Disclaimer: All Twilight characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. This is not meant to make a profit

That Could Prove Useful…

The next day passed exceedingly slowly. Craig had finally gone to sleep on the only bed, which he felt quite nasty about, but it was in actuality quite fine and clean. He fell asleep at around two a.m., but no one else in the house slept. He could hardly believe what was going on, but a little better now that he was informed.

The front door kept opening and waking him up. He knew that Bella and Edward would be going to a forest nearby. They had mentioned something about being safer for Craig, but Craig didn't understand it at all.

There was constant activity in the apartment; they must have been preparing for these Volturi. Just the thought of these visitors kept waking him up as well. He might die the next day.

The Cullens had gotten food and other things for him, for which he was happy. At least he wouldn't starve to death in this previously food-less place. Everything was dry, though. Nothing that you would really have to cook. Cereals, granola bars… ugh.

Strangely, he found Edward, Bella, and himself doing their classwork for part of the day, simply to take up time. It seemed that Edward was done with his almost instantaneously; Bella and Craig took longer. Edward explained that he'd done it all many times before. Still, it was incredible.

Craig studied them all. They seemed human enough at the first glance, but the added grace disproved that. They were all quite close to each other, just like a family, but they avoided getting too physically close to him, especially Jasper and Bella. Their eyes seemed a shade darker gold today; they had told him what that meant, and was glad for the space they gave him.

During the mid-afternoon, Alice brought more information about the Volturi seemingly from nowhere. They were apparently on the way, boarding a plane at that very moment. They would arrive early morning, before dawn. After Craig bent to continue working, he vaguely heard her voice, too quiet and fast for him to understand. He looked up, but he couldn't read her lips they were moving so fast. Every one else was obviously paying attention to her, however, frozen in various poses. She must be giving them a "battle plan" for the day to come.

Craig went to bed early, in the late-afternoon. They thought that he should be wide awake when the others arrived. He slept much better this night. The building was silent for the entire night and all of the Cullens seemed sure of success, due to Alice, somehow.

They woke him at three a.m., to make sure he'd be awake and coherent when the Volturi arrived. The apartment was still filled with a calm atmosphere, due to Jasper. At four thirty, Alice went to open the door, and there they were.

"Ah, Carlisle and family. It's been too long," a black-haired man said, who must have been Aro or Marcus. "Yet still you have kept your diet," he said, looking sideways at Craig, unsure. "And Bella, I'm happy to see you like this," he implicated, holding out his hand in her direction as if for a handshake. "Interesting… still the same…" he murmured with a small smile. Craig understood none of it.

The Cullens remained unclear of what or even who these Volturi really were. He was frustrated because even with all they had told him, he still hardly understood anything.

"Craig," Rosalie began, surprisingly enough. He turned, shocked, to face her. "Why don't you explain to them why you're here? Why the rest of us came from Forks."

"I… you're all…" he stuttered. "She…" he tried again, indicating Bella, choking on his words. "I… can't," he finally got out, breathing hard. The Volturi were staring dumbfounded, confused as to why Rosalie had asked the idiotic human at all. By his words, he obviously didn't know anything.

"Aro, why don't you shake his hand?" Edward suggested. Aro took deeper meaning of it than Craig had, but Craig warily held out his hand anyway.

Aro's eyes immediately widened on contact. He stood silent for a moment, awed. "Well, that could prove useful," he allowed.

"I won't do anything," Jasper informed somewhat randomly, preparing them for the unknown to come. Unknown even to Craig.

"Don't stop him," Bella told everyone present. "Craig," she directed at him, "let your emotions take control."

"Get me the hell out of here!" Craig screamed, trying to bolt for the door. The buildup of emotions under Bella's calm command was too much, and they exploded into being once she allowed him to feel again.

"Stop. Quiet down, and calm yourself, Craig." Bella reinforced the commands she'd given him so many times before within the last day and a half. Immediately he obeyed. The eyes of the rest of the Volturi were now alighted with understanding.

"And so we have an interesting situation," murmured Marcus, just loud enough to be heard. "Hmm… what shall we do with all of you now?"

"Of course you still have the invitation to come with us back home," Caius remarked with a slight, frightening smile. "Her power could be useful for all sorts of things. Not only for keeping our own human helpers in hand, but for preventing such cases as Edward's about a year ago."

"Yes… very helpful in uncountable ways…" Aro agreed.

"No," Bella stated. "I won't."

"Well this is unfortunate. She can affect us just as well as she can affect others," Marcus complained, no doubt unable to ask it of her again, as she wouldn't consider it.

"As for the human," Aro mused. "I suppose you can keep him, if you wish. It's obvious that he won't say anything. He couldn't even if he tried. Take care of him if you get bored with him." No one needed to question how Aro meant he was to be taken care of. "Or we could take him off of your hands now, if that was what you wished."

"No, we should be fine. We wouldn't handle this in a manner that would go wrong," Carlisle interjected. He ushered them out the door, having found that the Cullens kept their promise and no word would leak out through Craig.

"That went very well, overall," Alice said after they had gone. "At first, everything kept switching around so fast that I wasn't sure at all what would happen."

"So I guess we'll be friends from now on, Craig," Bella said, smiling somewhat wryly at him. "You can return to your dorm room whenever you want, just as you can come here whenever you want. I suggest you give us warning before you return. Just remember, don't tell anyone anything. And we will be making visits."

A/N: Short chapter, this time. I've been busy lately, I'm going to be one of the Village People for Halloween, and I needed to get the costume ready ;) But now I will really need help. That's all I got as far as plot goes, so please review with suggestions, or this won't go anywhere!

Also, this is still in third person and omniscient, but this chapter and the last seemed told by Craig and Craig only. You can probably figure it out for yourself what the Cullens and Volturi were thinking. I didn't really need to add that. I'm hoping to go back to my earlier style in the next chapter, when I can figure out what's going to happen.

People found it unbelievable that the Cullens would just tell Craig everything in the last chapter, but now hopefully you see why. I was a little skeptical about that fact as well when I was writing it, I didn't think they would do that, but with Bella's power I allowed it. When Aro saw in Craig's thoughts that he knew everything about vampires and wouldn't say anything simply on Bella's command, he understood the strength of her ability, and thus would allow them to keep Craig alive. Any other form of explanation would let the Cullens get off easy, but Craig might not have been so lucky.

I went through and found spelling mistakes, thank you gec for pointing one out to me. I hadn't realized there were so many::must proofread better::