"I put Edward into a headlock in less than a second flat but broke Esme's coffee table in the process. "You will not bring this up again, understood?" I snarl into Edward's ear, too low for anyone but him to hear.

"Okay, okay!" Edward choked out, clearly not having expected this very serious reaction to his not-so-serious comment.

"Good!" I let go. Edward dropped on to the remains of the coffee table. I smirked at him once as he scowled – I had needed that – and heard a shower turn off upstairs. Chloe was out, I heard the rustle of clothing and decided it wouldn't be respectful to listen in to her getting dressed so I focused on talking to my brother and cleaning the broken table instead.

"So," I said, "Does Chloe know what we are? She said we were different or something, but it didn't make any sense…"

"Well, the newborn who was about to kill her was into gloating, so he told her about us, how we were following him, how he wouldn't let us get him and lastly how we were vampires." Edward explained – his expression was one I knew from when he wasn't saying the whole truth. "She gathered by the shared physical abilities and features with whatever he was. Based on the blood drinking he wanted to do, she's figured we are something like vampires."

Sometimes I wished I was a mind reader, so I could know what it was that he was hiding. But I was too mentally exhausted for it. If it was important, he would spit it out eventually. I headed out for a much-needed hunt, letting some of my frustration and anger out on one of the cliffs nearby. After drinking my fill – letting myself get messy this time, I returned home, cleaned up, and thankfully, felt much better now that I was sated.

The smell of human food wafted up to me, garlic and spices, and I heard talking from the kitchen. It seemed that my other siblings had all kept their distance – not wanting to overwhelm Chloe. She was just there with Carlisle and Esme, and eating quietly, it seemed. I joined them down there and was just about as floored as a vampire can get.

I had been right – she was beautiful. With all the blood and dirt gone, her dark brown hair falling down her back with just the slightest wave to it and spilling over her shoulders, and a soft beige-ish white sweater setting off her tanned complexion, she was… well, beautiful. Her eyes, still a bit wary, did gain some slight relaxation at the sight of me.

"Hi, um, Emmett." She murmured, setting down her pasta fork. It looked appetizing for a human, and I wanted her to eat freely.

I gestured towards her, "Don't mind me – please, eat."

She didn't need any more invitation and I noticed she didn't have anything to drink. In a flash, I jumped over to the fridge and grabbed a can of Coke from the food stash we had for Ness and the wolves, and in just about a split second was sitting in a chair adjacent to her, setting the Coke in front of having been rushed to the house by me, I realized, as her jaw dropped open, she probably couldn't have remembered our speed – sure that Esme and Carlisle would've been on the most human behavior possible to keep her at ease.

"I, uh, hope you don't mind Coke. It's all we have, but I could get you water if you wanted. I mean, it wouldn't be cold, well, it'd be as cold as tap water gets, but maybe you prefer pop? I don't know, I figured it'd probably be better if you got some sugar into your system, then again Coke isn't exactly the best kind of sugar – I'm sorry, would you like water?" I rambled, trying to cover the shocked silence watching her gulp of fear, trying to ignore how captivating the shine and tone of her hair was.

Finally she seemed to process what I was saying, and though her dark blue eyes remained wide, she answered with composure. "No, thank you… The Coke is fine. Great really. Thanks."

"S'all good…" I replied quietly, having never felt more unlike myself in my life. It was like my world had gone all upside down.

Esme and Carlisle looked between us not knowing whether to be amused or bewildered. Finally, Esme's mom instincts took over. As soon as Chloe was done eating, Esme bundled her up, giving her some painkillers before taking her up to a spare room to get her to sleep more and rest now that she had eaten properly.

ooo

Days passed with the rest of the family staying out of sight, allowing Chloe to just get used to us, as well as heal up without any unnecessary shock. Luckily, the wound the newborn had inflicted on her was relatively shallow. Carlisle explained he couldn't let her have access to a phone or anything she could use to get in touch with the outside, and she seemed to take it well – Edward confirmed she was bewildered and still a bit wary, but not a threat to us as yet. A family meeting was close on the horizon.

Carlisle insisted she rested more and did not take too many stairs, so we kept her on the same floor as my room, bringing food up to her. She stuck to reading books from the decorative shelf in the room, and sleeping a lot otherwise which Carlisle said was normal given her blood loss and the amount of resources her body was expending on healing up.

Now it was time for Chloe's dinner – Esme had made her some quesadillas, which I carried up on a tray, with some antibiotics and water. I knocked on the door, balancing the tray, keeping an ear on her breathing. It seemed she was asleep. I stepped into the room, placing her food on a table, and moving to her side. "Hey, Chloe, wake up," I said a bit loudly, but in a gentle tone. She shifted slightly, and I reached out carefully, shaking the shoulder on her good side just the slightest. Looking at her face – those sharp features just slightly softened in sleep – I felt bad. Despite our best intentions, we were practically holding her prisoner here. My family needed to choose a course of action fast. I tried shaking her again gently, afraid I'd jostle her too much and hurt her, and leaned in closer, "Got dinner for ya. Quesadillas."

