Disclaimer: Twilight is the creation and property of Stephenie Meyer. This fanfiction is nothing more than an homage to her series of books, which most of us wish never had to end. Any references to plot devices/characters/etc. used in Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, or the draft of Midnight Sun belong exclusively to Stephenie Meyer. And while not stolen from The 10th Kingdom, definitely inspired by. I also do not own The 10th Kingdom and do owe thanks to them for the idea in this chapter.

Author's Note: Thanks to PeaceLoveCullen, T.C. Meade, polyphany, neersan, Alice (aka xxxVAMPIREKNIGHTxxx), midnight1899, PrincessxofxthexAsylum, LizzieAliceCullen, Hollibell, aPPle-FrrEAk, Sabs7, twihard-4-ever, Bunch-o-Nuts, and odwala.

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"What's wrong with Jacob?" Bella asked, watching him bound away from the house towards the trees, already pulling off his shirt and tugging at his pants, in an effort to save his clothes from tearing.

Edward frowned, eyes closed, "I'm not sure we want to know."

"What? What do you mean by that?" Bella whirled around to face her husband. "What wouldn't we want to know?"

Edward looked frustrated, "I don't know. But whatever it is, he's working very hard to not think about it near me."

She gasped, "Renesmee?"

"I don't know, Bella. Maybe."

"Renesmee?" Bella called, frantically, practically flying down the stairs to where her daughter sat by the window, back turned. "Renesmee, are you alright?" her mother demanded. "Did something happen?"

Edward appeared behind her, brow furrowed, muscular arms crossed over his chest.

"I'm fine," Renesmee said quickly. "I'm sorry I came back late."

"Renesmee, what happened tonight?" Bella felt like the whole world had gone red for a moment.

"Nothing happened, Mom. What are you talking about?"

"Did Jacob say something to you?"

"No," she responded sourly. "Jacob didn't say anything to me, at all."

A look of realization crossed her father's features and he opened his mouth.

"Don't!" Renesmee held up a hand to cover her face. "Dad, please don't look."

"Renesmee," Bella began, her face stricken.

"I promise, Nessie," Edward whispered. He gently urged Bella towards the stairs.

Bella started to protest but Edward squeezed her hand once and she stopped.

"Goodnight, baby," her mother said softly as they left. "I love you."

As they entered their bedroom, Bella hissed, "What was she thinking about?"

"Renesmee's thoughts are her own," Edward said quietly, pulling Bella towards him. "We must allow her that."

"But, Edward…" The uninhibited worry in her eyes reminded Edward faintly of Bella's human self. A smile tugged at his lips, despite his fears. "What if she…"

He kissed her, then, cutting her words off completely.

"If you think you can distract me from talking about Renesmee, you're…"

"Kiss me," he growled in her ear.

Bella felt herself lifted into Edward's arms. His mouth was on her throat, her shoulder, her jaw as he pushed her against the door frame.

She gave a sweet, long sigh of pleasure, in spite of herself, "Well, alright, if you insist." Edward smiled into her neck.

They didn't speak again for a long, long time.

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That night Renesmee dreamt of chasing wolves through thickets and thorn bushes. She heard the pounding sound of their running and felt their bristled fur as they passed her, the rushing of the wind in her hair as she tried to keep up with them. She called to the wolves, "Wait, wait for me!" But they ran on and on, not hearing her. "Let me come with you!" she begged. Her arms and legs were scratched and bleeding and she began to cry. Still, the wolves did not stop. Eventually, even the sound of their thudding paws grew distant, muffled. Renesmee woke up crying.

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The next morning came quickly and Renesmee felt herself moved through the motions of school, almost automatically. The whispers were more subdued today and for that, she was grateful.

Brittany and Jackie waved at her in the hallway but looked too intimidated by Emmett to speak. Renesmee waved back in a way she hoped wasn't too desperate or strange.

She was especially thankful to Jasper who did not sit with her in Biology. She felt almost anonymous as she took a seat near the front. She had always enjoyed science and was looking forward to the first dissection. The day before the seat next to her had been empty and when it was today, she felt some measure of relief. She would not have to make awkward conversation with a stranger. Watching the students around her pull out several beakers and a microscope from a cabinet beneath each table, she attempted to do the same. A throat clearing from behind made her freeze. She worried suddenly that she hadn't asked permission to set up for the experiment. She cast hazel eyes up at the figure standing above her.

