I paused at the door leading into Carlisle's office and tapped it gently, before pushing it open, not waiting for a response. I knew he was in there and he was probably reading. When he reads, he's in his own world; Edward and I have both come to the conclusion that we could have a game of full contact football or rugby occurring in his office and Carlisle wouldn't notice.

Surprisingly, he looked up when I entered and smiled.

True a book was lying open on his massive desk, but apparently he wasn't as absorbed in it as he usually can be.

"Hi dad," I said softly

"Chris," he said "how are you?"

"Better now," I admitted.

It's funny, Carlisle doesn't have extra abilities like Jasper, Edward, Alice, and I do, but he has his own.

Like Esme, Carlisle can tell when each of us are reaching the ending point of our willpower, so he must've known mine was starting to falter.

I said it earlier and I'll say it again, Carlisle makes a great father in every sense of the word he really looks out for us like we are his children, we think of him and Esme as our parents and I know they think of us as their children and at times, it's like they both know us better than we even know ourselves.

"Excellent, I was hoping you would hunt tonight, you needed it." He paused and closed the book "Alice told me about the bet, I'm assuming you won?" he finished glancing at my jeans a slight grin sliding across his face.

I followed his gaze and groaned. Not only were they stained with dirt, but, I grimaced I could see blood on them, my eyes traveled from my jeans to my tee-shirt, where even more blood had stained the green shirt. Good thing this was an old shirt, one that Alice had been conniving to obtain to throw out.

She's such a fashion guru that she is appalled by my contentment in ripped jeans and old shirts as opposed to fresh off the runway styles.

"Yes sir," my grimace turned to a grin, "Two glorious months of no Dr. Doolittle!" I replied unable to keep my voice calm, the more times I say it the better it sounds, not to mention the more real it sounds.

"Congratulations," Carlisle said nodding "believe me, you are not the only one thankful for the coming reprise. I was going to step in shortly if Emmett didn't stop, every time he called Doctor I looked up and it was starting to get rather annoying." He finished with a grin, which I returned, both of us laughing at that, knowing very well how true it was.

Slowly my laughter subsided as I leaned against the wall and folded my arms across my chest.

"Carlisle… is Edward all right? I mean… he's coming home right? He's not going to stay in Alaska is he?"

Carlisle also stopped laughing; he stood up, walked over to me and patted my shoulders gently.

"He just needed to clear his head a little and what better place than Alaska?" he paused "If I remember correctly a certain someone in this family has on more than one occasion taken a stroll to the most northern part of the state to clear his head am I correct?"

I sighed and nodded, my father was right of course Alaska is a good place to clear ones head, but we each have our own spots to go to calm down, mine is just a little closer to home in a small fishing town called Neah Bay.

"Yeah it is."

Now Carlisle looked at me with a serious look on his face

"I'm assuming Alice filled you in?"

"Yes," I replied, nodding.

"He'll be alright Chris. Tanya and the others will look after him, don't worry."

I sighed; I wish everyone would stop telling me not to worry, especially those who know I won't or can't for that matter.

"Like I told Alice, it's kind of difficult not to worry, I mean Edward is the last one I thought, would, would even think about…" I left that sentence unfinished and my shoulders slumped.

Carlisle knew where my words were headed and decided to try and take my mind off of what was going on. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully which told me he had something in mind.

"Well then, how's about a distraction?"

I raised my eyebrow suspiciously,

"Distraction," I repeated "what kind of distraction?"

Carlisle walked back to his desk and reached into a folder, pulling out a few photos, which he handed to me.

"The mechanical kind"

I stared at the first photo, it was a side view of a very beat up, very old car…but looking closer I could see the potential in the piece of junk, the body looked really familiar, it couldn't be a stang, no way…then I looked at the next photo, on the grill shining out from the dust, rot, and decay of the rest of the car, was a silver symbol…of a horse.

"Whoa, Carlisle…this…this is a Mustang!" I exclaimed. I flipped to the next picture which gave me a view of the back end "Aw man it's a '69 too!" 1968 was my favorite year for cars of both the 60s and the 70s; the 80s had some nice cars as did the 90s, but a '68 Mustang is my favorite of all cars produced that year and many of the years to follow, the Mustang took a turn for the worse from 1969 on through the 70s, the 1969 Mustang 429 Boss was the last of the great 'stangs until well…there really hasn't been a return since. I looked at the body more closely, it had once been a convertible that much was obvious, but there was definitely something I recognized about the body, I wouldn't know for sure until I got closer to it.

