A/N: This is going to start out as a repeat of chapter 12. Don't worry I'm going to skip over the story, quickly. I hope things are flowing okay because things are about to get a little wonky. I hope it doesn't get too stupid. I'm ruining my title motif on this one. I was trying to keep all of them at one word. It's a little harder than I thought.

EDWARD

I wasn't sure how long I sat there lost in the good memories of better times. I vaguely noticed the change in Kari's breathing indicating that she was awake. I barely registered the sound of her shifting. It wasn't until she spoke that I was brought fully back to reality.

"Who is she?" Kari asked.

I knew the question was coming but I still was unsure if I wanted to answer. I did want Kari to understand what made me so upset but at the same time, I didn't want her to hate me more than she already did. I knew once she found out about my past, she'd think me a hypocite and hate me for tearing her family from her the way the Volturi tore my daughter away from me.

I bought myself some time by grabbing the album off the desk and moving to sit on the edge of the bed. I knew she had been waiting to hear everything. Alice kept me informed on what they talked about. She began trying to sit up. I, wordlessly, stacked some pillows behind her and helped to get her comfortable.

Once she was, I took a unnessecary deep breath, trying to prepare myself for this.

"Her name's Renesmee Carlie Cullen and she was my daughter." I said. Comprhension and confusion crossed her face.

"And Bella's her mother." she said. I nodded. "How is that possible?"

"It's too complicated to explain. However, only male vampires can get female humans pregnant." I answered hoping that explanation was enough for her.

She nodded.

I explained to her how complex the story would be. She nodded to me to go ahead. I told her everything from when I first saw Bella to falling in love with her. I told her about our honeymoon and Bella's pregnancy. About how I hated Nessie, at first, because of what she was doing to Bella. I told her about Jacob and imprinting on Nessie. I explained the Volturi and how they thought Nessie was an illegal Immortal Child. I talked about the witnesses who came to our aid. I stopped every now and then to make sure she was keeping up.

The more I talked the harder it got. I told her how it was the half blood boy, Alice found, that convinced the Volturi to leave. She was a bit shocked to find out they came back eight years later. I told her everything that happened that day from Bella and my fighting about Nessie going to Billy's funeral to Nessie's being burned alive in the forest.

When I got to the part about being helpless listening to Nessie's screams of agony, I had to stop to control my anger or I would've pulled the room apart again. After a minute of trying to regain composure, I felt Kari's warm arms around my neck. I sat there, frozen, quite surprised by her actions

I thought that she would hate me or refuse to speak to me. Nowhere in my mind, did I ever see her comforting me over this. I was expecting so many things.

"I'm sorry." she whispered. "No parent should out live their child."

I heard her voice crack as I finally responded to her hug. She was no doubt thinking about the five siblings whom she had no choice but to considered children for the last three months of their lives. I still couldn't believe, even with her thoughts on them, that she would still be holding and whispering comforting things.

Frustrated by her attitude and unable to read her thoughts, I pushed her back after a minute to ask,

"Why?"

"Why what?" she responded.

"Why are you comforting me? After everything that I've done to you. You should be appalled by me. Not sympathetic." I explained. It was so strange how much like Bella she was but she was different at the same time. Though, I wasn't quite sure how.

"Anyone can make mistakes, Edward. In fact, everyone does. But it takes a special person to be able to forgive, even when the offenses seem unforgivable." she told me.

The words made sense but I had done the most terrible things to her. How cousl she so easily forgive me for them? I couldn't even forgive myself. I expressed the things that I was thinking,

"But how could what I've done possibly be forgivable? I've destroyed your family, I hurt you every other day for things that you didn't do, and I took your inoccence away from you. How can you forgive me?"

"Because you are trying to change. The only human blood you've had in a month has been mine and I gaive it willingly. You feel regret and a need to apologize after you hurt me. And Alice told me you haven't touched any of the girls, like that, in a week. You are trying to be the good man you were once and it's a tough journey. You're bound to make mistakes but they are all forgiveable because you are trying to be a better person."

Once again the words made sense but I still couldn't make myself believe them. She was so understanding, even more so than Bella. My guess was that she'd seen a lot in her time. Perhaps, she'd even done a lot. I wondered how she learned to be they way she was.

"Who taught you to be so understanding?" I asked unable to help myself.

She thought for a moment. I saw tears pooling in her eyes. It looked like she was trying to force them back. I didn't want that to happen. I really didn't want to see her cry over this. What was worse. She was afraid to do it in front of me. I didn't want that either. I didn't want her to be afraid to express her emotions. She was much too special to me now.

"My mom, I guess." she replied.

