Chapter 3

Her room was exactly as she left it. Returning to Forks, Lu expected everything to have changed but nothing had. Nobody had moved on.

There was still a bed because despite no sleep, she loved lounging around with books or people, or just watch the sunset. Pictures adorned the wall, taped carefully, all of her family. She had books that were mostly fiction, music that was mostly classical or swing, and little knick knacks she'd picked up over the years.

Lu ran her fingers over a silver ring on one of her shelves before moving to her bed. She sat facing the wall of photos and drawings. Little drawings of her that dated back to the nineties or eighties, even, until the most recent a year and a half ago. Little pieces of paper with not much detail, but they were of her. She almost missed being drawn and having these gifted to her.

From the wall she plucked a photo of their entire family. It was taken right after they moved to Forks, after they remembered that the last time they took a picture of all of them was when Lu was first turned. In it they all looked happy, close. Rose and Lu had their arms around each other, Emmett hold Rosalie's shoulder. Alice and Jasper were arm in arm. Then Edward, holding one of Lu's hands with Carlisle and Esme behind them. That was one of her happier days.

She left that picture on her bed when she heard everyone arrive. That 'everyone' included the human girl. Lu took in a relaxing breath before moving to go downstairs. Esme and Rose were there already, and Rosalie came to hold Lu's hand. There was a point when the two of them were the closest of everyone in the house.

In the door, Carlisle directed Bella to go upstairs and sleep. She didn't make eye contact with anyone as she went, probably to Edward's room. Lu didn't look as Bella stopped next to her.

"Thank you. For saving my life." She said. Lu didn't acknowledge it and Bella went on up the stairs.

Once they heard a door close, Carlisle spoke first. "She'll just sleep a couple hours and then Edward will take her home and make the appropriate excuses."

"Victoria's gone." Esme told him. It was the talk after recon, obviously. "Lu said she fled east not long after James died."

"And Laurent?" Alice asked.

"Already in Alaska. The Denali clan just called." Rosalie answered.

Jasper's eyes were trained on Lu, which spurred Carlisle. "Duckling? How are you feeling?" He asked her softly, using the age old pet name. "I know how you've been after a kill in the past."

"I'll survive." She claimed.

Jasper gave a short nod. "She's going to be alright. The extremity of the situation has passed." He agreed.

"Then I am going to need my hug!" Emmett said a bit more happily. Rose let go as her boyfriend pulled Lu into a hard hug. "We've missed you, Lu."

She hugged him back until he let her feet touch the ground again. "Man, I forgot how much I loved Emmett's bear hugs." She couldn't resist smiling then.

"There's more where that came from, any time." He grinned down at her before looping an arm around Rose.

Jasper came in quickly and gave her a smaller hug. "I didn't get to say hello to you earlier." He gave her a small smile, Texan accent slipping out.

She gave him a slight shove when she felt oddly relaxed when she was anything but. "Thanks for the emotion tranquilizer." She teased. Jasper just winked and returned to Alice.

Her little joke made a couple people chuckle. Then Carlisle stepped forward. "Columbia, you have no idea how much it means to me that you answered my call."

"I wish you'd told me you were calling her." Edward said stiffly. "You blocked your mind and I should have known, but we didn't need her."

"Yes we did." Alice firmly contradicted. "When Carlisle was making the decision, I saw what would have happened if Lu wasn't there. Bella would have broken bones, severed an artery – James would have bitten her and she'd be minutes from death. All she has now is two stitches, thanks to Lu."

Edward's jaw was clenched tight and Lu just shook her head.

"Can somebody tell me why mistake number one," She pointed to herself, "Had to save mistake number two in the first place?" She pointed up to where Bella was likely sleeping. "Why is this happening? 'History repeats itself' must mean nothing to you."

"This isn't the same, Lu." Edward denied, eyes on her.

She scoffed. "A human girl that you're in love with gets attacked solely because you can't follow the rules? How is that any different than thirty years ago?"

"Because it is!" He snapped. "She isn't a replacement, Columbia. I didn't want this, or for you to leave, but she just happened."

