A/N:

Two familiar people will enter the story in this chapter! ;-) I know a few of you have been waiting for it :-D

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 18

THURSDAY, MARCH 16th 1950

Neither Edward nor I spoke much as we made our way back home. It didn't bother me much, even though I was the sort of person who preferred conversation over prolonged silences. It gave me the opportunity to listen to my own thoughts.

The week had been very refreshing, but I was missing Rosie. She and I rarely separated for long periods of time, and while I'd heard it was healthy in a relationship to miss each other, I had to say I favored being with my wife instead of away from her.

It took us a few hours to reach our home as we'd hunted as far as three hundred miles away, and it was around midday when we saw the house in the distance. The unexpected part was the two strange scents in the air. I registered them before Edward, but when he did, we exchanged worried glances.

What had happened in our absence? Who were the two strangers? Friends or foes? We started running faster as we were afraid our family was in danger, but we'd barely entered our own yard before our ears were assaulted by a high-pitched squeal.

"They're back!" The light female voice from inside our house was completely unfamiliar. "We have to go meet them!"

Edward and I were frozen in our spots in shock over what we were hearing, and it didn't calm me down that he couldn't tell me what was going on despite his mind reading. He appeared just as taken aback as I was.

Out through the front door, the tiniest girl—no, woman—came running, and she threw her arms around Edward in a fierce hug. She was wearing high-heeled shoes yet the top of her head didn't even reach the height of my shoulders. Had her dress not revealed her obviously adult body, I would have guessed her to be a pre-teen because she was even shorter than I could remember Bea had been before I was changed.

She had raven-black hair cropped surprisingly short for a woman, but as surprising as her appearance was, what was even more so was her light golden eyes just taking us in as if we were long-lost family members of hers.

Before I could react to her strange familiarity with my brother, or the fact that he allowed her to hug him, I noticed the man that followed her from the house. He was calmer and more restrained with his emotions, but it was his appearance that set me on edge and caused me to crouch down defensively.

He was only a couple of inches shorter than myself, and he lacked my body mass and muscles, but his skin, wherever his clothes didn't cover him, was littered with scars from multiple bite marks; on his neck, his arms and hands, and one just above his eyebrow. Most of them overlapped, and terror gripped me as I imagined what their existance implied.

From what Eleazar and Carlisle had told us in the past, I concluded them to be battle scars, and since the man was very much alive, he'd clearly survived to tell the tale, which in my book made him lethal. I cared little of the fact that his eyes were as golden as the rest of ours.

Edward turned to me, his arms comfortably slung around the woman's tiny shoulders, which in itself was highly unusual, but when he opened his mouth, I almost asked who he was.

"This is Alice, Emmett," he said and gave her an affectionate look. I had to do a double take to ascertain it was my brother before me. "She's part of our family," he continued easily and then pointed directly at the frightening man, who'd wisely kept his distance. "And that's Jasper. You're going to love him."

"I will?" I asked, still on guard. Edward's behavior wasn't the norm, but I had always trusted his judgment, regardless of how anal and annoying as he could be at times, and so I wanted to believe him.

"Yes, you will," Alice said with absolute conviction and stepped away from Edward to approach me instead. "You're even larger in real life." I straightened out from my crouch, which made our height difference more obvious. She had to bend her neck back to hold our eye-contact, but as I tried to size her up, she grinned at me, and my defenses melted. I couldn't deny she was cute in that pestering, but wonderful little sister kind of way. She opened her arms in question. "I'm only asking because I can't show you what I showed Edward, but I've wanted to meet you for so long, so can I have a hug?"

My brother's behavior made much more sense when I understood she'd shown him everything he'd want and need to know in order to accept her, and I felt at complete ease. I picked her up in my arms, and she let out a delighted and contagious laugh while her feet dangled in the air.

"Well, aren't you the cutest little thing," I said and put her back on her feet before demonstrating the difference in our height by holding my hand over her head. "You're not even the size of my human little sister, and she was fourteen when I last saw her."

"Jasper calls me travel-sized, so I'll go with that," she replied cheekily, and it caused me to laugh again.

"I like that," I approved and looked back up at Jasper. He still appeared wary, but he hid it well as I stepped forward and offered him my hand to shake. "Well, I don't know about love yet," I said to tease. "But I guess I'll keep an open mind." He immediately relaxed and gave us his own smile.

"A sound strategy," he said, and I immediately knew from his accent that he was from Texas, but I automatically wondered how long into this life he was. I was still considered a young vampire with my mere fifteen years, but my own accent had pretty much disappeared after my first two. Jasper had an aura of maturity around him akin to Carlisle and Edward, but then why was his accent so heavy? "When it comes to Alice, I've learned to just go with what she says." He let go of my hand and turned to Edward. "It's very nice to finally meet you, Edward. I've heard a lot about you."

"Likewise," Edward said, sounding a bit dazed with this sudden turn of events, and I couldn't blame him. I could only imagine the horrors of hearing everything all the time.

Everyone was waiting for us inside, and I didn't waste a second to sit down and pull Rosalie into my embrace. As convinced as I was that Alice and Jasper wasn't a threat, my wife had a calming effect on me that I needed whenever I felt uncertain about anything.

Alice climbed up on the back of the couch and settled with her chin resting in her hands. It was a little bit jarring to see how familiar and comfortable she was in our home already, but I quickly pushed the thought out of my mind.

I turned to Carlisle. "So, how did all of this happen?"

"Alice's gift of premonition told her she and Jasper would be a part of our family. When they came here, she told us about everything she'd seen. It was all so compelling, there was no way we couldn't believe her."

A very girly giggle fell from Alice's lips. "I have that effect on people."

"Jasper also has a gift," Carlisle continued. "He's pathokinetic"—he saw my perplexed look and explained further—"an empath. He can control and project emotions."