"Hey, you must be my new lab partner. Your name's Renesmee, right?" the boy grinned from under tousled sandy-colored hair. "Sorry I wasn't here yesterday."

Renesmee stood up too quickly and smacked her head on the edge of the table. "Um, hi," she said, embarrassed. "And ow."

"Yeah, that looked like it hurt. Do you need some help?"

"Sure." Renesmee turned away from him and glanced back at her uncle who sat in the back of the room. It didn't look like he'd noticed her gaff.

"I'm Ed," he offered. "Well, Edward, but nobody calls me that."

Renesmee froze again, "That's my da—brother. That's my step-brother's name."

"Oh, really? Huh. I figured I was the only one with a weird old man name like that." Ed smiled a slow, wide smile that lit his whole face up. He was taller than her, but not by much. His light brown hair was tangled and messy and reminded her strangely, of her father. He had large blue eyes, a nose slightly crooked from an old break, and a full lips that smiled more than anyone Renesmee had ever seen. There was an unfamiliar sensation beginning in Renesmee's stomach and climbing towards her throat.

She swallowed an unexpected gale of laughter, "Yeah, I guess not."

"Well, cool. I'll have to meet him. Does he go here, too?"

"Yeah," she felt the heat in her ears and wondered silently if they were as red as they felt. Words were starting to fail her.

"Sweet. So, uh, you're a junior, then?" Renesmee wondered if she'd ever seen eyes that blue before.

"Yeah," she repeated stupidly.

"Is this your first week in Astoria?"

"Yeah."

"Cool, do you like it here?"

"Uh, sure. It's…" Renesmee shook her head, hoping some mental clarity might return. "It's great."

Ed smiled again, his eyes crinkling in the corners as if by habit. He turned to plug in the microscope.

Renesmee felt a strange panic overtaking her. She looked again at her uncle, for once hoping he would feel her fear and send some calming vampire feelings her way. As if he had heard her thoughts from across the room, Jasper met her gaze and Renesmee relaxed at once. A warm blanket of security and peace settled over her and she let out the breath she'd been holding.

"You okay?" Ed asked, making some notes in his lab manual and adjusting a slide underneath the lens.

Renesmee nodded dumbly and settled herself on the stool beside the sample slides. It was disconcerting sitting close to Ed, who happened to smell especially good for some reason. She thought it might be cologne but was sure she had never smelled it before. Her father and uncles never wore any and Jacob thought things like that were silly.

The lab flew by and Renesmee was only dimly aware that the teacher was speaking or that slides were being compared. She was, however, conscious of every small thing relating to Ed, the clock ticking on the wall, the heat she felt radiating from his left arm as he leaned in to examine the text book, the tickle on the back of her neck when he brushed by her, the cold sweat of her palms as she lifted the pencil to jot notes, the throaty whisper of his voice, commenting on the teacher's lack of interest in the lab. Renesmee found herself laughing at everything he said.

"Alright, class, that's it for today," the teacher called. "Please put your equipment back where you found it and we'll resume this next class period."

"So, I guess I'll see you later, then," Ed said, looking down at Renesmee.

"Uh, yeah. Later."

"Unless…"

"Un-unless?"

"Well, do you want to sit together at lunch?"

"Um…" Renesmee tried to think quickly. There was no way her family would be cool with a human sitting at their table for lunch.

Ed looked embarrassed, misreading her panic, "Unless you already have other plans. I mean, of course you do. You probably have a boyfriend waiting for you, huh?"

"Not…well…it's just that my family…"

"It's okay," Ed responded quickly. "You don't have to explain." He nodded in a friendly way and turned to walk towards the door.

"Wait!" Renesmee called, picking up her book bag and hurrying after him, "Uh, you can sit with us. If you want."

"Really?"

"Yeah, that'd be cool." Screw them. Screw the whole blood-sucking lot of them.

"I'd love to."

"Great."

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"I swear the lunch lady knew this was Gucci," Alice moaned, trying to scrub macaroni n' cheese sauce off the hem of her blouse. "I stood too close to the spatter."

Jasper rolled his eyes in her direction but his easy smile gave him away. He found her complaints endearing, adorable.

Alice felt her annoyance began to dissolve into contentment and she elbowed her husband in the ribs, hard. "Jasper Hale, don't you dare! If I want to be upset, I will be upset!"