"I am not trying to start a fight about us!" She told him. "I was rather hoping you'd see that what happened to me, nobody else deserves. It's not about us, and I know I started it by comparing the situation, but this is about her and–"

She stopped and everyone froze when they heard a bump upstairs. It sounded like someone falling off of an overly small couch. Lu sighed and excused herself. Edward tried to stop her but Carlisle shook his head, letting her go upstairs.

She knocked lightly on Edward's door before cracking it open. Bella was just standing up, picking up the fallen blanket. Lu really didn't like the smell of her but she had other things to care about than that.

"You heard that, didn't you?" Bella cringed, pointing to the ground to indicate her fall.

"Don't even worry, I know how small that stupid thing is." Lu told her. "Come on. You can sleep in my room. I don't live here anymore anyway."

The girl tried to be polite but bumbled over her words. "No, that- that's okay, I'm really tired so I'll just- pass out."

Lu just opened the door further. "Come on. At least I've got a bed." She still hesitated. "Just come on."

Bella followed her down the hall and nervously looked down as Lu opened the door. Before the girl could settle, the vampire took the picture from the covers and put it back on the wall. Then as Bella walked in, she remembered the ring and hid it behind some books on a flash. Lu told her to rest before closing the door and heading back downstairs. At least none of the pictures on her wall were of her and Edward being more of a couple, otherwise Bella may have questions.

Back downstairs, everyone was sitting around and waiting. Lu just said, "We don't need to talk about it."

"It's not a family discussion either way. It's between you and Edward." Esme agreed gently. "Come sit. Tell us how fantastic the city is."

"Do we really have to sit here talking about her new boyfriend?" Edward crossed his arms, frowning. Everyone seemed surprised, because Lu hadn't told a soul and she certainly hadn't thought of Andrew once. "Alice had a vision a couple months ago."

"I wasn't going to bring him up." Lu told him. "He's not your business anyway. But San Francisco's fine."

Rose gave a smile. "The shopping must be great."

"Don't tease me because I hate shopping." She countered. "But if the ladies visited I may be swayed to show you all the best stores. Maybe Esme will stop dressing like it's the fifties."

"Watch it." The woman warned jokingly.

It was Emmett that made thing tense in an odd turn of events. His hands were folded together and he asked too seriously, "What's the story with the new boyfriend?"

Edward just gave a huff and looked away. Lu shrugged. "I don't know what you mean."

"I mean you were turned when you were seventeen but you said you weren't going to school in San Francisco, so how old does he think you are?"

It was the worrisome question that might find her trouble. "Twenty-three." She admitted sheepishly, tucking ashen brown hair behind her ear.

"Lu, what were you thinking?" Carlisle legitimately asked without judgement. "You look seventeen. Even twenty is pushing it."

She always knew that. "I know but he's turning twenty-seven soon and I could not be that much younger than him." Lu claimed.

"You have months at best before you can't stay there any longer." Esme frowned. "Honey, you made it too risky."

Admittedly she did that on purpose. When she left Forks it was only because she was upset and needed to be on her own for a while. It broke her heart and she never really wanted to have a relationship, but things happened, so she gave herself six months to live a lie, five of which were over and done with. She'd nearly forgotten it all until then.

Before she could fib, Edward said, "It's self-sabotage."

She gave him a quick glare. "Stay out of my head."

"Why? So you can hide the fact that you hate San Francisco?" He countered.

Everyone looked at her waiting to see if that was true. "Okay, so it's not that great, but Andrew's a decent guy. For one second I just wanted to like him."

"But you don't." Jasper chimed in solemnly.

"I like him enough." She didn't mean to sound hostile, but it came out badly. "And I can't give this up yet. I'm about to meet his family."

"His family? How long have you been seeing this guy?" Rose asked critically. "And you never told me?"

Of course her closest friend was offended. "Rose, I'm sorry. It's been five months and I just didn't need this exact conversation to happen, so I didn't tell anyone." Lu admitted. "It's just how it is."

Alice reached out and took Lu's hand. "Maybe this is a conversation for another time."

