The Adventures of Nessie and Her Lost Boys Chapter 2: Hello, Goodbye, a twilight fanfic

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer still owns the Twilight universe, the characters, phrasing, and images. J.M. Barrie owns Peter, Wendy and the others. I'm just happy to spend some time in their world.

A/N: I am becoming more indebted to my beta, miss understood615. Thanks for putting up with my many revisions and endless questions.

Just a heads up...the school year is ending and life is crazy..I will do my best to get chapter 3 up next week. Reviews will help motivate me! :-)

Hello, Goodbye

"No. 27 was only a few yards distant, but there had been a slight fall of snow, and Father and Mother Darling picked their way over it deftly not to soil their shoes. They were already the only persons in the street, and all the stars were watching them. Stars are beautiful, but they may not take an active part in anything, they must just look on forever. It is a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no star now knows what it was. So the older ones have become glassy-eyed and seldom speak (winking is the star language), but the little ones still wonder. They are not really friendly to Peter, who had a mischievous way of stealing up behind them and trying to blow them out; but they are so fond of fun that they were on his side tonight, and anxious to get the grown-ups out of the way. So as soon as the door of 27 closed on Mr. and Mrs. Darling there was a commotion in the firmament, and the smallest of all the stars in the Milky Way screamed out: 'Now, Peter!'" - J.M. Barrie, The Adventures of Peter Pan

June had passed quickly as Edward and Bella made their arrangements to return to the Isle of Esme in July to celebrate an early first anniversary. The others were still away and were anticipated to arrive back in mid-August. The quiet that had settled around our home was unusual. Aside from the few years that Edward had spent apart from us, I could not remember a time that Carlisle and I had been alone. And we had never been alone with a small child. This would be a new experience.

Carlisle, Nessie and I drove Edward and Bella to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The drive to the airport would allow the three to be together a little longer before their extended separation. Nessie snuggled in the back seat between her parents. This would be the first time in her short life that they would be separated. If Jasper had been here, I am certain that he would have been picking up varying degrees of emotions emanating from each one of them. As much as Edward and Bella wanted this time away, I expected that they were thinking about how much their daughter would change in the five weeks that they would be gone. I noticed that Nessie had also been a little clingier with her parents over the past few days. She was excited to spend the time with us and Jake, but after her conversation a several weeks ago it occurred to me that she might be remembering a different kind of parting from back in the clearing when things seemed beyond hope and her parents prepared to send her with Jacob in order to save her. Nessie wore the same gold locket around her small neck that her mother had given to her at Christmas. And Bella once again uttered the same words "More than my own life" as she placed kisses on the little girl's face and top of her head. Edward hugged his daughter tightly to himself and kissed both her cheeks and her forehead. He had updated her mp3 player with the music he had created to accompany the Peter Pan story she loved so much. She had asked him to play it so frequently that he had hoped this would keep him close to her during his absence. Unlike the previous parting scene, the emotions behind the shared "I love you's" between the three of them resonated with a joy not present those many months ago.

When we returned from dropping them off at the airport, we settled Nessie into bed in Edward's old room. Before she would fall asleep, she had insisted on Carlisle reading one of her favorite parts in The Adventures of Peter Pan. Since she had first discovered the book, she kept returning to the tales that rested between its bound covers. As I watched Carlisle read to Nessie, my heart nearly burst. I couldn't help wondering for a moment what it would have been like if Carlisle and I had been able to have our own child. The picture unfolding before me was a bittersweet gift. We had been denied, by the nature of what we were, the possibility of having a child of our own and yet we had been blessed with this miracle. I held this precious moment in my thoughts and heart reluctant to let it pass.

As the night wore on and Nessie slept soundly upstairs, Carlisle was called in to assist with some people who had been severely injured in a car accident. So while I waited for him to return and for Nessie to awake, I continued to work on my plans to surprise Nessie. I was eager to share my ideas with her and to watch how she would take pleasure in this.

