Chapter 2 – Bonding
I started running in the direction Renesmee had pointed. Renesmee had hidden her face in my hair again. We soon found a path of black material that used to be my dress. I could pick up the scent of the Cullens and the wolves from there. A couple of minutes later we got to the houses I hadn't come as far a I thought. Renesmee lifted her face up out of my hair to look at my face. Her eyes were pleading.
"Please stay." She begged me.
"Sorry." I whispered in her ear. I gave her a big hug before we got to the front door.
I was about to knock when I noticed it was open. Renesmee squirmed in my arms so I let her down. She ran inside, frantically looking around the house for someone. I started walking inside after her when I was stopped dead in my tracks.
My eyes unfocused and I watched the images that were dancing around in my mind. I had a vision of the Cullens and the wolves out in the forest looking for Renesmee and... me? They were looking for me too. The boys and Sam's pack were looking for me; the girls and Jacobs pack were looking for Renesmee.
I was brought back to reality by Renesmee tugging on the end of – what was left of – my dress.
"Autumn!" She cried, tugging harder on my dress. "Where is everyone?" She asked me, worried.
"Don't panic, Nessie. They're all out looking for you. They'll be back soon." I told her calmly. I didn't tell her they were looking for me too. I didn't want to get her hopes up – or mine for that matter.
"But that means that I'll be on my own." She whispered so quietly that a human wouldn't here.
"Well..." I started. "I guess I could stay for a little while." I sighed, giving in.
Renesmee squealed and jumped up and down, clapping her tiny hands together. I shut the front door and put the heating on for Renesmee. Although I don't think she was bothered. She was too busy dancing around the huge living room to notice the cold.
"We'd better get you changed. You'll get sick in those wet clothes." I told her, walking over to pick her up. As I put my arms out to scoop her up she vanished. Wow, she was fast!
"Only if you catch me!" She yelled from behind the couch.
I smiled evilly and crept silently to the couch where she was hiding. As I was about to grab her she vanished again. I heard a little giggle from the dining room.
"Nessie. Oh, Renesmee, where art thou?" I sighed dramatically. I heard the same little giggle as before from under the dining table.
I searched Renesmee's future and saw that she was going to hide in the bathroom. Just as she ran, I ran too. But, I had the advantage of longer legs and being psychic, and I managed to finally get hold of her at the top of the stairs. She struggled in my arms, but I was a lot stronger than her so there was no way she was escaping.
"I win." I chirped playfully, setting her down on Alice and Jaspers' bed. I knew enough of my family to know that if I was going to find clothes for anyone, they'd be in Alice's room.
"Not fair!" She sulked, folding her arms across her chest and pouting. I let out a small giggle. She was so cute.
Sure enough, when I opened the doors to Alice's wardrobe – which was probably bigger than the actual room – there were about ten sections of Renesmee's clothes. I walked inside and picked out some frilly pink pyjamas and fresh underwear. After all, it was almost nine o'clock.
"Bring your wet things out with you so I can wash them for your mummy and daddy." I told her, tapping her nose playfully on the way out.
I made my way downstairs. I knew nobody would be back for a good few hours. I didn't mind looking after Renesmee though. I adored her, and she was my sister. I decided to look through their music collection while Renesmee was changing. After looking through the CD's, I decided to see if there was anything to eat.
They wouldn't mind me having some food would they? They didn't eat it anyway. And I had saved them from the Volturi and found their daughter in the same day. I deserved food, right? It had been almost forty-eight hours since I'd eaten anything. I was starving.
I found some macaroni cheese and decided to have that. As I was putting it into the microwave, I heard Renesmee running down the stairs. I looked around the door to see her carrying a huge make up box down with her. Really, it was almost bigger than her! She had her wet clothes with her too, just like I asked. Bless her.
"Renesmee, what are you doing?" I asked curiously as she skipped towards me, handing me the wet clothes. I put them in the washer.
"Will you play make up with me?" She asked sweetly, fluttering her eyelashes. I couldn't resist that face.
"Okay then. I'm just having something to eat first." I told her, smiling.
"Okay." She said, throwing the make up box onto the couch for later. "What are you making?" She asked. She walked up to the microwave and stood on her tiptoes trying to see what was inside.
"Mac 'n' cheese." I told her. I walked over and picked her up to let her see into the microwave.
"Can I have some?" She asked, jumping out of my arms and going to sit at the breakfast bar.
"But you don't eat human food." I said, my eyebrows furrowing. I'd had enough visions to know that. She either went hunting with her parents and Jacob or drank the donated human blood in Carlisle's office.
