A/N- Ok, so I need to clarify something. I REALLY don't pay attention to any kind of timeline that Steph might have given us or the Lex has posted or whatever. I'm doing a lot of these scenes from my own ideas of Cullen time. When I wrote the scene with Edward and Rosalie, I assumed since Rosalie's dialogue with Bella hinted that she had been changed during the Great Depression that there would have been five or ten years before Emmett came along. Thus, talk of World War II. For you scholars (both history and twilight) that realized my flub up, I applaud you, but I don't think I'm going to change it. Just chalk it up to this whole series of scenes being slightly AU.
Again, I don't own Twilight. I just like to borrow and play with its characters once in a while.
I had to get out of the house. If only there was a way to permanently block my family's thoughts. But there wasn't, so I escaped to the outdoors while they were being… romantic.
Carlisle and Esme had been bad enough and when there had just been the three of us, they were very solicitous of my mind reading abilities. When Rosalie had come along, they thought she might be sufficient distraction for me. Add Emmett into the mix and I was once again the odd man out, susceptible to a whole torrent of passionate thoughts raging in my family's minds.
Escape was putting it mildly. I usually ran several miles from their thoughts. It gave me a chance to think of things other than my odd man out status.
It was a sunny day, which is why we were all away from the public in the first place. I had situated myself on a rock in the middle of nowhere, hoping to gain some peace. Rosalie, Emmett and I were about to enter college. It was time. Secondary education didn't have much for us anymore.
As I was enjoying the sun, I felt someone's mind from far off. It was only just a few bits and pieces. It wasn't anyone's mind that I was familiar with. I wanted to be careful, though, so I went under the cover of the trees, away from the sunlight.
It felt like they deliberately came closer to me in a staggeringly short amout of time and some extra sense of mine told me they weren't human.
Then I was slammed with pictures of our house. Visions of Carlisle, Esme, Emmett, Rosalie and me were strong details in this being's mind, whoever it was. My mind chucked away all thoughts of college, focusing my attention upon whoever was coming.
I had been taught early on to be courteous to all covens that I encountered. Sometimes they had advantages that would make good alliances. Sometimes, they didn't, though. The closer they came—there were two of them—the more I picked up from the mind of whoever it was. The detail I saw from our house and the relationships between Carlisle and Esme, Rosalie and Emmett was enough to unnerve me. It was perplexing because we had never had visitors while we were in this area. No one had even seen the house since Esme finished it.
During the minute that I had been waiting for them to show themselves, I hadn't prepared myself at all for what would happen. With my sensitive vision I saw a streak of black and white come into the clearing, stop for a millisecond to say "Edward!" and then pounced on me.
My reaction could have been faster, but it brought the required result. I slammed the dark haired girl into the closest tree trunk and there was a sound of snapping branches.
In the same half a second, a blonde man had positioned himself in a crouch between me and the dark haired girl. He was snarling at me and I was snarling back.
"Edward, that's not very nice." The girl's voice held a soft murmur of laughing as she dusted herself off. My surprise couldn't have been more evident on my face. I saw it mirrored in their minds.
"How do you know me?" I was surprised enough that I came out of my own protective stance.
"Shouldn't you have figured that out by now?" The girl giggled, placing a soothing hand on the blonde's shoulder. Instantly, her mind poured out all of the previous scenes and strings of information that I had first taken from her mind.
"I don't understand. How do you know all that?" I asked, "I've never even seen you before."
At this point, the blonde man was smiling as well. It was like there was some big secret that I didn't understand. There was something odd about the girl's thoughts though. They seemed a bit dim around the edges.
"You are our future." The girl said with a smirk, "But look at this. We haven't even introduced ourselves properly. I'm Alice and this is Jasper Hale. And, of course, you're Edward Cullen. Ok! Introductions over. Let's go, boys. I want to meet everyone else."
"WAIT!" I stopped Alice before she could dart back into the forest towards the house.
"Edward," Alice's smile seemed to triple, "I can see the future. We've been traveling all over the place trying to find you and your family. You are our destiny. Our home."
"And we're just supposed to accept what you tell us?" I asked.
"See for yourself." The scene in her mind was one where Carlisle and Esme came out of the house to speak with Jasper, Alice and me. It seems that I was being their advocate and before too long, Esme embraced both Jasper and Alice. Then the scenes changed and the entire group—including Jasper and Alice—was playing baseball in an open field. Baseball was a favorite pastime for the Cullen clan.
I stood there for a few minutes, watching the scenes that Alice allowed me to see. And with every new one, I was a little more convinced.
"See?" Alice danced around Jasper and me, "Do you believe me now?"
"Why are you here? You know that we have different feeding habits than most." I frowned.
"That's part of the reason," Jasper finally spoke up, "Alice and I both have developed a consciousness of human life. We don't wish to feed on them, but we weren't sure what alternatives there were. Alice's glimpses of the future have told us that your family can help. I really haven't believed there was such a coven until I saw you. You look just how she sketched you earlier today. She told me we would meet you first."
I was picking up something strange from Jasper. Almost as if— the sincerity in his voice was oozing out of him and dealing with my doubt.
"Jasper has a power too," Alice chimed in, seeing the question I was about to ask. I saw it, too—the scene in which I asked the question came directly from her mind.
"I'm not exactly sure where it came from," Jasper shrugged, "I only know that I have an impact upon the emotions of those around me."
I considered them for a moment. Alice wasn't lying. If she could see me ask my question before I asked it, there was no doubt that she had in fact seen my family. Besides that, Carlisle would want to meet them.
"So come on, already," Alice was behind us, pushing forward with amazing strength, "I want to meet everyone!"
And the scene was exactly how Alice had shown me. As soon as we were in hearing range, I called out to the household, warning them of visitors. Carlisle and Esme were at the door in a flash.
Alice and Jasper introduced themselves and told the story of their journey. Carlisle looked to me for verification.
Is this true? Carlisle asked. I only nodded. Alice and Jasper's minds confirmed it.
It seemed I would have to deal with yet another couple's romantic thoughts. Ugh.
A/N- This is yet another example of the fact that some of these scenes are going to be AU. According to gypsyrover, Edward wasn't around when Jasper and Alice first joined the Cullen coven. I can't remember why or whatever, but I mentioned in Edward:BB about Edward meeting Jasper and Alice first (which apparently didn't happen)… and this is a scene needed to get out of my head.