"At this she stirred, sitting up slightly, dark blues blinking at me, "Oh, cool." I brought over the tray waiting to set it down on her lap as she sat up, placing it eventually, perching at the edge of the bed by her feet myself. "How are you feeling?"

She nodded slightly as she said, "Good, good. I hurt a lot less than I did yesterday actually. I guess the new painkiller Carlisle gave me last night is really kicking it. Just feeling a bit more drowsy though. Thanks for the food by the way."

I frowned just a bit at the implication under the words. "Well, we're not going to starve you."

She chuckled, chewing the bite in her mouth and swallowing, before speaking again. "Not what I meant. I just feel bad you have to keep waiting on me." Her lips curve up into a dry smile, "Though I am kind of indefinitely here with no means of contacting the outside world."

"Sorry about that. You can probably tell we're…" I trailed off, not knowing how to finish that sentence.

"Not human?" She provided helpfully, taking another bite, and a sip of the juice I brought for her.

"That – and well, let's just say we've been in trouble before. So we gotta be careful now, with every decision we make." I shrugged.

She chewed on that one, figuratively and literally. Finally when she responded her voice was quiet, "I have to believe you guys haven't kept me alive this far to kill me later."

"No one is going to kill you," I responded immediately, gazing deep into her eyes. "That's not happening."

She simply nodded in response, but I could still see some lines of worry creasing at the corner of her eyes. I knew my brow had furrowed – seeing her worried, well, it left something unsettled in my stomach. "Hey – you've been stuck up here for a few days. I was wondering if maybe you'd want to come downstairs? Just a change of scenery, maybe watch a movie or something?"

"That would be great actually." She nodded enthusiastically finishing off the last of her quesadilla, before sliding the tray aside to swing her legs out of the bed. She was clearly trying to keep the grimace off her face, but I could tell it was grueling. While her wound wasn't deep it curled around her side up towards her shoulder blade, and she had been thoroughly battered all over during the incident with the newborn.

"Want a hand?" I asked, grabbing the tray, balancing it in one hand, offering her my arm.

"At the stairs," Chloe murmured, stepping forward slowly. I decided to run the tray down to the kitchen – by the time I made it back up she was still about meter away from the stairs. She gave me a tight smile through the strain, and I smiled back encouragingly as she made her way over. At the edge of the flight, she braced herself against the banister placing her weight on the good side of her body, and tried to step down with her bad side, wincing hard at the shift of weight.

"Okay, you're gonna rip your stitches or something going like that…" I took a step down and then placed my arm around her waist. "Here." I leaned down carefully sweeping her legs over my other arm and carried her down the stairs, over to the couch in front of the TV where I gently set her down. With each moment of holding her to me, I could appreciate Edward's struggles that I had made so much fun of. It was like her entire frame was pulsing with heat with each of her heartbeats.

I barely heard her saying thanks through my realization that she was blushing. To distract myself, I turned to our large collection of movies. "So, what would you like to watch?" I began reading the options out.

"Ooh, The Godfather. I love that movie!" She interrupted my listing.

"Good choice – it's one of my favorites too actually," I replied as I set it up, putting the movie on, joining her on the couch with the remote after dimming the lights. As it began, I found myself watching her and her reactions more than the actual movie. She was leaning back into the couch her arms wrapped around her, and I noticed goose bumps on her arms after a bit, and pulled a throw off from the back of the couch, handing it over to her. She shot me a grateful look, pulling the throw over her. Realizing I was probably being a creep, just staring at her, I shifted my concentration to the movie. Everything got hotter, her body exuding warmth, and it was such a pleasant yet painful sensation. The muted burn in my throat was worsened by the proximity of it, but the way it felt on my skin was amazing.

I kept my focus on the movie, this time managing to actually get into it. Until of course, her head found it's way to resting on my shoulder. Clearly the medicine had kicked in again because she was out and asleep, and nestling up against me now. I didn't dare shift – though I couldn't be sure if it was because I didn't want to wake her up or if it was because shifting would make it harder to not pull her closer, place my lips to her neck, and –

I looked back to the screen at the sound of gunshots, thankful for the quick distraction. Eventually Carlisle came into the room, quirking a brow slightly at the way Chloe curled up against me. "Medicine's got her knocked out," I said by way of explanation.

He nodded, "She's doing a lot better today. After a couple more days, she should be fine to come off the harder medicine, to normal painkillers. We have a lot of discuss, son."

With that the rest of the family began filing into the room, finding perches around the living room too silently to be a bother to Chloe. I sighed. Family meeting time.