"But I can." She muttered. If Autumn can, then so can I. We're the same. She's my sister. And it does smell kind of good... I listened to her thoughts and smiled at what I heard.
The microwave beeped then and I got two bowls and forks out of the cupboard. I halved the creamy pasta into each bowl and set one down in front of Renesmee. I sat down at the breakfast bar next to her and started eating mine straight away. Renesmee watched me for a minute then picked up her fork and started eating.
I laughed as I watched her eating. She seemed really wary at first, but as soon as she took the first bite she seemed to really like it. So much in fact, that she finished before me.
"So, what did you think?" I asked her when we'd both finished. I picked up the bowls and placed them in the dishwasher.
"That was really yummy!" She beamed, getting up and running into the living room. I followed her. Blood sucks compared to mac 'n' cheese! She thought. I giggled at that.
"Better than blood, huh?" I teased.
"How did you know?" She gasped, honestly shocked.
"I read your mind. Like daddy." I explained to her. Her mouth made a little 'o' shape.
"Oh." She said, and shrugged it off, carrying on walking to the couch. I hadn't noticed we'd stopped. I wasn't very observant, I had to admit.
Renesmee walked over to the TV and switched it on. She picked up the remote and flicked through the channels so quickly that I wasn't sure she was actually looking at them until she stopped at the music channel.
"You like music?" I asked her, a bit surprised.
"I like lots of music." She chimed. "Can we play make up now?" She begged, running back over to me and jumping up and down excitedly.
"Lets play!" I laughed. This just made her even more excited, if that was possible.
I played 'make up' with Renesmee until half eleven. I'd never laughed so much in my life. Renesmee used electric blue eye shadow on my eyes and coated my lashes in mascara. She even used blue liquid eye liner. She wanted to put some pink lip gloss on my lips too, but I attacked her with the bright pink eye shadow before she could try.
In the end, we both looked like we'd been attacked in a paint factory.
"We look like twins." Renesmee smiled as we both looked in the mirror.
We did look very similar. Our hair was almost the same colour, except for my natural brown highlights. We both had the same cute blush on our cheeks and our features were more similar than I first thought. Maybe I did have more of my dad in me than my mum. I would have looked better with my dress still in one piece, but what did I expect if I ran through a bunch of thorns.
"Well, we are sisters." I told Renesmee, smiling back at her.
"So, why aren't you living with us?" She whispered, going back over to sit on the couch.
"It's... complicated, honey. I want to stay, really I do. But, it's not up to me and you. Or daddy for that matter." I told her. I followed her to the couch and sat down beside her. She crawled onto my lap and I hugged her.
"Okay." She sad, disappointment clear in her voice. "What happened to your dress? It was really pretty before." She asked, perking up again.
"Well, when I left before, my path sort of crossed with that thorn bush in the forest." I said, trying not to laugh. I felt really stupid now.
Renesmee yawned and jumped off my lap. She started walking towards the kitchen again.
"I think you should go to sleep. It's late. It must be way past your bedtime." I said. I didn't want her to go to sleep. I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could. But, I knew that she had to sleep. Unlike me. I never slept. Well, except on very rare occasions, like in the meadow earlier on. I usually go to sleep when I'm upset, to escape life for a couple of hours.
"No!" She almost screamed at me. "I... I mean, I'm not tired." She continued, composing herself. She looked down at the floor and I could see she was blushing more than usual at her little outburst. I giggled.
"I wasn't going to force you." I laughed.
She looked up at me and smiled again. She skipped back over to me and grabbed my hand, dragging me to the kitchen. Really, you'd never guess she was just a few months old.
"So, what are we doing then?" I asked her. I read her thoughts but all I got was just like grandma does, which made no sense at all.
"Can we make a cake? Please, please, please? Just like grandma does for Jacob and Seth!" She begged me, jumping around the kitchen. She was just a big bundle of energy. But, I loved her for it.
"You really like human food now?" I asked, honestly curious.
"Yes, yes, yes! Please?" She sang in her high soprano voice.
"Okay then." I sighed, giving in to her demands once again. "What kind of cake do you want to make?"
Renesmee bit her lip and her eye brows furrowed as she concentrated on what seemed like the hardest decision in the world. I had to smile at her little face.
"Chocolate! They always smell the best!" She decided after a minute.
"Chocolate it is then." I smiled at her, walking further into the kitchen.
Renesmee clapped her hands together happily and ran in after me. She grabbed one of the stools from the breakfast bar and put it next to the work surfaces. She climbed up onto it so she could reach the bowl and make the cake.
