Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns everything but the plot! ;)

A/N: Wow!! I'm impressed with all of the wonderful feedback I've been getting! As of right now, 'Finding Family' has a total of 2,467 hits, 70 favorites, and 110 alerts!!! Can you imagine how amazing this makes me feel?! I love it! Thank you so so much everyone!

Also, as a small side note, I've added to my profile a few pictures that inspired the dresses Bella wore in chapter 1. I've also added pictures of Bella's cars. I plan to add more as the story progresses.

To answer the question posed by 'Stupidlamb13,' no, Bella doesn't know Alice. Alice is from Biloxi, MS and was a vampire long before 1929 when Bella was on her way to work as a nurse in that mental hospital in Colorado.


Bella's POV

2006. Forks, WA

I paid absolutely no attention as I ran through the halls of Forks High School. I knew instinctively that there were no humans as all of them were in the cafeteria so I ran full out towards the forest on the far side of the parking area.

I briefly took note of my black Mercedes SL600 that was sitting in its parking spot as I flashed past it. I leapt through the woods while I was swallowed with an odd mixture of grief and relief at the sight of my brother. I haven't seen him in 145 years and now I suddenly see him sitting in a lunchroom in the small town of Forks, Washington.

I was overcome by the grief that he too was a vampire like me. I had grown accustomed to the thought that he had died back in 1863 when I was changed and had to give up the dream of finding him.

As the grief overcame me, I stopped and let myself fall in the grass of a small clearing in the woods. I curled in on myself for a moment and allowed myself to cry tearless sobs. Jasper wasn't supposed to be cursed to this life like I had been! He was supposed to be in the afterlife with out parents watching over me!

I let myself cry while I let my thoughts take me, but as I cried I began to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Jasper was here in Forks where I could have the chance to be around him again. My brother was here!

I let myself grin in relief. While he wasn't dead where I would never see him, he was here as alive as we could possibly get where I could see him and talk to him.

My relief was short-lived however when within a split second I was filled with anger at myself for my reaction. What was I thinking running away from him like that?! I know he recognized me just as I had recognized him and if I remember him correctly, there was no question on that, he probably was hurt that I ran. I shook my head and smoothed out my hair as I stood to go back to apologize to my brother for my reaction.

As I turned my ears picked up the sound of running. I quickly and correctly guessed that it was the sound of vampires as their footfalls were very light and quick. My eyes sought out their source and immediately I saw who appeared to be the fastest in my brother's coven.

I nearly gasped at the sheer beauty of this creature; I've never seen anyone or anything quite as wonderful to look at as him. He was slightly lanky, and his bronze hair blew behind him as he ran. His golden eyes immediately alerted me in the back of my mind to the fact that we shared the same diet. His chiseled features were contorted in confusion, annoyance, and caution.

He seemed to only be looking in my direction, not at me when he spoke, "Who are you? Why are you —," His words died mid-sentence as he looked into my eyes. I heard his breath hitch slightly before he seemed to snap out of it and took a step forward.

The moment he took that step, however, another vampire jumped in front of him, grabbing his shoulder, I recognized him as my brother.

"Edward! Stop, it's okay! I know her!" Jasper said quickly.

Just as Jasper began his sentence to whom I now knew was Edward, I noticed the rest of his coven has arrived. I scanned my eyes over them quickly.

One of them was rather large, muscular. His face showed glee at what I gathered was the chase of me and I took in his short dark curly hair, golden eyes and over-all appearance; he seemed rather good-natured to me. My eyes traveled to the most gorgeous woman I have ever seen: her light blonde hair that traveled in perfect waves down her back; her tall thin body; her breathtakingly beautiful face that was drawn into a scowl. She was dressed impeccably, not a single part of her clothing seeming to have been disturbed with her running through the forest after me. At last my eyes settled on a very small pixie-like girl who was, of course, absolutely gorgeous. Her short black hair was in spiked disarray, her frame clothed in what I noticed were, just like the others' as well as myself, designer quality. She wasn't quite glaring at me, however she was just as cautious and careful as the others in her coven.

