Thanks to Gothic Girl 3000, La Belle Morte, LiTlTe BeLlA sWaN, Emberseve, Anima Bella, DropDeadGorgeous, and Willow for reviewing.
Medusa Sparrow-Descouedres: Poor baby, hope you get well soon! If something like that had happened to me, I would have died. Literally.

7. Reconciliation

I gasped, stumbling back as I took in the sea of faces surrounding me. All my family was there, as were all my friends from school, and also Alex's friends – or maybe his pack.

I went in, Alex a constant shadow at my heel, and walked into the living room. It had apparently been transformed; the couch was pushed against the wall and several tables bearing food were in front of the 219" plasma screen.

The room, foyer, and kitchen were all decorated, and from what I'd seen, the adjoining rooms were also decorated. My family had even gone far enough to place twinkling stars and gold streamers upstairs. Music was blaring from the sound system. I turned around to look at my parents.

"What is this?"

Bella glanced at Alice, who had appeared at her shoulder. "It was all…"

"…Me." Alice finished, triumphant. "What do you think of the lights down the street?"

"What lights?" I mumbled, confused.

"You could have taken your mind away from you soulmate for just a split second to look at the decoration that I put out for your welcome home party!"

She growled. "You don't even have the nerve to say sorry!" She stalked away.

I glanced at Edward, my eyebrows raised. "She's your sister."

"Your aunt." He told me.

I sighed. "Okay, okay. I'll go talk to her, tell her I'm sorry."

"I'll come along." Alex grinned.

I smiled. "I wouldn't have it any other way." I traipsed away to find Alice, and found her in the kitchen, a glower on her face. Jasper was trying to get her to come back to the main room, but she was refusing.

"Alice?" I asked.

She looked up. "Oh, its you." She huffed and turned her face away.

I resisted the urge to smile and glanced at Alex. He was openly smiling. "Alice, I'm sorry. You have set up the most beautiful decorations along the drive, and the house is fantastic. I couldn't have wished any better for a welcome home party."

Alice glanced up as Jasper chuckled, her small face brightening up, excitement sparkling in her eyes. "Really? In that case, lets go! I also invited some other people from my classes that I'd like you to meet…" I shot a helpless look at Alex as I was dragged away.

Jasper was still laughing, and Rosalie and Emmett had come in. Alice noticed my look at Alex and pulled on my hand, her iron vise strengthening. "Sorry, but you can get back to your soulmate some other time. Right now, I have things for you to do."

I sighed and followed her into the party.

That week, I managed to catch up on my homework with Alex's help – not really help, as I had copied his work – and was back at school as normal.

The first Monday back I sat with Alex in the cafeteria, where he was finding out everything he could about my life. I was sitting next to him on the table, my hand intertwined in his.

"Is your full name really Elizabeth Cullen?" He asked, frowning.

I nodded. "Elizabeth Angel Cinderella Cullen."

Alex chuckled. "Meaning?"

"Elizabeth Masen was my Dad's mother's – my grandmother's – name, so my parents named me after her. And my middle name is Angel because apparently I look like an Angel, so my mother put it down as my middle name. Cinderella is because, you know, Rosalie's my fairy godmother and has to get me to the ball. It's not really my name; it was meant to be a joke, but they put it down on my birth certificate."

Alex laughed. "Cinderelli-"

"Don't you start!" I warned.

He grinned. "As you wish, oh object-of-my-imprinting."

"Any more questions?"

He nodded. "Of course. Birthday?"

"Tuesday 23rd January 07. I'm an Aquarius."

"What traits do you get from your parents?"

I hesitated, thinking it over. "Well, I guess I can say that I get my confidence, style, and also loving cars from Edward, and I'm a bad liar, stubborn, sun loving, and sensitive, which I get from Bella. On behalf of the rest of my family I'm mostly cheerful."

"Apart from your family here, who else have you got?"