"Just trying to help," he muttered, his eyes flitting around the room.

"Anyone seen Nessie, yet?" Emmett asked from the other end of the table.
"I thought she had class with you, Jasper," Rosalie frowned. "Didn't she come with you?"

Jasper shrugged, "She looked busy so I went on without her."

"What do you mean 'busy?' Was she talking to the teacher?"

"Edward? Who was she talking to?" Alice demanded.

Edward held out his hands to show that he didn't know.

"What do you mean, you don't know? Why can't you hear her?"

"Edward has decided not to read Renesmee's thoughts," Bella said, a worried look on her face. "He doesn't want to invade her privacy."

"Well, that's rich," Rosalie snorted.

"Couldn't you have developed that moral code a few decades ago?" Emmett complained. "Maybe I would win a wrestling match once in awhile."

"It's hard enough to grow up and figure out who you are. She doesn't need me listening in," Edward said, sounding miserable.

"Just a peek?" Bella begged. "Just to make sure she's okay and on her way from class?"

"I made a promise," Edward said firmly.

"You and your rules," Alice grumbled. "Just once in awhile, you should break one. Just to know that you can."

"Somehow, I have a hard time swallowing that logic, Alice. You know sometimes I think –…" Edward broke off, listening for a moment. "Here she comes."

"I thought you weren't going to…"

"I didn't. Someone was thinking her name in the hallway."

The double doors opened and Renesmee walked through, bronze ringlets swinging freely around her shoulders, looking happy and relaxed.

"Well, she seems better today," Alice observed, relieved.

"I wonder why," Rosalie frowned as a tall boy with messy hair followed Renesmee towards the line, laughing at something she'd said.

"Uh-oh," Emmett grimaced.

"He sat next to her in Biology," Jasper offered. "He's her lab partner."

Bella and Edward exchanged glances. Bella let out a strangled giggle, "Of course, he is."

"He's going to sit with us," Alice announced.

"What? Why?" Emmett groaned from the corner.

"I don't know. It's a little fuzzy since he's standing so close to Nessie but I'm fairly certain."

"I hate watching humans eat," Emmett hunched further down on the bench. "It's disgusting."

"Let's try to be nice," Bella said, the worry still not gone from her face. "All the same," she sighed at Edward, "I wish I'd taken you up on that hunting trip last night. This isn't going to feel so good."

"If you can't deal, Bella, you should go," Jasper warned as Renesmee and her friend began walking towards them.

"No, I'm fine," Bella nodded, rubbing her throat. "It's just chafing a little."

"Hi, guys," Renesmee said as she reached them.

"Hey, Nessie!" Emmett waved, his face hiding all traces of irritation or worry. "Who's your friend?"

Renesmee took a deep breath, "This is Ed. He's my lab partner."

"Ed?" Emmett repeated, slightly amused.

His niece ignored him, "Ed, this is my family. Bella, Edward, Rosalie, Emmett, Alice and Jasper."

"Wow, big family."

His comment was met with uneasy quiet.

"Ed, it's nice to meet you," Bella said at last, breaking the silence. "You're welcome to sit with us."

"Thanks! Bella, you said?"

"That's me."

"Wow, you and Renesmee look so much alike."

"Yeah, we…get that a lot," Bella smiled again, a little tighter.

"And you must be Edward! When Renesmee told me that her brother had the same name as me, I thought that was a pretty crazy coincidence. My mom just has a thing for old-fashioned names, I guess."

Edward's expression was calculating. He nodded guardedly, cool humor in his eyes, "Ed, is it? A pleasure to meet you."

"Yeah!" Ed stuck out his hand towards Edward. "Nice to meet you, too!"

Reluctantly, Edward offered his own hand for Ed to shake. Ed winced slightly at the icy grip and Edward released him quickly, almost too quickly.

The table fell silent again; the vampires each make more concerted efforts to push food around their plate, Emmett even attempting a half-hearted nibble at a roll.

Ed, seated between Alice and Bella, shivered slightly, "Sure is cold today. They were predicting snow this weekend. Can you believe that? Are you guys cold? It's freezing in here!"

Sensing the dangerous ground they were all treading on, Bella leapt to change the subject, "So, Ed, what year are you?"

