Hi readers! Sorry this took so long, but hope you enjoy it! :)

Chapter 4.

Ava's POV

I had to keep walking towards the door or else Caleb would keep harassing me about it. Of course he didn't understand. He just thought I was a random vampire his mom had made friends with, but this would be the first time I had seen Collin and Abby in twenty one years, and I had to guess they had grown since then. This would also be the first time I would actually see any of my grandchildren except for Caleb, and I had just met him ten minutes ago. Part of me was scared I wouldn't recognize them, and the other part was scared I would recognize and start sobbing, which would look like dry heaving, uncontrollably or have a nervous breakdown or some other inappropriate reaction.

Even before we got into the living room I could tell for the most part who was there just by the scent. There weren't any wolves, they all smelled the same. Jacob, Seth, and Kelsey pretty much smelled like humans, allowing me to distinguish their scents, but their blood still had a hint of wolf scent in it, making them not as appetizing, edible, but not appetizing, like a stale cracker or something. In complete contrast was Ellie's scent, the most mouth watering I had ever, and likely would ever, smell. Ellie was my blood singer, and I had almost killed her on a few occasions, but that was years ago, and now as long as I wasn't too hungry the scent was almost pleasurable. I also could smell a few other humans in the room. Definitely Lena, and maybe Abby, it had been so long since I'd seen her I'd forgotten what her blood smelled like.

Caleb continued to motion me forward, through the kitchen. "We pretend everything is normal right? We're not supposed to talk about it with the humans in the room," he whispered right before we got to the living room.

"I think so," I replied. It would be unlikely for Kelsey to have told Abby about wolves and vampires.

Once we got into the living room I only had about two seconds to look around before Ellie launched into our normal act in front of company. The act was true for the most part, I was her friend, and I had moved away, but in our little set up I had moved to North Dakota (where I was originally from) and was just coming up to visit. It worked a lot better when she was closer to my physical age of twenty six, but it would always be liable.

"Ava!" she exclaimed, getting up to hug me, this time actually somewhat surprised to see me. "What a surprise!"

Finally I got to look at Abby. She definitely wasn't nine anymore. I could hardly believe the beautiful woman my little baby had become. Kelsey had sent me pictures of course, but they couldn't compare to actually seeing her in person. She still looked like Collin for the most part, so she stuck out in the room just as much as Ellie, both of them having blonde hair and blue eyes. I felt the totally conspicuous beam coming across my face, but there was nothing I could do about it. The excitement was bubbling up in me and I knew I probably looked like a crazy person, but at least I was smiling for "no reason" and not sobbing for "no reason".

Abby got up, I hadn't been paying attention enough to know why, but I couldn't contain myself, I hugged her as tightly as I could without hurting her.

She blushed. "Oh!...um...hi...I'll be right back," she said giving me a strange look and walked down the hallway into the bathroom. Oops.

As soon as she was out of earshot everyone burst out laughing at me except for Lena and Caleb, they were kind of confused, but even Jacob was roaring with laughter, and he hated me. If I could have blushed I definitely would have at that moment as I went and sat down on the other side of Kelsey. She hugged me, starting to tear up from her laughing.

"Thank you...you don't know how much I needed that," she gasped between fits of laughter.

Thankfully everyone quieted down after a little while. "Where are the others?" I asked Kelsey quietly, everyone else was still laughing and chatting too loudly to hear.

"They went down to the beach with Billy and Leah, they should be back soon."

"Do you have time to tell me what happened before Abby gets back? Caleb told me some of it, but I want to be sure."

"No, probably not" she said, glancing at Caleb for a moment, her mood quickly changed from relaxed to tense.

"Okay, maybe later?" I asked softly, running my fingers down her back.

She nodded. "So, you've met Caleb?" she asked.

"Yeah, he's a good kid, don't go too hard on him about this whole thing okay? He feels really bad about it," I said.

Just then Abby came back from the bathroom. "Hey...um, I don't think we've met...I'm Abby," she said hesitantly.

"I'm Ava, it's nice to meet you. I'm sorry about before, I wish I had a rational explanation for you, but I kind of don't," I grinned, shaking her hand.

"Oh, it's okay, I was just a little confused, that's all. Still cold?" she asked at my touch.

"Um, yeah, I just have a really low body temperature, it runs in my family," I explained.

"Oh, I just thought it was really, really cold outside!" she laughed, sitting down on the couch opposite us.

My head turned as I heard the front door swing open. A wolf and a bunch of humans. Little feet ran through the kitchen.

"Mommy!" A little girl ran into the room.

"Hi Ivy!" Abby picked her up and put her in her lap. "This is my daughter Ivy," she said. "Can you say hi to Miss Ava?" she asked Ivy.

"Hi," Ivy said shyly.

"Hi Ivy," I smiled.

Ivy had strawberry blonde hair, so I wasn't surprised when a redheaded man came in after her.

"Hey baby," he said plopping down next to Abby and pecking her on the cheek. Hopefully that was Luke, her husband.

He was quickly followed by Leah and Shelby, who was basically Kelsey's clone in looks except that her skin was a few shades darker which made her native American descent was much more clear, and right behind them was Billy and the love of my life.

He was older of course, but he was still handsome, though I may be a biased source. He had started to gray a little, but his hair was light enough to hide it well. I smiled sadly, wishing I could be old with him. Technically I was only two years younger than him, even if it looked like he could be my father now.

