Don't own anything, S.M. wouldn't even lend me Paul. Damn.

Chapter 5. Part 1 Crash

June 1937.

Edward-

I was very seriously relieved to be done with the second grade. The teacher would get so irritated when she couldn't get a wrong answer out of me. Mrs. Reed had also taken an extremely off putting liking to my father. At least she was less obnoxious about it then some of the men that would gape and leer at my mother and Rosalie. I wonder if Alice could tell me if my teacher next year would be less annoying. Maybe I would use that to test the waters before I tried to get her to tell me what my birthday presents would be. (A.N I had to show Emmett's influence somehow.) It was only six days until I turned eight. Emmett had been teasing me, telling me that I was a man now and should start chipping in some rent. He said when he was eight he had two jobs and a live in girlfriend.

Unhappily for Emmett, Rosalie had been walking up quietly behind him. He got a good smack to the head and a lecture on "being so crass in front of a child". She then lectured me on what an unattractive and somewhat dangerous habit it was to go around rolling your eyes at people. I resisted another eye roll at that and went back to my room. Now that I was free of school for the summer I had plans to make. The most perfect idea came to me then.

A tree house. Somewhere out in the middle of the forest, far away from any trails. A big elaborate tree house. I knew this would be right up Emmett's ally, he would love it. I would just have to make it big enough for him to fit. Did I want a nice southern exposure? What kind of materials should I use? Did I want to go full on castle in Ireland or stick with a more humble classic Americana? Hmm. There was a lot to think about. As I have learned from my mother, the first thing an architect has to do before making any plans is to take a good look at his location.

I told Mom I was going for a run and would be back for dinner. Alice just winked at me on my way out. I'm sure she could see what I was planning. It was very interesting, living with a psychic. I wondered if Jasper would like to help. I think some busy work might be just the thing to trick him into talking. Bubbly Alice blended in with all of us pretty quickly, but Jasper was a little more allusive. I could ask him about Texas.

There must be a nice secluded spot that would work. I would do a thorough search until I found that perfect place. I was pretty sure I could cajole Dad into helping too. I stopped to wonder if they had tree houses in mid-seventeenth century England. Probably not in London. Dad was born a city boy. Then I wondered if anyone had written a book on the history of tree houses. I would have to look into it. A few miles from the house my architectural ambitions were interrupted when I heard the sound of brakes and a large crash. I had to decide what to do. Should I go get the others? Or should I just go see if I could help?

It might look odd to see a seven year old wondering around the woods by the highway, but I would just go see if anyone was hurt. Two miles later I could smell the crash, and blood. I did my best to block out the inevitable flashbacks of my birth. I could also smell the buck that was hoofing away from the accident. It was worse than I thought. The car was smashed into one of the trees the tourists love so much. The deer must have ran out into the middle of the road and caused the accident. My stomach was in knots when I approached the car.

Wishing very badly that my father was there with me, I approached the car. I could make out some shallow breathing. Someone was still alive, they needed help. I ran a fairly toasty one-hundred-and-three degrees, but the sight of the obviously dead couple in the front of the car made my blood run cold. They were gone and I couldn't help them, it was a dreadful helpless feeling. And a familiar one. But there was still a heartbeat somewhere in that car. I had to look in the back.

You can do this I said to myself. Whoever is in there needs you.

It was a girl. She was hurt. As gently as I could, I picked her up of the floor of the back where she had landed and pulled her out. I knew this was very dangerous, but her breathing sounded too shallow and I could hear her heartbeat was slowing. She looked my age. Her too pale skin contrasted sharply with her long mahogany hair. It didn't take me long to realize that this was a result of blood loss. Her right leg was bent at a very wrong angle, and it was the left that was causing most of the blood loss. It was bleeding way too fast. Her head was bleeding a little too.

I should have been racing her to the hospital or back home, but it was like I was frozen there with her. Had Alice been able to see this, was Dad on his way? She was getting better at it but it was still harder for her to see me than anyone else. The girl started to stir then. In what looked like a Herculean effort, she opened her eyes. They were brown and deep and very confused. "It's OK, it'll all be OK" I said to her, echoing the words my mother said to me in the jungle. When I was the newly orphaned one. She looked up at me for a few moments, even hurt and disoriented she looked like she was taking everything in. It was the eyes, very perceptive eyes. Still she looked so helpless.

Then suddenly it looked like something dawned on her, she stared up at me with a look of wonder on her face and said "oh", like she just realized something terribly important. She spoke so softly I'm not sure I would have heard her without my vampire hearing. Her heart was getting much too faint, and I realized I had to do something soon. She was dieing. That fact hit me like nothing I had ever felt before and made me feel almost light headed with panic. It couldn't happen, it just couldn't.