"I thought that would catch your interest." Carlisle said casually.

I could see he was trying to withhold his own grin, not at the prospect of the car, but at my enthusiasm towards it.

"Catch my interest? Are you kidding, dad this is awesome!" I exclaimed.

"Hm Chris, I was expecting a little more enthusiasm with this," Carlisle pointed out, his voice lighthearted and amused.

I grinned and shrugged, before looking closer at the pictures, the car really was in rough shape. The Mustang symbol and the back end were the only ways to tell that it was a Mustang.

The roof's cloth was rotted away and would have to be removed and replaced and the doors looked like they were being held together by the rust, it had one tire that I could see, and I seriously wondered if it even had an engine.

But I could see past all the problems with it and saw a beautiful classic car and an amazing project in the works.

I looked up at Carlisle's expectant face, now he was smiling.

"Whose car?" I asked around my grin.

"Actually, it belongs to Dr. Snow at the hospital. He purchased it back in the 80s with every intention of restoring it, but never found the time he needed. It's been sitting in his driveway facing the elements and taking up space." Carlisle paused and sat down at his desk "he knows I am 'an avid car collector'" Carlisle said in quotes with a smile "and mentioned the Mustang. His other option if I do not want it is he has to junk it." My eyes went wide with shock, junk a classic? Heck no. "Chris it is in pretty bad shape, and if Dr. Snow can't do anything with it, getting what he can for even a bit of money is what he has to do, even if it means selling it to a junkyard."

"How much does he want for it!" I replied it would be cruel not to mention psychotic to allow a piece of history and marvel like a '69 Mustang be damned to the Forks junkyard. Considering how crappy the Mustangs of today look, as a licensed mechanic and an admirer of the Ford Mustang I could not allow it. Especially if my gut was right about what type of Mustang this was.

Carlisle chuckled as if he expected this reaction out of me, which is fair enough, he knows I love cars just as much as Rosalie and Edward do and he knows the Mustang is just one on my long list of favorite car models.

"Actually, he's willing to part with it for just a hundred dollars; a more than generous deal for a car that once fixed will be worth much more, as long as I promise to show him the final product. I think he feels with the amount of time and material that it will take to restore the car it will be worth letting it go for such a price. I assume between you and Rosalie a month maybe two will be plenty. But it would be wise to extend that time period before we show Dr. Snow, just to keep up appearances of course. What do you say Christian? Interested?"

My grin was answer enough for my father, but I felt the need to voice my answer as well, this was going to be awesome.

"Heck yeah!"

Carlisle looked at his watch and stood up.

"I don't suppose you would want to take a ride over there and see it?"

"Could we?"

Carlisle nodded

"But first, wash up and change." He replied nodding towards my bloodstained clothes; I had completely forgotten about them with the mention of the car.

"Ok," I replied and darted out of his office to change my clothes and take a quick shower, to wash off any blood remnants, I could smell it all over myself.

On my way back upstairs from the shower second floor shower, I stopped by Rosalie and Emmett's room. All of our bedrooms have a bathroom attached to them, but Esme is renovating my shower for some odd reason, why I have no idea. So I used the large bathroom on the second floor, sides I had to see if Rosalie wanted to come check out the car. If anyone's better at cars than me, it's Rosalie.

Edward fancies newer cars 'cause their faster, and so does Rosalie, that and because of the attention she can get with them like with her Beemer, and I'm not saying that I don't appreciate speed or newer style for that matter, seriously my Kawasaki goes twice the intended speed and that's just coasting, at full throttle it goes at least 100 maybe 150, and the ATV about 65-75, I've never full opened the ATV up. But Rosalie and I appreciate classics, especially muscle cars.

But unless they can go from 0 to 100 in two seconds, Edward's not that interested in driving 'em, in fact anything over five years old he calls ancient and slow.

Not to mention, Edward is not the mechanic he thinks he is, he honestly thinks that he can do anything that Rosalie and I can do. The last time he tried to change the spark plug on the Volvo (on his own when neither one of us were home mind you) he literally killed it, the whole car, it took Rosalie and I two days and four hundred dollars to revive the car.

Anyways, with the Mustang, Rosalie needs to take a look at it with me, to see exactly how much time and money is going to be going into it.

Either way all the time and money would be worth it, but an estimate is always good to have as is a second pair of car eyes. Especially since this isn't going to be MY project, but our project.