I checked the time on the cooker as I went to find a recipe book. It was just coming up to midnight. I didn't know what time the family would be back. From my vision it wasn't until the sun came up. I probably should have gone out and found them. But I didn't want to get lost again and I'd have to take Renesmee with me and I didn't want her out in the cold and the rain.
I found a recipe book that was just for chocolate. Well, if I was looking for a chocolate cake recipe, it was bound to be in here. I pulled it down from the shelf and handed it to Renesmee.
"I'm going to find the yummiest chocolate cake ever!" She boasted, flicking through the pages quickly.
"How come you don't use your gift on me, Renesmee? You never seem to talk to the others, but you always talk to me." I blurted out without thinking. I hoped I hadn't upset her.
"I don't know." She answered, passing me the recipe book. "This one." She said, pointing to a chocolate gateaux recipe.
"Right, so we need; one bar of milk chocolate, coco powder, butter, flour, sugar, milk, two eggs and some baking powder." I read out the ingredients.
Renesmee smiled a big white smile and got off the stool to get the things I'd just read out. She had them all in a couple of seconds.
It was quiet while we were mixing all the ingredients up. The only sounds were our heartbeats and breathing and the music from the TV which was left on from before. When, all of a sudden, I got a face full of goo.
"Got you!" Renesmee giggled as she stood with her hand covered in the cake mix she's just thrown at me.
I wiped my face with the back of my hand and grabbed some of the contents from the bowl with the other. I threw it at Renesmee and it hit the back of her head as she tried to run away. It was all in her hair.
"Food fight!" I yelled, grabbing some more of the slop at the same time as Renesmee.
We spent a good ten minutes wrecking the Cullens' kitchen with cake mix. Me and Renesmee were covered in the sloppy stuff and we looked kind of creepy with our make up all down our face as well. We were both breathless from laughing by the time we'd used all the mix up. We both sat on the floor and leaned our heads back against the cupboards.
"That was fun!" Renesmee breathed through the giggles.
"I won." I stated, sticking my tongue out at her.
"No way! I definitely won!" She argued, sticking her tongue out back at me. This just started us off laughing again.
When we'd finally composed ourselves, we stood up and looked around the kitchen. Every surface, every wall, every kitchen utensil was absolutely covered in sloppy brown cake mix.
"Uh, oh." Renesmee gulped.
"We'd better get cleaning, huh?" I grimaced.
"This is going to take forever!" She moaned, pouting again.
"Only at human speed." I said. A mischievous smile spread across Renesmee's face.
I'm faster Renesmee thought confidently.
"You wish, little sis'." I laughed, and ran as fast as I could – which was fast, and I mean fast – to get two mops and a bucket from the cupboard under the stairs. I was back in the kitchen with them in literally two seconds.
"You do that half, I do this half." Renesmee said, pointing to the two halved of the kitchen.
"And what do we win?" I asked, raising one eyebrow at her.
"The first shower." She grinned. She was good. "Three, two, one... Go!" She yelled.
At the speed we were both going, it only took is five minutes to clean the whole kitchen. I was faster than Renesmee, but I let her win. It was worth it to make her happy.
"I get the first shower, then!" She beamed. She ran upstairs and I followed her.
"You need clothes. Yours are all messy." She said, walking into Alice's room.
Renesmee walked into the huge wardrobe and picked out a yellow summer dress in my size. She picked out some more blue eeyore pyjamas for her. She walked back out and handed me the dress she'd chosen.
"Auntie Alice won't miss this. She's already worn it once. She'll probably just throw it away if you don't wear it anyway." She told me. That was the longest speech I'd ever heard her say. "But I still get the shower first!" She yelled, running towards the bathroom.
"Aw, not fair." I whimpered. I stuck my lip out in a little pout. I heard Renesmee giggle and then the bathroom door shut.
I decided to go downstairs. I turned up the TV and started dancing around the living room to Kylie Minogue songs. I had no idea how long I'd been dancing, but I was stopped by a little giggle from behind me. I froze and suddenly I had a pair of hands covering my eyes and Renesmee was clinging to my back.
"Get down! Down, down, down!" I panicked, almost throwing her onto the couch.
She looked at me like she'd just seen a ghost. Oops. I didn't mean to scare her.
"Sorry." She whispered.
"I just didn't want you to get another set of clothes dirty." I laughed, trying to lighten the mood. "Can I shower now?" I asked, pouting and making her laugh again. She nodded and took my place in front of the TV and started dancing.
"You'll be alright down here on your own?" I wondered, a bit worried.
