Epilogue

Denali, Summer 2008

I stayed with the coven in Denali for forty-five years. My control was nowhere near perfect, but it was vastly improved. After my time there, with the occasional visit from the Cullens to make things interesting, I set off for Europe. It was my mission to study art and visit museums, though I still stayed as much out of the way of humans as I could. There was no reason to taunt the beast.

I returned to Denali after more than a decade of wandering, having gotten my fill of art, and run into a sticky situation in Toulouse.

The Cullens had returned to Alaska since I last saw them; this time, with a new vampire in tow. Edward had, it turned out, met his mate while at school in Washington. Bella was a beautiful creature – whose portrait I was immediately charged with – with a good deal of wit about her, and a similar amount of determination. It was nice having someone with struggling self-control around, if only to remind me how far I had come.

I'd been living back in Denali for a year when Josh joined our ranks. Carlisle and Esme often traveled to some of their other properties for maintenance and other small matters of business; they had found Josh after a brutal attack by a less-than-kind vampire on a local town. He came to stay with the coven, and we fast became friends. I wondered, once, if the others had perhaps hoped they'd found me a mate – but with Josh's intense devotion to God, and my unresolved anger at any and all deities, we would never be more than a brother and sister.



I was sitting outside on the porch railing, sketching the outline of the mountain bathed in the moonlight. Even with my perfect vampire memory, it was easy to forget that there was nothing more beautiful than really looking at nature. The recessed of the slopes, creating patterns on the mountainside, compared with the glistening of the snow in the moonlight was one of the best contrasts I'd ever seen, and I was determined to capture it before I left again.

I knew that I would leave again. I loved living here in Alaska, with all the time and space in the world to create things. But the coven had been together so long – I didn't feel like a member, I felt like a houseguest. Maybe I'd been roaming for so long, used to myself for so long, that I couldn't be a part of an established group.

"Um, hey," I had heard Josh coming, and wondered if he'd join me out here. But, I always got so caught up in my work, he could have been standing there for a half hour and I wouldn't have noticed.

"Hey," I turned and looked at the boy. I would have to paint his portrait soon. He had such an animated face.

"Mind if I sit out here?"

"No problem," I nodded towards the porch swing, before moving to join him on it.

"Find it nice to be outside, and not want to kill everyone within two miles?" I said it with a joking tone, but I meant to let him know that I understood what he was going through.

"You have no idea," he slouched in the swing and looked up at the moon.

"I probably do."



"They tell me you've gotten really good at this – just came back from a tour of Europe?"

"I did," I admitted, "but it took me forty years to get to that point. I'm still no Carlisle."

"The guy's practically a superhero." Josh bit his lip. "Not in a bad, mocking way, or anything."

"Of course not." We sat in silence for a while, with only the sounds of our shallow breathing and my pencil scratching to accompany us.

"I'm so glad to be here," Josh finally said, a sort of reverence in his tone. "Not just to get away. But, it's just, all of the Cullens have mates, and it's a little awkward to be around them all the time."

"Apparently, you just missed it," I laughed a little. "This is my first time meeting Bella. Before then, Edward was fun to talk to, always so serious and always over-analyzing the meaning of life, and the rest of us trying so hard not to internally laugh at him because he'd hear anyway. Now, it's all about Bella. Not that I grudge him that. He deserves it."

"Up here, there are a few singletons. It's nice." Josh observed, and then hastily added. "Not the being surrounded by single females – just nice that not everyone's paired off."

"Well, beware of those sisters," I joked, "they act as a unit anyway, they been leaning on each other for so long. Very scary if they team up against you."

I opened a new page of my sketchbook, beginning to work on Josh's face, half hidden by the shadow of the roof over the porch.



"What you've achieved; that's my new goal." He decided, "I want to tour Europe some day."

"Make sure you take me with you," I told him. "Alaska's nice, but I want to get away every so often too."

"And I want to go back to school," Josh added. "Have you done that yet?"

"No," I sighed, "Just online stuff and correspondence courses. You've got to live near a school to go to one."

"Maybe we'll do that then." He said, "We'll get away from the lovey-dovey, and the invincible trio."

"Yeah," I brightened up at that, "a little while down the road."

"Yeah," he repeated, and then stretched. "I think they were talking about watching a movie."

"Bridget Jones? I've seen that so many times."

"It's Rosalie's favorite."

"And Carmen's," I grumbled, and continued with my sketch.

"Esme told me you'd probably start drawing me." He pointed at my sketchbook.

"Consider it your initiation," I joked. "And this is nothing; you've got to sit for your formal portrait as well."

He grimaced. "Sounds like fun."



"For me, at least," I smiled. "So, tell me what you want to see in Europe. We gotta start planning early."

Josh's face rose as he rose to my challenge, "Well…"

And so, officially, my new life began.

Author's Note:

Reviews are still appreciated. I want to thank those of you that have stuck with this story; knowing that has kept me going when I've wondered, "What's the point?" I had a lot of fun writing about Molly, and how she got to where she is in So Fair, and I hope you like the evolution of her character.

I don't know what my future plans are, fanfiction-wise. I have gobs of ideas written down, but it's taking the time to write them out and not letting myself be distracted by other plot bunnies… I may focus on one-shots for a while, as I figure out what my next longer story will be (if there is one) and get it all written down before I begin posting.

Many thanks to my wonderful beta, leiahlaloa, who is still so enthusiastic about my characters and what happens to them, and allows me to bounce ideas off her, and brings up things I hadn't noticed.

I hope to see (encounter via fanfic writing?) you all again down the road!

Much love,

thesunshinekid