I knocked on the door gently; I could hear Emmett shouting at the game he was watching downstairs, so I knew that Rosalie was in her room, I could hear the sound of pages turning so she was probably reading, quiet time for my sister involved either books or cars.

"Yes?" she called from inside and I pushed the door open, grinning

"It's just me Rose,"

"Come in Chris"

Despite the dislike for my pets, Rosalie and I do get along very well, much better than her and Edward.

They tolerate each other; they aren't exactly close and have more of a sibling rivalry going on than any of us, even 'tween Emmett and me, Emmett and I just kind of goof around that we drive each other batty, in reality we're really close. But with Edward and Rosalie there's no goofing around, it's serious and it's real.

I've never understood why they're like that, I've never asked nor have I tried to read it off of them, it's their own private matter. Though I am curious and if either one of them would be willing to tell me I would willingly listen. Rosalie and I on the other hand work great together, especially when it comes to cars.

When we're in the garage working it's smooth sailing, we never get in each other's way and can fix all of the cars our family owns in record time.

She helped me supe up the ATV when I first got it she's the reason it goes faster than it was originally intended to. We just disagree on tinkering with her BMW.

"Hi," I replied,

"Do you need help with the bike?" I shook my head, grinning wide. Unable to form the words, I simply handed her the pile of photos from Carlisle. It took her only a second to catch onto what I was excited about. "What year?"

"69," I replied "it's in rough shape," she nodded in agreement, but I could see the excitement in her eyes.

"Whose?"

"Dr. Snow, 'pparently he bought it back in the 80s, but never got around to restoring it. He told Carlisle that if he didn't want it, he's gonna junk it."

Rosalie's face instantly contorted to the same horrified look I'd had and I had to laugh at that.

"How much is he selling it for?"

"One hundred, but he wants to see it when it's finished." I paused "Carlisle and I are going over there now to look at it," I grinned "coming?" Rosalie was on her feet before I even finished. She pulled on a jacket, grabbed my hand and dragged me to the door. Between laughs I tried to pull her to a stop, "Ro…Rose…hold up…waaaait."

We were at the top of the stairs heading down them, before she finally realized she was dragging me and I wasn't cooperating.

"What?" She finally said impatiently "what is the matter Christian…"

I gestured to myself.

"Oh nothing, I'm just not quite sure going out like this in the middle of January is really appropriate attire. I pretty sure it's not normal in the very least. I mean, I don't care either way, I just don't think Carlisle will approve, goes against blending in right? …heck I don't think Esme will let me near the door."

She looked over at me and realized what I was talking about: my bare feet and my white sleeveless undershirt, not to mention I was holding up my baggy jeans with the hand not being used as a pull toy.

Rose laughed a little and nodded.

"Sorry,"

"No problem, gimme a second."

With that said, I bolted back to my room threw on a clean sweatshirt, put my belt and sneakers on and met her downstairs.

When I hit bottom, she eyed my hooded sweatshirt apprehensively.

"You don't have anyone in there do you?" she asked accusingly.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

"Nope, left them in your room though, Chap insisted on a visit."

"You better be kidding Christian if you are not so help me-" she started to say when Carlisle looked up from the TV,

"Ready?" he asked standing up. Carlisle reached into his pocket and extracted my glasses.

I groaned.

"Oh come on Carlisle not the glasses…"

"Chris, you promised to wear them when I said so and I promised it would only be in times of absolute importance, this is one of those times. Dr. Snow specializes in optometry, and" Carlisle led me over to the hall mirror, and I instantly saw what he was talking about. Now that I had hunted, the dark blue was gone and back was the pale foggy blue that made me look blind, "he'll wonder how you can see without them, and wonder why you're not wearing them."

"Oh…right…" I slipped the stupid things on, but I wasn't going to complain, I understood Carlisle's reasoning and I did promise.

We made our way to the door and headed outside towards the garage. It felt odd climbing into the backseat of Edward's Volvo with Carlisle driving it 'stead of Edward, but everyone was right, I needed to stop worrying so much.

He'd be ok in a few days, Tanya, Carmen, Eleazar, Kate, and Irena would see to that, 'sides, when he got home he could see our latest project and complain about the "turtle" taking up space in our garage.