They didn't know me, so they were careful to stay a short distance away. I chanced a glance back at the pixie-like girl and tried again to place the other emotion in her gaze with no success.

All of this had taken me merely a second to take in as I settled my gaze back to my brother and Edward. Jasper had let go of him and was now staring at me with longing and disbelief in his eyes.

"Jasper," I whispered just as he leapt towards me, embracing me. I clutched at him desperately; it had been much too long since I had been embraced, let alone by my only brother. "Oh God, Bella I've missed you! I thought you were dead!" I could only shake my head.

He pulled back slightly to look at me. He placed both of his hands on either side of my face and, as I was doing to him, re-memorized my face as he looked into my eyes.

"I thought you were dead." He repeated.

I shook my head, "Obviously not, Jazz."

Someone cleared a throat and we both looked over towards the small pixie-girl that was glaring fiercely and I finally gathered that the unknown emotion in her eyes was jealousy. I glanced at the God-like Edward and caught a slight jealousy in his gaze as well; I was confused, why would he be jealous?

My brother grabbed my hand and our embrace ended. He turned to his coven with a large smile on his face and they seemed taken aback at his smile.

He gestured at me, "Everyone, this is Bella. Bella this is my family," He pointed at them all as he introduced them and I learned that the muscular one was Emmett, the blonde was Rosalie, and the pixie-girl with who was now glaring was Alice. When he pointed at Edward I knew I would have been blushing had I still been human.

"What is this, Jasper?" Alice suddenly burst out.

Edward shook his head, "Who is she to you? Why did you think 'my Bella' when we were running?"

Alice suddenly shook, "Your Bella?!" She shrieked.

Jasper realizing what she meant quickly jumped in, "Alice! Calm down, please! Bella is my sister! My biological sister!"

Everyone froze.

"What?" Alice whispered, her face no longer showing any bit of jealousy or betrayal.

"She's my sister, everyone. My little sister from when I was human." Jasper said, and I felt an odd wave of calm settle over the area.

Alice gasped suddenly, "Oh! Oh!" Her small hands went to her mouth in horror, "Oh, no! I'm so sorry! I had no idea! I thought, I thought…" She shook her head.

I suddenly spoke to help her, "You thought I was someone Jasper was in love with from his past?"

My brother looked at me quickly then back at Alice, "Alice, darling, you know everything that I know of from my past. I would never lie to you."

She looked from Jasper to me, then back again, "I know. I'm sorry! I overreacted." Her face suddenly broke into a large smile and I immediately thought that I would much rather a smile be on her face than a frown, "I have a sister-in-law! A real sister-in-law! This is so exciting!"

I smiled in relief as my eyes traveled along to whom my brother introduced as his family and saw quickly the changes in their demeanors when he had reassured them that I was his sister and nothing more. They all seemed much more pleasant and not nearly as threatening as before. When I glanced at Edward I saw he was frowning slightly, but seemed quite elated at something.

I chose not to voice my concerns mostly because Jasper suddenly rounded on me, "Bella, what happened to you?! Not that I'm not incredibly happy to see you, but you're supposed to have died long ago!" He looked tortured.

I was about to answer him when Alice interrupted me, "We shouldn't do this here. If we do, the school will notice our absence and will start calling around for us before starting a search and they would start looking in this direction."

I looked curiously at her, how in the world would she know that?

For the first time, Rosalie spoke, "Never bet against Alice. We should sign ourselves out and drive home. Carlisle and Esme would want to meet her." She looked kindly at me.

"Carlisle and Esme? There are two more in your family?!" I gasped, "I've never heard of so many of us sticking together except for the Volturi!"

Emmett suddenly gave a loud, boisterous laugh, "Yeah, well, Carlisle thinks it's something to do with us all choosing animals over humans."

Edward looked at me and spoke, his voice flowed over me like a velvet blanket, "How many are in yours, Bella?"

I shrugged quickly, "Just me. It's always been that way since a year after I was changed."

"You're alone?!" Jasper gasped, "What?! Why are --," but I was saved by Alice who seemed to dance to us and grabbed his arm lightly, "Jasper, we can discuss this at home. We need to go back now."