I looked at Jasper, my respect for him growing with each second, but he just shrugged as if it was nothing to brag about.

I couldn't quite shake the absurdity of the situation, no matter how much I accepted it for what it was. "So, basically, what you're saying is that you've adopted these two because one of them 'saw' that they would become part of our family?"

Our esteemed leader only gave me a nod in reply, and all I could do was shake my head in amusement.

Rosie put her hand on my cheek and forced me to look at her. "I know this is strange to you, but Alice and Jasper are really nice. Could you at least try to accept them?"

I could see something in her eyes I had only ever seen when she and I were alone: tranquility and peacefulness. Whether that was due to her liking the newcomers or because of Jasper's gift was unclear, but when I saw it, I didn't care. It was just too wonderful to see her so relaxed around the others. So I let out a loud joyful laugh. "No need for me to try, babe. I've already accepted them, but it doesn't mean I don't think it's still really weird."

Alice and I locked eyes, and before I could even utter my question, she answered it.

"I don't have a lot to tell about myself. I woke up in 1920 somewhere in Bienville National Forest in Mississippi, although it wasn't a national forest at the time. I had a vision of Jasper even before I opened my eyes. I didn't know what it meant, but something told me I was supposed to find him, then, shortly after that, I had my next vision of Carlisle and Edward."

In the background, I heard Edward was having a conversation with Jasper about his start in this life, and while I startled a bit at hearing he'd been a Major in the Confederate Army, I did my best to give all my focus to Alice. Jasper and I could talk later.

"It took some time for me to figure out how my visions worked, but once I did, I understood certain things had to happen in a certain order for the outcome to be what I wanted it to be. It wasn't enough that I had decided to find Jasper because if I'd looked for him at that time, he would have rejected me as he wasn't ready for a different kind of life than the one he was used to. So I waited, and that pretty much sums up most of my existence. The time wasn't right for me to introduce myself to Jasper until two years ago, and once he trusted me, we set out to find you."

"So you just waited for twenty-eight years?" I asked while feeling both impressed and somewhat cautious. Even for vampires, doing nothing for twenty-eight years must have been tedious, and it didn't sound entirely normal to me.

Alice gave me an amused look. "I didn't just sit down and become a statue. I hunted, of course, and taught myself to live off animals. I wanted to make the transition into this family as smooth as possible. Although, truthfully, I mostly lived through my visions. It made the passing time more bearable." For a second, a somewhat saddened light had glinted in her eyes, but it was soon replaced with excitement again. "I saw it all. I saw how all of you came to this family, where you moved, and the weddings. It made me wish I'd been there, but I'm glad I at least got to see it."

Suddenly, she got a faraway look in her eyes, and I immediately understood she was having one of her visions. When she came out of it, she didn't tell us what it had been about, but she excused herself to go outside with a somewhat remorseful expression.

"What was that all about?" I asked everyone, but it was Jasper who answered.

"She followed Edward to the garage," he explained and occupied the seat Alice had left.

"Why?"

"Most likely to apologize for stealin' his room." Jasper grinned when he understood I wasn't following him at all. "I heard how she told you she lived through her visions while she waited for me. Well, she still does that, and that's why she's constantly excited. She already knows what will happen, and if it's somethin' positive, she has a tendency to act on the future instead of the present." I still wasn't following him, but I didn't interrupt. "When she saw the two of us livin' in this house with you all, she saw us in a specific room—Edward's room. A part of her didn't really think of the fact that it was already taken, and once Esme had agreed to it, she packed all of his things into boxes and put them in the garage."

I looked over at Esme, and she looked as if she'd committed the most horrible crime. "I've felt overwhelmingly guilty this entire week," she said and wrung her hands. "I wasn't aware of Alice's"—she tried to come up with a word that didn't sound too negative—"enthusiasm when I said she and Jasper could have the room. I thought she'd wait until you two returned, but before I knew it, she'd already emptied Edward's room, and I didn't have the heart to tell her she had to put everything back."

A grimace overtook my face. "You'll have to tell that to Edward or I'm sure he'll be really hurt by all of this."

"I know." She buried her face in her hands. "I am a horrible mother."

Before I could protest, Jasper stepped in. "You're no such thing, Esme. Don't feel bad for Alice's overzealous personality. You couldn't have known how she'd react. Besides, if the love I feel you have for each member of this family is anythin' to go on, I'd say you're far from bein' a bad mother."

I was absolutely positive had Esme been able to blush, her face would have been flaming red in response to Jasper's kind words. As it was, she did cast her eyes down as a smile played around her mouth, and she gave him a silent "Thank you."

As that moment passed, I shifted my attention to Jasper. I felt it was important he understood the roles we had in the family. "If you're gonna be my brother, you'd better be prepared and know that I prefer taking life with a grain of salt, and there might be times when things happen which may not make you laugh, but will definitely be entertaining for me."

Jasper gave me a smirk. "Oh, Alice has told me all about you, Emmett, and you'll find that I might have a trick or two up my own sleeve." He winked while I gaped, and the others actually laughed at me. "I'm not the only one who'll need to keep an eye out from now on … brother."

A/N:

What did you think of Alice and Jasper's introduction? Was it the way you imagined?

In this series, I'm doing everything I can to keep the "fanfiction-Alice" at a minimum, or at the very least, explain why she is the way she is. I feel it's important to write her in a way that is still likeable because in the books, Alice is the sister you're supposed to like the most.

I have never liked how overly-bossy she appears in other stories, or how child-like stubborn she is either.

She will still be a giddy, giggly, excited little person, but she won't be the overbearing version she is in many other fanfiction stories as I feel canon Alice has the ability to be calm and serious, too. I hope you like my interpretation!

Until next week,

Stay Awesome!