All the usual dsclaimers apply.

Many big thanks to my super cool beta, vjgm. You are so freaking awesome!!!

My most excellent readers, you guys rock! Thank you for taking a chance on this little fic of mine! *MWAH*

~BPOV~

Edward stood in wonder, his eyes pouring over everything they could reach. A band of light hit his arm and he gasped, jerking back out of the ray with a hiss until he realized that it didn't hurt him.

Tentatively he eased back into the sun and marveled over the way his skin shimmered, turning his hand this way and that.

He ran to me, pulling me up from the ground and practically shoving me into the light.

Laughing, he scooped me up and twirled me in the air as the rainbows from our luminescent skin danced around us.

After a few turns, he set me down and turned his face up to the sky, closing his eyes and soaking up this new feeling.

"This is going to sound really strange, but I think I canactually hear sunlight," Edward mused.

Damn he's so freaking cute.

I had to chuckle. "I think that's normal, babe."

"You think?"

My only real experience with newborns was being one myself. Not that we hadn't come across the odd newborn over the years, but I was the youngest member of our coven, until recently, so the only knowledge I had to draw on was only from what I went through.

I remembered one of the first things I saw when I woke up was Esme. Her dress had the most beautiful purple ribbons down the front that matched the gloves stretching past the bend of her elbow. The tip of my tongue tingled as I recalled the way the color tasted that day.

Edward closed his eyes. "Purple," he whispered as he licked his lips.

"Did you just say purple?"

"Yeah, it was weird, I closed my eyes and I could see Esme, but it was a long time ago. She looked like she stepped right out of a Jane Austen novel with these purple ribbons down the front of her dress and matching…"

"What did it taste like?" I interrupted.

"Huh?" Edward seemed to look confused.

"Purple, what did it taste like?"

"It tasted like," he closed his eyes again, trying to think of the right flavors, "pomegranates and rain. Why?"

I stared at him. I wanted to ask him to repeat himself but it really wasn't necessary, I heard him perfectly the first time. I was just having a hard time believing it. Maybe his gift was similar to Rose's.

"What am I thinking, right now?" I asked.

"Uh, that we are both wearing way too many clothes?" he asked with a naught grin, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Other than that," I giggled, "concentrate."

Edward closed his eyes and furrowed his in absorption.

My original thought process switched and suddenly I was remembering the first time I thought he was wearing far too many clothes, the night we met.

I'd been a good girl and hadn't peeked at his naked body when I watched him every night. I was saving that. If I was going to see him without his clothes, I wanted to be an active participant in the removal process.

I smiled as I thought about that, removing one article of his clothing at a time…with my teeth.

I let my eyes rake over his ridiculously clothed form, fantasizing about what was beneath all of that fabric. I pictured the long sinewy muscles of his legs, the tight swell of his firm yet pliable backside, the smooth lines of his back, the broad expanse of his chest, the soft skin of his abdomen, his defined hipbones that would carve out the trail leading to his, what appeared to be, sizable manhood. He was truly the perfect man, slender, but not skinny and muscular, without being bulky. And his hair drove me to near madness with the urge to curl my fingers into its unruly masses.

Edward started to squirm a little bit and adjust himself inside his pants.

"Okay, that was just…weird," he said, clearly uncomfortable.

"Did you see anything?"

"Oh, I saw plenty," he nodded. "But…how can I describe this…it's like I was there, like it was me watching myself and I imagined taking my own clothes off with my teeth and how I would look naked. But I think the most disturbing thing is that I got incredibly turned on by…me." He shook his head and visibly shuddered.

It was as if he was experiencing the memory as I did, hmmmmm.

"Okay, I think I might know what this means. Try again."

"Fine," he grumbled, kicking his legs out like runners did before a big race. He rolled his neck a few times and crossed his arms over his chest, stretching his back. "But," he said suddenly, pointing at me, "after this, you're getting naked." He walked over to me and skimmed his nose up my neck, inhaling as he went. "I'm want to see how loud you can really scream," he whispered.

My eyes rolled back in my head and the phone startled me as it vibrated in my pocket. Alice's name was on the caller ID and she started speaking as soon as I opened the phone.

"I'm taking Jasper back to the house and Esme is waiting for you at the cottage," she rambled a mile a minute, hanging up before I could ask anything.

"Damn it," I growled, nearly busting the phone in half.