"My grandpa is Chief Charlie Swan of Forks, and my grandma is Renée Dwyer. Renée's husband, my step-grandpa, is Phil. They're in Jacksonville, Florida."

Alex nodded. "How did you end up in Virginia?"

"Because we don't change, we change locations every three/four years. So far we've been to Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, Monterrey, and San Jose."

"Favorite color?"

I grinned, looking into his eyes. "Oh sure, that's easy. Emerald."

He smiled understandingly. "And mine would be jade."

My breath caught. He was so perfect. And he was mine. I smiled, marvelling at the treasure that belonged to me.

For the next couple of days, I quizzed him about his life, answering questions about mine. As each second passed, I felt closer to him, and my family sensed that I was happier than I had ever been in my whole life.

He became a permanent fixture in our family, and Alice was trying to get hold of his photo to add to the ten-slot family portrait, which I was refusing to give. I realised that I hardly saw Marianne and that I hadn't talked to her in awhile, not since that day when I had injured myself.

It was a pleasant day at home that Saturday. Carlisle and Esme were watching CNN, Emmett and Rosalie were confined to their room, Alice had gone shopping with Bella – practically dragged her away – Edward was composing some new songs on the piano, and I was sitting down to play cards with Jasper, just when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it." I sprang up lightly and answered the door.

It was Marianne.

"Can I talk?" She asked.

I gaped at her, surprised, and then finally closed my mouth. "Sure! Come in."

I led her into the foyer and ran to the living room.

"Your friend?" Edward asked.

I nodded. "We'll be in my room." I turned around and went back to Marianne, leading her up to my room. I heard Marianne try to stifle gasp when she saw it; it was large, as big as the science lab in school, and done in emerald. It had previously been a soft pink and white, but Alice and Esme had redecorated it for me when my color preferences changed.

There was a large four-poster on one wall, with hanging drapes done in all shades of green, and a thick bottle green Oriental rug was on the wooden lamination. The walls were done in sea green. There were a set of drawers underneath the bed and a large desk in the opposite corner, with a matching wooden chair. A loveseat was by the window, and a TV was by the large walk-in wardrobe – the TV included cable. Many pictures decorated the walls; pictures of my family, Alex, my friends at school from the time I was with them when I was apart from Alex, and me.

Marianne was staring at the photos of my family, swallowing. The sun had been peeking out from the clouds on the day the photos were taken, and it illuminated the marble of my family's skin, which glittered, shattering it into a million sparkling pieces. The beauty and luminance was blinding.

"You have a nice room," Marianne finally said after a while. I shrugged.

"My sister and Mom decorated it for me."

Marianne gave me a small smile. "They did a good job."

I nodded. "I know."

Marianne opened her mouth to say something and then closed it, not meeting my eyes. She glanced at her picture that I had hung directly above my bed, and then looked back at me. I thought I saw her eyes sparkling.

"I want to say I'm so, so sorry about what happened. When I saw you in Alex's arms bleeding…I thought that – you wouldn't come back and I cursed myself from not being upfront about my – my past."

"Maria -" I started to say, when she held up a hand.

"Please, let me finish. I don't know how you found out about…Jesse…but it's my fault for not being honest with you."

"It wasn't your f-" I began, but she didn't let me finish.

"Yes, it was. It all began when Jesse began stalking my sister, Charlaine. No one knew, and then he started appearing to her at night, scaring her, appearing wherever she went. It got to the point where she was too scared to even go out of her room.

"It was a dark time for us; we didn't know what to do, and we never actually saw him, only Allie did. And then one day, he kidnapped her; he left with her at night, and my father had a heart attack and ended up in hospital. Allie always used to keep her computer switched on, and I noticed that she hadn't checked her inbox.

"And then I noticed that she had sent a message to a friend of hers asking about Transylvania, Hungary, and a man called Jesse. I realised that was where he probably took her and booked my plane tickets behind my parent's back, going to Transylvania that night.