It's almost impossible to describe but I felt like if she died than a piece of me would be gone too. That didn't make any sense at all. She wasn't my friend or a member of my family. I didn't know her at all.

Thump..Thump...Thump

Her heart was still slowing too fast and her leg was still bleeding badly. Then it hit me like lightening. About a year and a half ago when we were in South America visiting Nahuel and Huilen, Nahuel told me one of his older sisters had a beloved human friend. When Zafrina came back from a long trip and went to see this friend, she found out that Senna and her family had become very ill. Her friend was already gone, as well as her husband. And their toddler was due to follow them very quickly. Zafrina took a major gamble and used her stock of venom to change the little girl.

She knew the price that was to be paid for creating an immortal child, so she stole away with the baby without telling anyone anything. She just left a letter saying she wanted to travel, and would be back but she didn't know when. Zafrina just hoped that the child would be able to control herself the way she and her siblings had when they were babies. But to her surprise Kachiri was able to do much more than that. She actually grew. Just like they had. The half-breed venom she had injected into her hadn't trapped her as a child forever. Kachiri's mind grew very quickly, and she still grew physically. Then at about seventeen or eighteen she just stopped aging, just as Zafrina and her family had. And Zafrina finally felt safe enough to come back to her brother and sisters and tell them what happened.

I hesitated for a moment, thinking of my fathers reaction if I were to do this. Somehow I couldn't make myself believe that was a good enough reason not to do it. Had he not created two and a half vampires? Mother, Rosalie and Emmett were here because of him. Emmett to a lesser degree because of me. If he could use my venom to save Emmett, than I should be able to use it to save this girl. I would take care of her. Show her how to hunt and explain what the rules were. I would always look after her the way Dad would always look after any of us. She would never be alone.

My mind was made up. I blanched a little at the actual act though. I had never bitten a person before. Doing it in front of this terrible accident by the woods did sort of make me feel like a real vampire for once. It was a strange feeling. I didn't really stop to think about the mystical nature of my family or myself much. We were different sure, but mostly we just wanted the same things as everyone else. Reminding myself that I was saving her not hurting her, and she was almost certainly going to die if I didn't. I took her from the side of the road and into the woods.

Once we were far enough away, I steeled myself for what I was about to do.

And then I bit.

First her wrists and then her neck. Then I figured I should bite her ankles too. She wasn't in good shape and I wanted to get plenty of venom into her. We stayed there for over an hour. I wanted to make sure the venom was working. Her leg had stopped bleeding and her heart rate had picked up. I wondered how long it would be before it sounded like mine. You could already start to smell a little of the strange mix of vampire and human in her. Not much yet, but I took it as a good sign. That's when I heard my family coming. Alice must have finally checked my future.

"Edward" My mother breathed with a shocked look on her face. Alice, Emmett, Jasper and Rosalie were right behind her. Dad must be on his way, if Alice had seen enough to bring the rest of them. All of them wore the same floored expression as my mom. "What is going on here? What happened?" She asked rushing over to me and my new progeny.

"She's changing isn't she?" Alice asked quietly. She understood. "There was an accident. Her parents are up there on the road." I said. This affected them all, I would have to tell them everything. Rosalie was looking at me with a strange look on her face. Not angry or really that surprised, like she new something. I would figure that out later. "You bit her?" Mom asked, still shocked. "I couldn't let her die." I was desperate for her to understand.

"Her parents are gone?" Jasper asked. I could see him slipping into Major Whitlock mode. "Yes, they were already dead when I got there." I told him. He looked at Emmett, "We need to get rid of the car."

Emmett nodded and they headed back to the road in the direction I pointed at. Alice put her hand on mom's shoulder, "We should take them home." Mom just nodded. She didn't seem to know what to make of all this. I couldn't blame her, neither did I really. I picked up the girl and started toward the house. I would really have to find out her name. A bit of nausea came over me, would she be angry with me? What if she didn't like being a vampire? I was anxious for her to be happy with us. The change wouldn't cause her pain, she would still grow up, she could still go into the sunlight, her control would be perfect. She could do just about anything she wanted to.

It was a pretty quiet trip back to the house. Dad wasn't back yet either. "Take her upstairs Edward. Go ahead and lay her down the guest room." "Yes mom."I replied. I did as I was told. If it weren't for the blood on her clothes and her head, and the awkward angle of her leg, anyone would just think she was taking a nap. That's when I heard Dad's car coming down the road. I hoped that mom would meet him and give him the basics, so I wouldn't have to. Childish I know, but I was still seven years old for a few days.