When he saw me he looked confused for a second, then gave me a little sad smile and sat down on the other side of Abby. I did look at the others more closely as well, but I couldn't keep my eyes off of Collin. I wondered if he recognized me, or at least thought I looked familiar. My heart screamed for me to get up and kiss him, but that definitely wouldn't be appropriate.

Kelsey nudged me. "Ava, you're staring," she whispered.

I looked away and glanced around the room a few times before I let myself look at him again. As much as it was killing me inside to be this close yet not have him, a little smile stayed on my face at knowing he was okay and able to move on with his life.

"Mommy says it's not polite to stare, Grandad," Ivy said very loudly in comparison to the soft chatter going on around the room.

Collin turned bright red and immediately looked down. Abby also blushed and took Ivy out of the room. Kelsey chucked until I elbowed her in the side.

"I'm sorry...I didn't mean to...it's just..." he muttered, still looking at the floor.

"No, no, it's okay," I said quickly, looking elsewhere also.

But even after that we still continued to stare at each other the entire time. Eventually Abby came back and Ivy whispered an apology to Collin, who put her on his lap and pretended to be preoccupied with her while staring at me.

Finally Sue started dinner and all the girls got up to help her, it took about five or six people because of the number of wolves who would be eating. I stayed to help with the cooking, but when it came time to eat I left, it would be not only rude, but also suspicious to sit there and not eat.

As I was walking around the side of the house I could hear them talking through the wall.

"Are you sure I don't know her Kelsey? I swear I've seen her somewhere before..." Abby asked.

"Yes Abby, you may have met once or twice, but it would have been forever ago." Kelsey said.

"She looks like your mother," Collin said wistfully, "you probably connected her with pictures you've seen."

"Oh, that's why you were staring at her," Abby said quietly, "but still, why did she randomly hug me if we don't know each other?"

"Lots of people hug each other when they first meet, maybe she just grew up in a hugging family," Kelsey posed.

At this they began to talk about other things and I left.

Oh Kelsey, she was really good at keeping the wolf thing a secret considering she had somehow been able to get away with not telling Collin where she went five days after she first changed, as well as why she ran such a high temperature all the time and always ate ravenously. While I was glad for her being able to keep secrets, I did occasionally wonder what she might be hiding from me. I was pretty sure there wasn't anything important I didn't know, but then, so did Abby and Collin.

I often wondered if Collin had ever found another woman, and while Kelsey never said anything about it, she may have just ignored the subject to avoid having me get hurt, and as much as I seriously thought it would be a good thing for him to find someone else, it would hurt a that night, at about the time I figured everyone would be going to bed, I went back over to the Black's house. I climbed through the open window. Kelsey was sitting on the bed in her pajamas.

"Hey," she smiled.

I sat down on the bed next to her. It had been a while since we had talked short of an occasional visit which would usually last only a few hours or letters or emails or phone-calls.

"So what all did Caleb tell you?" she asked.

"He said there was a vampire seeking revenge on your family, and that it was his friend, and something about Abby being well protected in particular. I figured it was Megan, Lilly warned us that Megan would definitely come back for revenge at some point, but why Abby and not you or Jacob?"

"I...I guess she wants Abby because it would be fulfilling what Henry wanted to do, getting revenge on us all by destroying who we fought to protect, and because without Abby, Henry might still be alive," she said quietly.

I took her hands in mine. They were shaking. "Baby, it's okay, just tell me what happened." It always felt a little weird calling her baby and treating her like my child after she got older than me, but in my mind I was still her mother and no matter how weird it was when I thought about it I would always act like it.

Her eyes started to fill with tears. "Caleb started to feel bad on Friday. He mentioned that he was lab partners with the new girl, but I didn't really think much of it. Then one day he asked to go see this new girl about some homework, and you know about how he changed later that night, I still didn't think much of it, so later he asked to bring her over and I was fine with it. Thank God I sent Abby and Dad out on an errand! We had asked her to leave and so they were going as Abby and Dad were going in and she was all like 'I'll leave now but I will be back," and so we left. I should have seen it! It was so obvious!" she said, breaking into quiet sobs.

I pulled her into my arms. "No, it's not your fault. It's not anyone's fault. Everything's going to be fine," I whispered. Why couldn't this just resolve itself neatly? I hated seeing Kelsey fear for Abby's life twenty eight years ago and I hated seeing it now. It just wasn't right, neither of them did anything. Kelsey didn't even kill Henry herself!

"I'm so scared now..." she cried into my shoulder. "There's nothing I can do but wait anymore. I can't protect her."

"Kelsey, there are still plenty of people who are more than willing to make sure Abby is safe, and I'm one of them," I said, wiping a tear from her cheek. "Nothing will happen to her. She probably won't even notice. I love you girls and I will not let anyone hurt you."

"Thank you," she said sleepily once she had cried herself out. I continued to sit with her and stayed even after she fell asleep.

Finally Seth opened the door. "Hey!" he whispered. "I'm the only one my wife gets to sleep with!" he joked.

"Fine, I'll leave then!" I said, getting up and hopping back out the window.

I wandered around the Black place, the woods, and the Reservation all night, thinking things out, and by the time the sun was up I knew what I had to do.

Yay suspense! :) I definitely need to give a shout-out/ad to my friend Megan (twilight-chick-92) b/c she has been helping me immensely lately, so thanks to her and definitely definitely definitely go read her stories, they're all really good! What will happen next? You'll just have to wait to find out! Thanks for reading! :)

Hufflepuffbrunette :)