"Allie had talked about this place called the Revello mansion. I found it and went inside, finding my sister unconscious in a barricaded room which I had broken into after I had checked all the others. I realised she had been starved intentionally, and then he was there and knocked me out. I woke up in the room, tied to a chair, and Jesse was just talking about himself. He showed me his scarred face and then he…had a knife…and he…ripped off my face with it. I thought I was dead, but my parents had found out what I had done and had come after me. They came to the mansion and found me with half of my face ripped off and Allie on the floor. They took me to a hospital, and I nearly died from the shock.

"I was haemorrhaging, and it took me six years to recover. I had plastic surgery done to my face, which hid the scars. Now my sister goes to university and we promised each other we would never tell anyone what had happened, but," Marianne smiled ruefully, "you already know, don't you?"

I nodded, stunned. A vampire had stalked her sister and ripped off her face. Even what had happened to me hadn't been as bad.

"I'm sorry. You must have hated it all." I murmured.

She nodded. "I did. But now I'm learning to deal with it."

I reached over and gave her a hug. She stiffened, surprised, and then returned the hug.

"Thank you." She whispered, her eyes grateful.

I smiled. "Don't thank me."

She sniffed, and then she was back to her usual self. She grabbed my hand and propelled me towards the door, much like Alice. When we reached the foyer, she walked boldly into the living room. "

Mr and Mrs, Cullen, may Liz come shopping with me right now?"

Carlisle chuckled, smiling an amused smile. "Of course."

Marianne beamed at him. "Thank you sir."

"What are you doing?" I hissed.

"Going shopping, what else?" she replied coolly, but there was a new softness behind her eyes.

I surrendered to her, just glad to have my friend back, and grabbed my coat, a wad of money already inside. She walked over to her car, a small black Ford, and I got into the passenger seat as she drove to the Mall. She grabbed my hand and dragged me along to NEXT.

The salesgirl widened her eyes when she saw me, and turned back to her customer. Marianne dragged me along to the clothes rack, and picked out a black halter-top.

"I have a question." I told her.

"And that would be?" She grabbed a pair of apple-bottom jeans and held it against herself critically, along with the halter-top.

"Why are we shopping?"

She glanced at me. "Oh, didn't I tell you?"

"No?"

"Pierce and I are going out." She beamed, slinging the outfit over her arm and going over to the shoes section to pick a pair of heels.

I arched my eyebrow. "Really?"

She nodded, walking over to the counter with her purchases. I followed her as she laid the outfit down on the counter and as the salesgirl put the clothes in a bag. Marianne handed over the money and grabbed my arm, taking hold of her bag as we went to the next shop. I tried to keep pace with her as we reached BAY.

"But why am I coming with you?"

She huffed, exasperated. "Because it's a double date this Friday and you're coming with Alex."

"What! Does Alex know?" I asked.

She nodded. "I told him, but he said he'd ask you first. If you don't want to go, he's not going. So that means I'm dragging you there by force, if I have to. Alex hasn't gone out in quite a while, and I want him to come."

"Okay." We entered the shop and chose a short indigo dress with a wrap scarf and matching indigo heels for me, and paid at the counter. We walked out of the shop talking and laughing, when I heard a voice behind me.

"Lizzie, Marianne?" Alex was standing behind us, his hands in his pockets, looking surprised. "What are you doing here?"

I beamed and went over to him, feeling so much happier now that he was here. "I've missed you."

He took hold of my hand. "I know." He glanced at Marianne. "What's this about?"

"I took Lizzie shopping for our double date." She informed him.

His eyebrows shot up. "You did?"

"Yes, I did. Both of you have to go out. You spend too much times to yourselves." She sounded like a stern mother.

Alex laughed. "Whatever you say." I smiled, just as I heard footsteps approaching.

"Oh, this is a surprise."

I recognise that voice…

I glanced up, my face going pale, and my legs gave way underneath me.