"There isn't going to be any nakedness right now is there?" Edward pouted.

"No."

"Shit, well let's get over there and get whatever this is over with so we can get back to…" His hungry eyes raked up and down my body, mentally disposing of my clothes by the look of it. "God, I just want to consume you," he snarled through his clenched teeth.

"Soon, my love, but right now we need to get to the cottage."

"Wait, would that be the same one that I threw up in?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Great," he muttered, wrinkling his nose before we took off running.

~EPOV~

I will admit, running was fun and took a bit of the horny edge off. Not much, but enough that I felt like I could be social without being completely rude and groping Bella in front of everyone.

I couldn't describe how I was feeling. Fingers itched to touch her, tongue ached to taste her and….

My thoughts stopped cold as a new scent wafted across me as soon as the cottage came into view.

"What's that?" I asked as we slowed to a walk, taking a deep breath.

"Can you be a little more specific, describe it?" Bella asked.

"It smells like," we walked through the door and the scent was stronger. "Damn, what is that?" My mouth started to overflow with fluid, I couldn't swallow it fast enough and it spilled out when I tried to speak again.

Emmett cackled from the other room. "Smooth, man, smooth." He looked me up and down. "Jesus Edward, even as a vampire, you still have some fucked up hair."

"Shut up, Emmett," I mumbled, wiping my chin. "Seriously though, it smells like…bacon, I love bacon."

"That's it!" Emmett yelled, pointing at me. "Thank you! That is exactly what Jazz smells like!"

Jazz? Did he just say that our brother smells like…?

"Ugh!" I shouted, spitting out the excess venom, unable to swallow it back anymore. "Oh God, I just referred to Jasper as bacon."

"Kind of ironic don't you think, being as that he's a cop and all," Emmett chuckled.

"I think I'm going to be sick."

"Pffft, trust me man, I know," Emmett said, his eyes turning somber.

That's when I felt like I was hit in the back of the head, images and feelings flooding my mind.

I was clutching Emmett's arms, trying to stop him from advancing on Jasper, but he was entirely too strong. I screamed his name and still he kept moving.

Alice crouched in front of Jasper, baring her teeth.

Oh God, please don't hurt him, he doesn't know what he's doing, I thought.

I yelled for Carlisle and Esme and in a flash they were on either side of him, pulling against the massive force that was Emmett and we held him a mere three feet from his brother.

"Em?" Jasper said.

Emmett stopped fighting us and I could hear his voice inside my head.

Jasper?

My brother, Jasper.

"Em, man, it's me, Jazz," he spoke.

Jazz.

My brother, Jazz.

"That's right, that is your brother, Jasper," I said, trying to calm him down.

The horrified look on Emmett's face when he realized that he was baring his teeth and a trickle of venom was ready to spill over his lips. He sucked it back and clamped his hand over his mouth and my heart broke for him. I had the overwhelming urge to whisk him away and wrap my arms around him.

"Earth to Edward."

I blinked a few times. When I refocused Emmett was standing in front of me waving his hand back and forth in front of my eyes.

Without thinking I clutched my arms around my brother.

"Um, Ed," he said calmly. "Love ya; really do, but uh…"

I backed off immediately. "Sorry, man, that was…"

"Weird," Rosalie said from behind me.

"What did you see Rose?" Bella asked and I could feel the anticipation emanating off of her.

"It was like I was seeing my own memory from when Emmett nearly attacked Jasper," Rose explained. "I don't think he was reading my mind though, he was…remembering."

"Oh, this is exciting," Esme smiled, stepping out of the shadows. "Edward, if you don't mind, I'd like to try a few things."

"No, I don't mind."

"Excellent," she beamed. "You stand over there next to Rosalie, and Bella you come over here with Emmett."

Emmett leapt up, more than eager to try out any kind of new vampire trick.

"So, dude, what is the weirdest thing you've experienced so far, other than the whole memory-mind reading thing," he laughed.

"I can hear sunlight," I said with a grin.

"No way, I could taste green!" he exclaimed.

"Bella tasted purple."

Emmett turned to Bella. "What did it taste like?"

"Pomegranates and rain," Bella and I said in unison, smiling at each other.

God, I love her so much that my chest physically aches with the need to touch her. Taste her. Claim her.

Again.

I started to twitch and Carlisle chuckled. "Darling, let's hurry so these love birds can all fly the coop."

