energy inside you it's no wonder you're in the dumps."

"And where am I supposed to find this woman?" he questioned, but despite his annoyance, he played along and that was enough for me.

"Go back to Alaska," I suggested. "Didn't you and Tanya have a thing?"

He gave me a strange look as if he was questioning my sanity. "No, we didn't. She wanted there to be, but we're just friends."

"But why?"

"What do you mean 'why'?"

"Did you even try to see her in that way or did you immediately brush her off?" When he looked away toward the top of the tree, I knew I was right. "Everyone could see you had great chemistry. I'm sure you two would be—"

"Let me ask you something," he interrupted. "Even if there isn't an instant romance between two people, shouldn't there at least be something there? Even if it's only a spark of attraction?"

"You mean—"

"Yes!" He answered my thoughts before I was able to speak them out loud, and I did my best not to let that irritate me too much. "No matter how much she flirted or put herself out there for me, I felt nothing. I can look at her and appreciate her as a beautiful woman, but there's no attraction on my part. To me, she'll never be more than a friend."

I immediately backed off that track, but I felt the conversation wasn't over. "Okay, but Tanya wasn't your only option. What about the other two?"

"Just drop it, Emmett," Edward said and jumped down from the tree. "I have accepted my solitude and that it'll most likely stretch across the rest of my existence." He ran and disappeared from sight.

"I sincerely hope not," I muttered to myself before I followed him.

A/N:

With every chapter I write on this story, I fall more and more in love with Emmett! How about you guys?

Tell me your thoughts and Emmett will visit your dreams! xD

Until next week,

Stay Awesome!