"Bella, you can sign yourself out right? You won't need to have to pretend to have anyone call ahead for you?" Edward asked.

I shook my head as we all simultaneously leapt through the air and began running back through the forest, "No, I'm fine. I forged and gave them papers saying I was an emancipated minor."


When we arrived back at the school we went to the office and signed ourselves out without any trouble and made our way outside to the parking lot. I scanned the lot for my own black Mercedes SL600 and, after locating it, turned to my brother and his family.

"I don't know where you live, but I can follow you." I said looking at them as they stopped by a silver Volvo C70 that was identical to my own Volvo back at my home; mine was a light blue however. "I'm in the black Mercedes. Nice Volvo by the way, mine is a light blue, same model."

Edward nodded, "That's fine. We live in Olympia; it's just outside of Forks. Thank you, by the way."

Jasper was quickly at my side, "I'll ride with Bella and we'll meet you there," he said with finality in his voice. He looked down at me, as I was obviously shorter than him, "Sound okay?" he asked.

I smiled as I nodded, "Of course it's okay! I haven't seen you in a hundred and forty-five years! I want as much time with you as possible!" I turned to face the others, "Drive fast, okay? I hate going slow."

They all burst into laughter and agreed as Jasper and I made our way over to my car.

"You don't seem very keen on not standing out." He laughed. I shrugged.

"At least it's not an ostentatious red or anything. It was this, my Volvo, or my BMW, and it was a split second decision to drive this today." I unlocked it and we got in.

"Nice." He grinned, as I turned the ignition and it purred to life. The radio blared to life and the local mainstream station flowed through the speakers. I smiled, "Thank you. I love it." I put it into reverse and backed out of the spot. Slamming it into drive I saw Edward's Volvo waiting at the parking lot exit and made my way over to where it was waiting.

The moment I got within twenty feet of his car, he floored it and was gone. Thrilled, I did the same with my own car and smiled at the obvious challenge.

"You're going to race?" Jasper said incredulously, "You don't know where you're going?!"

"Olympia." I said simply. "We aren't racing, anyway. I just asked him to drive fast and that's what he's doing." I looked at him as my car reached 125 miles per hour, "But thanks for the idea, I'll have to challenge him, he's obviously the fastest in your coven."

He shook his head, "You shouldn't race!"

I gave him a withering look, "You haven't seen me in almost one hundred and fifty years. You've never seen me drive."

That made him go silent for a moment.

We were crossing a small bridge and we weren't anywhere near topping out our cars speeds when he spoke, his voice was sad, "I'm sorry Bella." He whispered.

I looked at him again, this time my face was questioning, "Why are you sorry?"

"I'm sorry for not coming to find you ever. I have trouble adjusting to not feeding off of humans, but I still should have come to find you!"

I shook my head, "That's in no way your fault. Normal newborns from what I've gathered over the years are absolutely insane at first and then it's usually very hard to keep any bit of control as the years go on." I tried, "It's not your fault at all. I should have tried some more though; I had nearly no problem at all. I've never slipped."

He stared at me, "No problem at all? What do you mean?"

I shook my head, "I'll explain it all in one go with everyone there, it's easier that way. But, basically I have a gift of impeccable control. The bloodlust was always there for me, but I'm a mental shield. I was able to lock it away and shield myself from it."

"Incredible," he whispered. He then turned his head and watched the trees go by, appearing to be in deep thought.

I noticed after not long that Edward was hitting his brakes and I gathered it was in preparation to turn into a nearly unnoticeable driveway, and I mimicked him, doing the same with my car. Once we turned we whipped back up to speed as we twisted and turned along the drive and quickly the trees around us thinned out before abruptly ending to reveal a beautiful sprawling estate.

The house was a large, gorgeous, white Victorian style home. "You're house is beautiful, Jasper."

"Esme is the decorator," he said simply.

When we stopped I put my car into park and turned off the ignition before stepping out. I noticed Rosalie eyeing my car with interest.

"Do you like it?" I asked her.

She nodded, "Would you mind if I took a look at it later?"

I shook my head, "As long as you don't hurt it…" I trailed off.