I saw one tear threatening to fall and she reached up to wipe it away. I grabbed her wrist before she could even touched her face. I felt a pang of guilt as her breath hitch and her heart sped up.I didn't want her to be afraid of me. I wanted her to know I'd protect her. I wanted her to feel safe with me.

I felt her tremble slightly. I gently pulled her to my chest and held her. She broke down in my arms. I held her gently stroking her hair with one hand and rubbing her back with the other. I made shushing noises in a much more comforting manner than I did the day we met.

I wasn't sure how long we sat like that but she calmed after awhile. When she did, she pulled away and wiped her face with her good hand.

"I'm sorry." she said. "Here you are trying to tell your sad story and I'm the one who falls apart."

"Don't be sorry." I said. "You have every right to fall apart. You lost the same thing I did. Hell, if I were you, I would even be listening to my hypocritical ass anymore."

She gave me a sad smile and shook her head.

"So what's the rest of the story?" she asked somberly. "If you don't mind."

"Of course," I replied. I had to take another deep breath. "When Nessie's screams finally stopped, something in me broke. I ripped myself from the grasp of my guards and went after Aro, the leader of the Volturi. It took me a few minutes, to realize that my family had broke free too. We fought to avenge our little girl. Unfortunately, between the guards and the Volturi, we were outnumbered. They won but let us live. We went back to Forks, where we lived at the time, regained our strength, and started making war plans. We called our friends and anyone who wanted to see the downfall of the Volturi. Everyone of our witnesses, plus a bunch more, came again. A month later, we attacked Volterra. The war lasted five grisly years. We lost alomost half of our orginal army. Both sides would created new vampires as we needed them. Slowly, we took out every one of the Volturi. Unfortunately, we had to resort to things that we worked our entire vampire lives not doing. Drinking human blood and other terrible things. After we won, we were too different to go back so we embraced the dark side of our existence. And you know the results."

She nodded sadly. We were silent for a few moments. She stared down at her hands fidgeting. I was once again frustrated by the fact that I didn't know what she was thinking.

"Why me?" she said after a long moment.

"What do you mean why you?" I asked. There was a lot of thing that why me could stand for.

"I mean why did you bring me here? What did I have that the other girls that day didn't? Why has your attitude toward me changed so drastically in this one month?" she asked.

I nodded. I wasn't sure quite how to answer but I did owe her one. That was the least I could do for her.

"What first caught my eye that day was your beauty." I began and cupped her face in my hand for a minute. She looked amazed like nobody had ever called her beautiful before. "I was also intrigued by you being the second person in almost a century whose mind I couldn't read. The deciding factor, of course, was the fact that you stood up to me in front of my family. I couldn't have that, you see. If I let you get away with it, they might have thought, I was getting weak. But I guess you were meant to make me weak. Because that first night, after I hurt you like that, all I felt was regret. It killed me to see you like that. I still don't have a clue what power you have over me but it's hard to hurt you and not feel sorry about it later. Something about you, makes me want to be the man that I was before."

We sat in a awkward silence for a few moments. I heard Alice's frantic thoughts just before she entered the room and slammed the door. She looked upset, worried, and a little angry. I got bits of her thoughts but they didn't make sense.

"Alice, what's wrong?" I asked.

"I can't find my diary." she said.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

She couldn't have lost it. There was too much in it. We could both get in trouble and I didn't even want to think what could happen to Kari as a result of what was found in it.

"Exactly that." Alice replied. "I went to my room to write another entry and it wasn't there."

"But weren't you writing in it, in the garden last night?" I asked.

I thought I remembered seeing her with it. Her eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped.

"I think in the haste to get to Kari, I left it there." Alice replied.

"Damn it, Alice!" I yelled. I couldn't help but be angry. "What if Bella found it? Or worse Carlisle or Esme? We could get thrown out of the family! And who knows what they would do if they found out the things you wrote about Kari!"

"I'm sorry, Edward." she pleaded. "I wasn't thinking about it. I just thought about getting Kari to Garfunkel. I'm so sorry."

I wanted to rip Alice's head off myself but I felt a warm hand on my arm and turned to see Kari staring at me with fear and sadness in her eyes. My anger dissipated.

"This is no time to be angry." Kari said as evenly as possible. "We need to figure who has it and if they've read it, yet."

"And how do we do that?" Alice asked.

"Have Edward listen to everyone's thoughts. He's sure to pick up something. Then he could find out where it was and we could take it back." Kari explained.

"What if we can't?" I asked.

"We'll deal with it then." Kari stated.

The tears of fear started to run down her cheeks, I took my fingers and wiped them away.

"I won't let anyone hurt you." I whispered and pulled her to me.

A/N: I know this one kind of sucked. I'm sorry. I'm running on three hours of sleep. Plus, I'm still working out the finer points on some of this. I hope it wasn't too rushed. Please, let me know what you think.