Turtle smurtle, give Rose and me two months to work on the 'stang and it would be ready to take on even the Aston in a race. We're car geniuses, heck we could make a Model T from 1901 take on the autobahn (maybe an exaggeration, but still)

In fact, as soon as he got home we'd plan a race 'tween the two cars, no guarantee it would beat the Aston but it could put up a decent fight.

Dr. Snow lives about an hour from us, which meant it took us just about 15 minutes to drive through town and reach his small farm house just outside of town, Carlisle is no speed demon like Edward, but he doesn't coast anywhere either.

I've met Dr. Snow on a few occasions at the hospital, he was the one who asked Carlisle about my eyes the first time he met me when we "first" moved to Forks three years ago; that was when Carlisle became insistent about the glasses when he felt it was necessary for me to wear them, especially around Dr. Snow.

He never struck me as a car guy, especially since the car he takes to work is this '97 Toyota Corolla that is constantly seen at the local garage in town, but as we pulled up the driveway and I spotted the car I was completely focused on it.

I was out the door before Carlisle even parked the Volvo, he was laughing as I darted over to the car to check it out.

"Bloody hell it's a Boss! It's a bloody 429 Boss!" I exclaimed diving at the car.

I had myself wedged underneath the front end of car with my feet sticking out checking the underneath for rust damage, when Dr. Snow came out of his house.

I could hear both doctors laughing and heard Rosalie moving around the car, before kneeling down and poking her head underneath the driver side, where she could see me.

"How do we look?" she asked her voice soft enough that only Carlisle and I could hear. "is it really a Boss?"

"It is, I can't believe Dr. Snow doesn't realize what he has here, a few thousand dollars into this thing and this car could be worth over $200,000."

"How does the chaise look, what are we looking at for damage?"

"Not bad actually, I was wrong, it has an engine, but we are going to have to take it out to clean everything up. But the chaise is in great shape, hardly needs any work. I wonder if it'll actually start, if it does that'll cut out a step or two. But either way, the engines gotta come out, might take some work though, everything's really rusted up there and I doubt DW-40 will do any damage might need to invent some stronger stuff just to de-rust the mounts."

"Do you want me to pop the hood?"

I shook my head

"No, it's not connected, wires been cut or chewed through…" I looked closer "nope its been chewed, wires are all frayed. We're going to have to pry it open by hand, and I'd rather do that at home, where we have the hooks and the lift." My nose twitched as I found the car's resident and culprit of the wire chewing, a really fat squirrel; "I think something's been living in here."

"What makes you say that?"

"Oh no reason in particular, call it just a hunch." I replied, the squirrels eyes went wide, his black ones staring into my blue. I could hear it's heart beating so fast it sounded like it was humming and I could feel it's mounting fear.

The squirrel and I stared at each other for a few seconds as he panicked and bolted out the other side of the car, darting past Rosalie's feet, making her jump back in fright.

"What the hell was that?" Rosalie hissed with a slight squeak

"Fast Food," I whispered snickering.

"I beg your pardon!"

"Dinner on the run, or how 'bout a meal under the wheels?"

"Chris!"

"The critter that was living under here just got a speedy eviction notice and I don't think he was too pleased 'bout it. Careful, there's gonna be a vengeful squirrel running 'round Forks for a while and he's going to be out for Cullen."

I wiggled myself out from under the car and brushed off the dirt from my sweatshirt. Dr. Snow was talking with Carlisle, who gestured for Rosalie and me to come over.

"Chris, Rosalie you remember Dr. Snow," Carlisle said introducing us to Dr. Snow, "Alan you remember my youngest, Chris and my niece, Rosalie?"

He looked both of us over and I extended my hand which he shook.

Normally, I'm hesitant with shaking hands, our bodies are so cold that it's really unnatural and uncomfortable to people, but we were outside and I could see Dr. Snow's breath in the air so there was definitely a chill in the air; I shivered to keep up the effect.

"Good to see you kids' again," he replied, dropping my hand "Chris, do you want to go inside and get something hot to drink? Your hands are freezing. Mrs. Snow is inside, she'd be happy to get you a hot coco."

I raised my hands to my mouth and pretended to blow on them.

"No thank you, I'm good," Carlisle saw where this was going and patted my shoulder gently,

"Chris, go get my gloves out of the car and put them on, I do not need you coming down with anything."

I rolled my eyes as I walked back to the Volvo and pulled out Carlisle's leather gloves. I said it earlier, in order to keep low-key we go with whatever people happen to believe, that and we try to blend in as much as possible, standing outside in the middle of January should constitute gloves and winter apparel.