"Yes, of course," she said, explaining what was going to happen.

Bella was going to think of something, not a memory, just something random and I was going to try to read it. Then Emmett was going to think of a memory and I was going to try to pick it up through some kind of shield that he had over his mind.

With Bella, Rosalie read her mind where as I could read the memory behind what she was thinking. While Rose heard her singing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, I could see the memory of Bella and her family going to the movie. I couldn't get anything from Emmett until he lifted his shield though.

After about an hour of questions we determined that I lived the memory as if it were my own. Esme said with practice and concentration, in theory, I should be able to reach inside someone's head and extract a memory at will, but for right now, I could only see what they happened to be remembering at the time.

I'd been patient for the last hour and I was ready to take Bella somewhere, anywhere, and lay claim to her again.

We were nearly out the door when Esme stopped us.

"How was your first hunt?" she asked.

"Fine, I guess," I said with a shrug.

"He did beautifully," Bella said, beaming with pride. "He drained four elk without spilling so much as a drop."

"I'd worked up quite the appetite." I winked at Bella and she giggled.

"Excellent," Esme smiled. "Will you accept the gift I have to offer you? Forsake your natural urge to drink human blood and live off of only the blood of animals?"

Bella smiled at me and I nodded.

"You know that this lifestyle is not an easy one for our kind, and while I can not completely remove the urge to drink human blood, I can help suppress it. Do you accept this gift from me, Edward?"

"Yes," I replied, loud and proud.

Esme smiled as she closed her eyes, placed a palm on each side of my face and bent my forehead to hers and she began to whisper.

The sound was soft, quick and melodic. Her warm breath washed over my face as she spoke and it smelled like an apple that had just been dipped in warm caramel. The words fell from her lips so fast that I couldn't catch them all, even with my heightened vampire hearing. I don't even think it was English.

A spot, deep inside my head started to buzz. It didn't hurt, it just felt odd.

Esme pulled her forehead away from mine and placed her right palm in its place and her left hand covered my heart and she continued to chat, slower and louder than before, her fingertips pressing into my flesh, tingling.

She opened her eyes, they practically glowed and I couldn't look anywhere else.

"This is the gift I bestow upon thee," she whispered.

Her eyes started to dim and she smiled at me. She took my face once again as she stretched up onto her toes, bending my forehead to her lips and giving me a gentle kiss.

"Welcome to the family my son."

I wish I could explain my feelings at this very moment.

I hadn't felt a maternal connection in so long that I could barley remember the one with my own mother.

For this I felt so conflicted.

I wanted to leap for joy at this wonderful feeling that was buzzing inside my body for my new family. But I also wanted to weep for the loss of my old life. My father.

"Dad," I heard myself whisper.

I saw my father, he looked so young and yet so old at the same time. There was an empty bottle of Jack Daniels sitting next to him.

He looked at me and his eyes were swollen and red.

As abruptly as it started, it ended and everything went black.

"What was that?"

"That was…unexpected," Esme muttered, glancing at Carlisle.

~JPOV~

Alice ran us through the woods toward the Cullen house.

I started worrying about my dad again, I couldn't help it.

I remembered how distraught he was after mom died and I thought about that, even though he didn't know it, he'd just lost Emmett and Edward back to back. Did I have it in my heart to leave him all alone?

Looking at Alice, I pondered my options. I was willing to leave my family for her, but would she be willing to leave hers for me and lead a completely human life? Could she?

This decision weighed so heavy on me that I literally felt weighted down by it. I was so overrun with these thoughts that I hadn't realized we'd stopped running until Alice pulled me off of her back.

"Are you okay Jasper?" she asked tentatively.

"I don't know Alice, I'm just…I have a lot to think about. I know you told me not to, but I do worry about my dad. You didn't see what losing my mom did to him, it destroyed him. The only thing that kept him going was us boys and now that I'm the only one left, I don't know if I have the hard to be the one that crushes him."

Alice took a deep breath and pushed the back door to the house open. "I might know more than you think," she said quietly.

We walked into the house and there was dad, sitting on the couch.

"Dad?"

"Hello son." He looked at us and smiled like I hadn't seen in years. Dad just didn't smile much anymore.

"You must be Alice," he said, standing up and extending a hand to her. "I've heard so much about you."

She ignored it and pulled him into an embrace, giggling.

"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?"

Chapter End Notes:

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