Just before dawn, Carlisle returned. We knew we had a little more time before Nessie would awake. Carlisle settled down on the love seat and began reading the New York Times that we had specially delivered. I curled up next to him. As he stretched out his long legs before him, I draped my legs over his lap and leaned against the arm of the couch. I had a sketch pad in my hands and I was working on the final drawing of a stage and several sets that I envisioned building in our backyard.

Today was going to be one of those uncharacteristically sunny and warm days for our area. We would need to stay close to home and out of the eyes of humans. As the sun continued to rise, I could hear the birds singing in the trees and Nessie beginning to wake. No more than 30 seconds later, my darling granddaughter was bounding down the stairs in her nightgown and hair all in disarray.

"Morning, Gramma and Grandpa" Nessie sang as she jumped onto the couch between us.

"Good morning, Nessie" replied Carlisle "Did you sleep well?" She bobbed her head affirmatively and began to look towards the kitchen. As if right on cue, Jacob burst through the kitchen door and then into the main part of the house. I'm not sure whose face was more lit up. Jacob's or Nessie's.

"Hey Nessie, how are you this morning?" Jacob inquired. "Have you eaten breakfast?" As Nessie shook her head no, he reached down and scooped her into his long arms. Recently, Jacob had convinced Nessie to try eating pancakes. I'm not sure if Nessie enjoyed the pancakes or the syrup more. I rose from the sofa and headed towards the kitchen.

"Nessie and Jake, do you want chocolate chip pancakes or strawberry?" I asked.

"Strawberry" they cried in unison.

I set about pulling out all of the ingredients I would need to make the pancakes. Jake began to take out plates, silverware, and cups to set the table. Nessie wanted to make orange juice and began pulling out oranges. Jake had finished setting the table and joined Nessie at the counter. He found the citrus juicer and set it before her. As with most food things, Nessie seemed to enjoy the process more than consuming the final product. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Jake helped Nessie cut and squeeze the oranges and fill the container with the fresh nectar.

While the bacon sizzled in the cast iron skillet, and the pancakes bubbled and set on the griddle, I sliced up strawberries and warmed up some syrup. Jacob held Nessie securely in his arms so that she could oversee the pancakes on the griddle.

"Esme, for a vampire, you are an amazing cook."

"Thank you Jacob. I am glad that you enjoy it so much." It was moments like this that I realized that he had become my unofficial seventh child. Though he still spent time with his father who cared deeply for him, I suspected that there were moments when he missed his own mother who had died years earlier. In the months since Nessie had been born, Jacob had integrated more and more into our family. As I watched him holding Nessie, I could see the qualities that had attracted Bella to Jacob during the time that Edward had left her. His easy smile, quick laugh, unswerving loyalty, and sense of adventure would and did attract Bella to him. He filled a part of a void that was created during Edward's absence and his friendship healed some of the wounds that had been ripped through her during that dark period. We were all thankful to Jacob for the way he had cared for Bella during that time though it did generate some significant challenges for Edward when he returned.

In some ways, Jacob reminded me of a cross between my three sons. He had a similar playfulness and carefree nature of Emmett. He shared Jasper's passion for a fight, and Edward's protectiveness. However, unlike Edward or the others he hadn't had the time to develop or mature. His physical self might be that of a fully developed adult, the byproduct of being a shape-shifting wolf, but his emotional self was still a 17 year old teenager.

When the food was ready, I carried it out to the dining room table. Jacob and Nessie hungrily dug into the pile of pancake and fresh strawberries. While they ate, I decided to share with them my idea. I retrieved my sketch book from the couch where I had left it and brought it over to the table.

"So Nessie, I know how much you have been enjoying the Adventures of Peter Pan, and I was wondering if you wouldn't like to re-enact your favorite stories from the book on a stage?"