Emmett laughed, "Don't worry Bells," He grinned, "Rose here is our resident mechanic. She knows more about cars than anyone."

I smiled widely at the new nickname he had given me, I was going to like Emmett immensely. I looked over to Edward and saw he was once again frowning slightly as he looked in my direction.

Jasper and Alice suddenly took my hands simultaneously and dragged me towards the house. Alice opened the door for us and, even though she needn't have done so, shouted, "Esme! Carlisle! We're home! We have our surprise I called about!"

Jasper rolled his eyes as I looked at her, "I'm sure you could have refrained from shouting so close to us. Our ears would have loved it if you had."

She brushed my comment off and we quickly found ourselves in the spacious family area where there were couches, a large television, and various game consoles, games, a stereo, and large amounts of pictures of them all.

"Hello there," a kind voice said to my left. I turned and took in her beautiful face, caramel colored hair and kind smile, "I'm Esme. From what Alice has told us on the phone, you must be Bella."

I nodded, "It's a pleasure to meet you." I smiled.

"You have the same accent as Jasper," she came and sat upon one of the sofas. She turned to the rest of the family, "Carlisle is on his way, as you know, he was at the hospital."

"He will be here in exactly one minute," Alice practically bounced.

I studied her, she was quite hyperactive. From what I had gathered in the very short time I knew her, she was very sweet, albeit a very bouncy person. I decided to voice my opinion, "You're very bouncy." I said to her.

Suddenly, they all burst into laughter, Alice simply smiled.

"That's Alice for you," Jasper said as he placed an arm around her shoulders.

I suddenly had a question for her, how did she know Carlisle would arrive in a minute? Could she see the future or something? I looked at her curiously, "How did you know he would be here in that exact amount of time?"

She smiled and tapped her head, "It's my gift. I can see bits of the future, but since the future isn't set in stone, it changes from time to time. The trick is making a decision."

I nodded, this was interesting! "Are you the only one with an ability?" I asked.

Esme spoke up, "No, Jasper can feel and manipulate emotions and Edward can hear thoughts."

Startled, I looked at my brother and then to Edward, "You know what I'm thinking?" I said, incredulous.

He shook his head quickly, "No, not yours. You mind is shielded. It's odd, I've never experienced anything like it." He seemed frustrated. I immediately smiled, I understood why he couldn't.

"Oh, I get it. I'm a mental shield." He looked at me, questioning. "I have a shield over my mind so I'm immune to mental attacks and mental powers. I can throw it from me and protect another person's mind too if I wished. I can draw it into myself too."

My brother's family stared at me, "You can do that?" Emmett asked. "Dude, that's so cool! Edward can't hear what you're thinking!" He burst into laughter, "That's so awesome! It's got to be eating at him!"

"Is that why you've been frowning at me?" I asked.

He looked slightly startled, "I wasn't frowning at you, per se. I was frowning because I didn't understand why I couldn't hear you." I noticed he wasn't frowning at me anymore and that made me happier than I believed it should have.

I smiled before turning to my brother, now relieved that Edward couldn't read my mind and that I now knew why he was frowning at me constantly, "You can feel and manipulate emotions? An empath?"

He nodded, "I'll have to tell you about it later. Carlisle is here."

We all looked as the front door opened to reveal a very handsome man with blonde hair and a pale, kind face. He was dressed business-like and from his I.D. tag he still wore which read Dr. Carlisle Cullen, M.D., I gathered that he was at the hospital like Esme said because he was a doctor there. I knew we would get along well as I too had more than one medical degree.

We were introduced and quickly found our way back to sitting down in the family room. My brother sat next to me as the rest looked on.

"Bella," Jasper started, "What happened to you?"

I took a breath and looked out towards the floor to ceiling windows on the one side of their house and began my story.


Well? What do you think?! They finally met up!! … Don't get too relieved, there's much to come! This isn't going to be a short story!

Stay tuned to their reactions to her story and as Bella and Edward get some alone time *nudge nudge* hehe

REVIEW!!! Thank you everyone for all of the feedback I've been getting. It's absolutely wonderful!

I can't wait to read your reviews before I post the next chapter of 'Finding Family'!!!!!

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