"She's right." Carlisle agreed. "But you are cutting it too close, Columbia."

They talked about other things because Lu fell silent. Everyone started to branch off after a while. Emmett and Jasper were going hunting, but Alice ended up following just to watch, and then Esme and Rosalie asked Lu if she wanted to go to Seattle with them to shop, but she said no. Carlisle excused himself to his office, leaving Edward and her.

They sat on opposite couches silent for a while before she just asked, "So what is going on?" He seemed guilty hearing it. "I don't want to fight, I'm just curious. All these years I thought I was the reason we had a no socializing with humans rule, but here we are."

His mouth quirked slightly at her words. Then it fell away. "I don't know. I started off hating her. She is my singer, so I nearly killed her once or twice… Tempting."

"Glad to see you have some restraint, then." She said without truly meaning it.

"I can't read her mind, Lu. I was just interested, and it turned into a lot more, especially when she found out what I was." He explained, wringing his hands together. She could see that wasn't it. This was some odd couple. "We're dating, sort of. Everything's different and sot of fuzzy. I don't know what to do anymore."

She was the last person in the world that could give advice and couldn't make herself say anything supportive. "You're just going to get her killed."

"I don't want that." He met her eyes. "I didn't mean for that to happen to you when we started dating, either."

"The difference that makes it easier for her," It nearly hurt to say, "Is that she knows what she's getting herself into. Now I'm questioning her intelligence."

He gave her an amused look. "Lu, be nice."

A smile actually caught her off guard and she laughed shortly. "Gee, I don't know. Sounds difficult."

He laughed with her a moment before sobering. "Um, I'm going to go check on Bella."

Her own smile fell and she nodded, staying downstairs.

As Edward went up stairs, he felt anxious. In the past year, nobody had gone into Lu's room. At first because he ordered them not to, and then because he had to force himself not to go inside. It held more memories than any other place in this house for him, and now Bella was in that bed he came to know.

Walking in was like stepping into a day dream. The sun was behind clouds but still light and it was nearing eleven in the morning, so the room was lit enough for him to see everything. He looked left expecting to see her discarded wedding band but she must have hidden it from Bella, because the last thing Lu did before leaving was put it on her bookshelf. He found it behind some books and put it back into place.

Moving towards Bella, Edward was more focused on the wall. The pictures of their family were plastered there, and his silly drawings. They were all unfinished because he could never do her justice with a few lines, but she always asked to keep them, to the point that he just gifted them to her. He could always draw her full lips and hair and eyes, but the rest would fall away in scribbles and he'd hate them, but she took then either way. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he found one of the only pictures of them alone and took it from the wall.

He remembered it well. They had gone to France when she was still human and clueless as to what he was, back in the seventies. It had been a cloudy week but he wanted them to get away from everything like his scrutinizing family. The weather being forgiving, they were sat outside a little café and asked a stranger to take their picture, leaning in and smiling. Even as a human, Lu had always been more beautiful than him, than anyone, and nothing had changed when she'd been bitten.

Bella stirring made him feel guilty, though, but he had to hide it as she woke up. Edward put the picture back where it had been as his current girlfriend sat up to see what he was doing.

"How do you feel?" He asked before she could question him of anything.

She gave a smile while running a hand through her hair. "I'm great."

Edward forced a smile back. "Great."

Then she was looking at the pictures. Her expression was tired and confused but she was more focused on the full family photo and other little group pictures than the one of only him and Lu. Bella turned more to see the collage.

"Who is she? I still don't really know." She asked.

"Columbia Cullen." He explained. "Lu, mostly, unless you're Carlisle – then it's Duckling. She's a part of our family."

"Why doesn't she live here?"

There was every urge to say it was because he drove her away with his guilt and all that had slowly gone wrong over the years, to show Bella what she was really getting into, but he didn't.

"She's still young and wanted to go off on her own for a while. I don't know, maybe she'll come back…" He stared at that family photo, from when they first moved here. When things were still happy, really.

Edward snapped out of it. "Anyway, enough about her. I should get you home and try not to get killed by your father."