Nessie's dark brown eyes lit up and her smile reached from her lips to her eyes. Her head bobbing, causing her ringlets to fall into her eyes, further emphasized how thrilled she was by the suggestion. It was radiating from every inch of her body. Jacob had a curious look on his face but didn't seem surprised by my proposal. Carlisle poked his head out from the newspaper and smiled and ducked back behind it before he could be dragged into whatever plan I had envisioned.

We quickly cleaned up the table and kitchen so that I could spread my drawings out before them. I shared my ideas for building a stage out in the backyard. I asked Jacob if he and the pack wouldn't mind lending a hand with the building of the stage. Nessie stared up at Jacob with her wide chocolate brown eyes that she had inherited from Bella and silently waited for his response. She had already learned that she could easily get Jacob to do anything she wanted by giving him one of those looks. And Jacob did not resist the urge to give her what she desired.

In my fore-planning, I had already made arrangements for the lumber and other materials to be delivered to the house today. Jake gave Nessie a quick kiss to the top of her head and told her that he would return shortly. He needed to round up Seth and the others to help with the building of the stage.

I suggested to Nessie that she get dressed and that we try to do something with her wild curls while we waited for Jake to return and for the building materials to be delivered. At that suggestion, my little nymph nearly flew up to the room she was staying in. I followed just as quickly behind.

Before Alice and Jasper had left on their trip, she had gone on one of her shopping sprees with the intent of making sure that Nessie had enough clothes until she returned. In truth, Nessie had enough clothes for several childhoods, but with Alice being Alice she couldn't resist an excuse to shop. She also didn't feel that she could trust Bella to make sure Nessie had just the right clothing. With the little girl's accelerated growth, she did manage to outgrow most outfits in one or two wearings. Nessie, unlike her mother, seemed to have acquired her aunt's interest in clothes and fashion sense. She was rummaging through the drawers and closet to find just the right outfit. She finally settled in on a purple floral print tank top and a pair of white Bermuda shorts and her sneakers. Now for the hair, I brushed through the tangled mess and put it into two braids.

As we were descending the stairs, I could hear the sound of a truck traveling down the driveway. The lumber. Just in time. Carlisle met the delivery man at the door. He signed for the materials and directed the man to drop off the supplies behind the house. I quickly threw on a cover-up and a wide-brim hat. The sun was already shining pretty brightly and I needed to take care not to allow it to expose my skin. Nessie was circling around the delivery men with an almost palpable electrical energy coming off of her.

"Careful little one, we don't want to get in the way of the men as they work." I commented as I scooped her up in my arms.

"Yeah, this is going to be so much fun." She exclaimed to everyone and placed her small hand to my cheek. Nessie was still able to express much more with her gift than just through words alone. Vivid images of my sketches and building of the stage flickered into my mind.

By the time, the men were finished unloading all the materials. Jake and Seth were emerging from the woods. There was a container nearby with clothes that we kept stocked for Jake and his pack which alleviated their need to carry clothes with them.

"Hi Esme. Hi Nessie". Seth reached for Nessie from her place in my arms and gave her a huge hug. Just as she had done with me, she reached up to Seth and shared with him the images she had only moments ago shown me.

"Leah and the others guys will be arriving shortly. Seth and I can help get things started until they arrive." Jacob mentioned as he surveyed the lumber material set out on the lawn.

Carlisle had come out to see how things were going and led the boys into the garage to pull out the necessary tools that we would need. Nessie followed me into the house to get the plans for the stage. By the time that all of the tools and necessary equipment had been unpacked from the garage, Embry, Quil, and Leah had arrived. Leah hung back some and leaned against a tree to wait for directions. She was the least comfortable in our presence though she would never let Jacob down. Jacob had already informed the others of our plans so there wasn't a lot of need to go into detail. Before long, a steady rhythm was created as my drawings began to take shape. The unusual sun continued to warm up the area around us making for a pleasant work environment and the day passed quickly with momentary nutrition breaks for the pack. Yes, this idea was going to work out just fine.

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