Saving her life felt so much like the right thing to do, but I was still nervous about what my dad would think. I heard the door open and Mom go out. I heard her give him the bare bones of what happened, just like I hoped she would. "Edward bit her? The little girl is changing?" The tone of his voice bordered on disbelief. "Yes" My mother said simply, you could tell she still had not processed this fact for herself. Rosalie came in the room with some things to help clean the girl up with and some clean clothes. I could tell she was holding her breath. "Thanks Rose." I told her.

She just gave a little smile. "You should rinse of and change." She said simply. I had gotten a good amount of blood on me. "Not yet, I still have to talk to Dad." Rosalie gave me a sympathetic look at that and left the room.

The door opened and I heard my parents coming back in. Dad was in the room as fast as his vampire speed could bring him. He looked at me, then the girl, trying to take it all in. "Esme, my bag." He said. But Alice was already right there behind him in the door holding it out to him. "Thank you." He said, polite as always even in the tensest situation. Most of the smaller cuts and bruises were healing quickly and her left leg had stopped bleeding. He treated them all anyway and set her right leg. He managed to get some pain medicine in her before her skin and veins became to hard for the needle, just in case she might be hurting. He listened very carefully to her breathing and her heart rate before he was done.

"Rosalie, could you finish cleaning her up and change her please? We should get the bloody clothes and bedding out of here. I will be back soon, I just need to speak to Edward" "Yes Carlisle."

He walked out the door to his office. I followed, prepared to meet my doom if necessary. He was behind his desk, I took the seat in front of it. Appropriately dubbed "the hot seat", because Emmett and I were usually the ones in it. He just looked at me and said "What happened?"

I took a breath and began. "I heard the crash, I'm pretty sure a deer caused it. I was pretty close so I decided to see if anyone was hurt. Her parents were in the front seats, but they were already dead, she was dieing too. That cut to her leg was really bad and I couldn't let her die so I bit her." I gushed out at once.

Then I squirmed there for a few seconds, waiting for Dad to take it all in and wondering if he had forgotten how to make facial expressions. I pretty much felt like a gladiator in the arena waiting for the thumbs up or down from the emperor. It was basically the same story Mom had given him outside when he came home anyway.

"I understand not wanting to watch the poor child die son, really I do. But changing someone, adding a member to this family should never be something you do without talking to, or asking myself and the rest of the family. Bringing someone into this life pretty much dwarfs almost any other commitment you can possibly make. And you basically made it for all of us."

"I know I did Dad, I just couldn't let her die. I don't know what it was but I just couldn't. I'm really sorry I did it without you." I said, willing him to understand. To remember when he did the same thing, three times.

He gave me a long speculative look and sighed. Then he looked past me to the paintings on the wall behind me. "Our main concern now is for the girl. She has already begun to heal and change, she will most likely wake up by tomorrow evening. We will have to explain all this to her. She probably wont remember what happened, to her or her parents. And in all likelihood will be very frightened when she wakes up, with her new senses. This may not be easy son."

I just nodded,what else could I do. "I'm going to do everything I can to help her Dad. That's my job now." He gave a small weary smile at that. "You will need help." he said.

A.N. Hey guys. Hope you enjoyed. Part 2 shouldn't be too far off. Thanks for the reviews. (Love those by the way. Hint hint.) Real quick about this chapter. If you read Midnight Sun, you will notice that Edward is drawn to Bella very quickly. At lunch the day he comes back from Alaska and before he has ever even spoken to Bella, he's already annoyed with Mike Newton. Edward doesn't like the possessive tone to Mikes thoughts because apparently he is already feeling a bit possessive of her. This is before he introduces himself or they do the mitosis lab. Then he's bothered that Mike thought that Bella didn't think much of their conversation in Bio.

He then stands by his car in the rain after the bell rings and is disappointed she didn't have to walk by him to get to her truck. When he goes hunting with Carlisle that evening and talks himself into leaving so he wont kill Bella, it upsets him. He doesn't understand why but it does. By the next morning, right before the van comes crashing into the truck, he's wishing he had worn gloves so he could give her a hand walking in the ice. Standing by his car taking a hopeful breath of air, hoping she will come over and talk to him.

We all know Rosalie and Emmett's story, he was a stranger, almost dead and still somehow she knew he was for her. Jasper knew right away when he met Alice. They weren't complete without each other.

Then there's Renesmee and Jacob. She was just three days old and already she felt she had a claim to Jacob. There was a possessive tone to her thoughts when she sees Bella attacking him. He was hers, she didn't want him hurt.

And I always wondered if Carlisle's quick encounter with Esme when she broke her leg was somehow the straw that broke the camels back with his loneliness, and what partially drove him to change Edward just a few years later. It's not as flashy as imprinting, but it would seem vampires know their mates pretty quickly. They're still kids here, but that's basically what just happened to Edward. If a three day old baby can spot their other half that fast, than an eight year old child should be able too.