"Yes, Silly Autumn." Renesmee giggled, shaking her head.
I made my way upstairs and went into the bathroom. It was huge. Well, everything in this house was huge, I guess. I took off my dirty, wet clothes – what was left of them anyway – and got into the shower which Renesmee had left running.
I hadn't realised that I was tense, but as soon as the hot water touched my skin, every muscle in my body relaxed. The shower did me a lot of good. I had time to think for a little while, although it was only a short shower. I made sure all the cake mix and make up was washed off and I got out. I didn't want to leave Renesmee for long.
I quickly got out of the shower, found a towel and changed into the clean yellow sun dress Renesmee had given me. I threw my old clothes into a trash can in the corner of the bathroom and made my way back downstairs.
When I got in the living room, Renesmee had her back to me, doing something on the table. I crept up behind her...
"Boo!" I whisper-shouted in her ear. She jumped about three feet in the air and screamed and I fell on the floor and laughed so hard that it hurt.
"I... thought... you had good... hearing?" I said in between the giggles. She just narrowed her eyes and glared at me, which made me laugh harder.
"And you're too quiet for your own good!" She snapped at me.
After I'd managed to tame the laughter, I stood up and went to look at what she was doing before I'd scared her.
"Wow, that's really good!" I gasped. She'd drawn a picture or her, me, Edward, Bella and Jacob. She was an excellent artist. It looked so real. Almost like a photograph.
"It's my family." Renesmee announced proudly, smiling again.
"It looks so real." I told her, touching the paper gently with one of my fingers. Renesmee threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly.
"What's this for?" I giggled.
"For looking after me. And not calling me Nessie." She grimaced at the silly nickname. I knew everyone else called it her, but I thought it was stupid. It made her sound like a sea serpent, which she definitely wasn't.
"That's okay. But, I thought you like being called Nessie." I wondered.
"Not really. But I never talk to anyone like I do with you. So, I never told them what to call me." She whispered, embarrassed. I chuckled lightly.
"You should. You know, you have them all wrapped around your little finger. You could get whatever you wanted if you just spoke to them." I laughed.
Renesmee released her grip on me and sighed. "Maybe."
We both just sat and watched TV then. It was one-thirty in the morning when Renesmee fell asleep on my lap. I got up, being careful not to jostle her, and headed upstairs to find a pillow and a blanket. I quickly found some and brought them back down to the sleeping angel on the couch. I gently placed the pillow under her head and the blanket over the rest of her torso.
She looked so peaceful with her copper curls splaying all over her face and the pillow. I couldn't believe she was my little sister! Seeing her there, sleeping... it just made it all so surreal. I'd found my family and probably wrecked them all in the same day. So, why were they out looking for me as well as Renesmee?
One part of my mind – the crazy side of it - told me that it was because they loved me. They wanted me to stay with them and be happy. That they'd all accepted me into the family and were truly worried for my safety out in the forest, all alone.
The more rational side of my mind told me it was because they felt sorry for me. They wanted to make sure I was safe before they sent me on my way. And maybe they just felt guilty because they'd had no contact with me in all fourteen years of my life.
I decided to listen to the more rational side of my brain. It made more sense than the first option. Why would they want me in their family? I was just some random teenage girl who came and intruded on their lives and tore their happy home apart.
I decided to stop thinking for the rest of my time here. Thinking only made me more depressed, which would probably lead to more thinking. In the end it was just one stupid cycle! And... wait! No, I have to stop thinking stuff my mind screamed at me. So, I did.
I went over to the TV and switched it off. I wasn't watching it anyway and Renesmee was still sleeping peacefully. I pulled out a CD and read the list of songs on the back. Track number five was Clair de Lune by Debussy. It was one of my favourite classics so I popped it in the CD player and hit the play button, making sure the volume was quite low so that I didn't wake Renesmee.
The music helped me relax, but before I knew it the song had ended. I wasn't in the mood for listening to anything else, so I just switched it off.
I went back over to the couch where Renesmee was sleeping and perched on the end. I looked into her mind and decided to watch her dreams. It was more interesting than any TV programme. You'd think a couple month olds' – or a three year olds' – dreams would be about fluffy rabbits and cartoons wouldn't you? Not Renesmee, though. The only thing she dreamed about were the people she loved.
I was surprised at the number of times I saw my face. She dreamed about me and her and her parents and Jacob, all out, together. We were all smiling and laughing. Renesmee was skipping through the trees and I was holding her hand. It was the perfect family scene. Well, apart from the giant wolf, hybrids and vampires, but all families are different, right?