"So," Dr. Snow said walking towards the 'Stang, "she's in bad shape, but just needs some time and effort put into restoring her. Both of which I don't have. A little TLC wouldn't hurt her either. I have all the original paperwork. Its only had two owners before me, the first one who bought it in 1969 and then the guy I bought it off of in the 80s."

I rubbed my chin and walked around the car, when I reached the back I sat back down on the ground and pulled myself underneath again, I needed to check the muffler and possibly see the gas tank.

I saw Dr. Snow's face in my head 'fore I went under so I wasn't surprised when I heard Carlisle and Rosalie chuckle a few seconds after because of his reaction.

"Chris is a little meticulous when it comes to cars," Carlisle explained

"Hey Rose? Pass me the torch under the front seat of the Volvo."

I could hear more chuckling from Carlisle and Dr. Snow,

"Chris, you mean a flashlight?" Rosalie asked between laughs

"Yeah that…" I replied as a flashlight was handed to me "Thank you." I joined their chucking at realizing what I had said, slipping back into my old British terms again, like my accent, I slip back into it every now and then especially when I'm excited or stressed 'bout something, though it doesn't happen very often, it always gets a good chuckle out of my family.

I shined the flashlight up into the crevees and every nook and cranny of the car's chaise. It really wasn't in bad shape, considering the condition it was exposed too.

"Sorry about this Carlisle, perhaps it would have been better if you came over during the day, you could really get a better look at it, really see what your throwing money into." Dr. Snow was saying as I wiggled back out. "This thing is not going to be a cheap fix up, it's going to be costly and frankly it might be a waste of time." Rosalie and I exchanged a look on that sentence. I knew how much EXACTLY this was going to cost to restore, especially with only original parts. I don't want anything on this car to be refurbished with refurbished parts.

"Don't worry about it Alan, I trust you, and as I said, Chris and Rose are both very car oriented, both of them know what they are getting themselves into." Carlisle replied, looking over at me.

My grin was answer enough; this car would be a challenge to fix up, but a fun challenge. Dr. Snow looked at my grin

"Well, Mr. Good-wrench what's your opinion?"

In the dark, and because of the glasses, Dr. Snow couldn't see me rolling my eyes, Mr. Good-wrench, that was just as bad as Dr. Doolittle, but I kept my mouth shut and kept the grin on my face.

"This is so cool," I turned to Carlisle; I already knew his answer, but also knew I had to play the part. "It could be a great project to work on."

"What do you think Chris? Have it finished by the time you're old enough to drive?" Dr. Snow asked.

Loooong before that, not that I'll be ever legal to drive technically I thought, either way. I am driving this sucker when it is finished.

I don't care if Jasper has to get me a fake permit or even a license and I have to give up ATV money to do so.

I mean, worse comes to worse I get Edward or Alice to drive with me to act as the licensed driver and as extra cop detector, but I nodded slowly, the wheels in my head turning out the possibilities.

"Heck yea, 'tween Rosalie and me, this won't take very long. Year and a half I get my permit and in two I can get my license." I looked over my shoulder at the car again "it's in decent shape and is a great project." To keep up the charade I looked at Carlisle with pleading eyes. "Come on dad, please?"

Carlisle rubbed his chin looking the car over, before looking at Rosalie and I, he had a look on his face that he was going to play the father role to it's fullest, though I think he was actually serious.

"Are you both ready to put the necessary time and money into this? I don't want this to end up taking up space in the garage, all right?"

Rose and I exchanged a look. I could see it; she was struggling to contain her excitement just like me, she just does a better job of it. Rosalie tries to go as cool and uninterested as possible, but I know my sister.

"Yes sir," we both said in unison.

"All right then," Carlisle turned to Dr. Snow, "looks like you are down a car Alan,"

"Wonderful!" Dr. Snow exclaimed "I've got the papers and a bill of sale all drawn up, come on inside you three, get out of this blasted cold and warm up."

I looked over at Carlisle for what to do; he inconspicuously nodded for us to follow him and Dr. Snow into the house. Rosalie did, but I stayed outside for a few seconds, staring at the car, I could not wait to get it home and tinker with it.

A twitching feeling in the back of my head distracted me from drooling over the car, seconds later, as I expected, Carlisle's voice called to me from the front door,

"Come on Christian, come inside. You can spend all your free time drooling over it when we get it home tomorrow."

I grinned and headed towards the house, he knows me way to well.