"I'm a senior. I'll be eighteen next month. What about you guys?"

"I'm sixteen," Renesmee interjected. "I'm sixteen," she repeated, feeling her family's eyes on her.

"Oh, yeah? So are you the youngest?"

"Yeah." By far, she thought.

"Well, if it makes any difference, you seem really mature for your age."

Emmett's grin stretched from ear to ear, "Yeah, it seems like just yesterday, she was a gurgling, cooing baby."

Renesmee felt her face grow hot.

Rosalie kicked Emmett under the table.

"So what do you guys like to do for fun?" Ed asked, seemingly unruffled by the strange tensions surrounding him.

"Oh, not much," Bella answered carefully. "We're kind of new here so…"

"Yeah, I heard you guys moved into the old O'Connor place up the hill. That's a big place."

"Yeah, it's enormous! I get lost just walking around in there! And we have private access to the beach," Renesmee bragged.

"You know, I grew up here and I've rode my bike by that house a million times but I've never once been inside."

Again, silence.

Ed's expression grew serious, "People are actually kind of afraid of that house, which must sound weird, I know. There used to be stories that it's haunted by the ghosts of some servants who died there but, I think if there were really dead people in Astoria, I'd know it." He chuckled like he'd said something very funny.

"How would you know?" Renesmee blurted, curiously.

"My mom's kind of superstitious. She owns the Supernatural & Magic Bookstore off of Main Street and uh, she's pretty into that stuff. She says I've been blessed with a sixth sense." He rolled his eyes like he thought this was ridiculous. "But hey, if it's cool, I'd love to come over and see the house sometime. I've always been curious."

Renesmee went cold. This is something they hadn't discussed. Very few visitors ever came to see the Cullens, even when they lived in Forks. She felt paralyzed until Edward broke in, "I'm sure that would be fine, Ed. Please allow us to speak to our guardians first. Mrs. Cullen is very worried about anyone seeing the house when it's so unorganized. And of course, we just moved in."

"Oh, yeah, sure. Any time!" Ed nodded. "Hey, I gotta get to class. Everbody, it was really nice to meet you." He looked at Renesmee, "I hope we can hang out soon. If you want, I can show you around Astoria. Not that there's much to see," he added shyly.

Renesmee blushed visibly, "That'd be cool."

"Well, um, here," Ed reached for a pencil from his pocket. "I'll give you my phone number."

His calloused finger tips brushed her palm as he handed off a slip of paper and Renesmee felt her heart racing. She hoped desperately that her family's super-vampire hearing had missed that but she doubted it.

"You can call me," he said, as if this might have escaped her. "If you want."

"Okay."

"Okay, bye," Ed turned and headed across the cafeteria.

The silence at the table remained unbroken again for several minutes.

Emmett began to snicker, "Nessie's got a boyfriend!"

"Nessie's got two boyfriends," Alice muttered, under her breath.

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Author's Note: Thanks for reading, guys! I know a lot of people are reading this story that aren't reviewing and that's okay but if you really enjoyed this chapter or thought something specifically about it, please leave a review! The feedback impacts my writing.

Answers to Questions, etc.

T.C. Meade: Thanks for the compliment. That means a lot. I really value intelligent feedback so please keep letting me know what you think!

Midnight1899: I'm so glad you're enjoying this! And, yes! Definitely read the series! I got hooked immediately. :) Let me know if you liked this chapter.

PrincessxofxthexAsylum: I was torn about Jacob kissing her. I totally wanted to write that in but the timing just didn't seem right. Too soon. Thanks for the review! Let me know how you think it's going.

Twi-hard-4-ever: Good question about Jacob. Though I haven't specifically written about that, yet, I kind of get the feeling he's around but sleeps outside. He's got too much animal in him to be cooped up in the house, I think. I think his role in the Cullen family is the protector. Thanks for the review! Tell me what you think of this new installment!

Odwala: I guess the issue with Jacob is fairly complicated because even though physically, Renesmee is 16 or 17, chronologically, she's only 4. And while Jacob finds himself physically attracted to Renesmee, he's worried that's she still too young to really understand or reciprocate. And Edward's made it very clear that Jacob is to keep his paws off. How long THAT will last, nobody knows, yet (not even me). Anyway, there's a lot there and as you can tell after reading this chapter, it's only getting more complicated! Let me know what you think. Thanks!