Okay, so this one is A LOT shorter than the last one, but it's only been a couple of weeks. And I'll go ahead and admit that part of this chapter was already written out, as well as the next chapter which I might or might not have up before the end of the year. Keep your fingers crossed.

Also, I hope the fact that this chapter is so short is made up for with the ending here and the next several chapters to come. And yes, you read that correctly.

See you at the bottom!

Accident

December, 1945

Keira

Two days passed after Christmas like it was nothing, and I woke up two days before my birthday feeling a new beginning of something on the horizon — just like my grandmother was always telling me. I'd been thinking about her a lot in the last several days, and after spending time with Edward over the holidays, I kept thinking.

Would she understand how I was feeling about him?

I wanted to talk to her about him and find out if what I was feeling was normal. I was almost sixteen, and it was okay for me to like boys who were my age. Wasn't it?

Okay, Edward at least looked like he was my age, and that was good enough for me.

Two days after Christmas, we were all still cleaning up the house from all the decorating my mother had done. My father agreed with my mother to keep the tree and all her decorations up until after the first of the year, but he wanted everything to go back to normal as soon as possible, especially since he had to go back to work the day after Christmas.

I was content helping my mother with her chores and Kyle and Fisher worked on getting all the decorations' boxes from the attic even if they wouldn't be needed for several more days. There was plenty to do other than that, but I kept wanting to spend time with Edward. It was almost like I had to be with him, but I also needed to be with my family. The funny thing about it all was that my mother noticed all day Wednesday and then Thursday morning how distracted I was, and she kept sending me to another part of the house to do something other than help her. I didn't exactly know what she planned to accomplish, but it was still very amusing.

The weather had cleared up considerably, and the temperature had increased enough for almost all the ice to melt away. The sun even tried to come out a little.

"You really like Edward, don't you?" my mother asked as we cleaned up from breakfast Thursday morning.

I smiled as I dried the dishes. "Am I that obvious?"

She laughed. "Yes, honey, you are. And you look so beautiful."

I blushed so deep I think all the blood in my body filled my face. "Mom," I pleaded.

She put down the pan in her hands, dried off and then turned to me. "Sweetie, it's okay. Really. He's a good boy, and I can see how good he is with you. You don't have to be afraid of it. I know you're young, but so was I when I met your father. There are so many wonderful things ahead of you, and if you ever need to talk about anything, you can talk to me. You know that, don't you?"

My boyfriend is a vampire who was born in 1901, which makes him nearly as old as my father, but he still looks 17 because the man he calls his own father saved him from dying of Spanish Influenza.

Yes. That would come out perfectly.

I sighed softly, lifting my hands to her arms as she held onto me. "I know, Mom. Thank you," I nodded as the door bell rang.

We both stood still, and Fisher's voice floated in from the foyer.

"Keira, Edward and Emmett are here."

I laughed, and my mother squeezed my arms.

"Go on," she nudged. "Go have a good time. Try to be home before nine o'clock tonight, okay?"

I leaned up and kissed her cheek. "Thank you," I said again.

With little else, I turned and left the kitchen, walking into the foyer where Fisher was standing with Emmett and Edward.

They were both dressed casually, in comfortable-looking pants and zip-up jackets. It looked like they were all so at ease with each other, and I realized this was something I'd wanted since before Thanksgiving. If things between Edward and I were going to be so entwined, it only made sense that our families got along. Maybe eventually, Rosalie would feel the same way Emmett and Edward did.

Edward glanced in my direction as soon as I was close enough for him to hear what I was thinking, and I smiled easily.

"Good morning," I greeted happily, moving to his side and encircling his chest with my arms.

He slid his arm around my waist. "Yes, it is a very wonderful morning," he laughed, squeezing me gently.

"Ahem!"

I looked up at Fisher, seeing a curious grin on his face. I grinned back and then looked at Edward. "Let me just go change into some clothes that won't mind getting dirty if we go walking."

He released me reluctantly, and I moved up the stairs more fluidly than I had in months.

Though I wanted to wear my new coat as often as I could, I didn't want it to get dirty since it was brand new. So I pulled my old coat from my closet to pull it on over my old shirt and the pants I usually wore when Edward and I went walking. I pushed my feet into my rubber boots and grabbed my scarf to stay warm.

I was ready to go in less than fifteen minutes. I think it was a record for me.

A hearty chuckle filled the foyer as I left my room and made my way back downstairs, and I noticed Emmett laughing about something with Fisher. Edward was sitting on the bottom step, and I moved to his side to sit down with him.

"Is there something funny I should know about?" I asked softly.

He smiled and took my hand in his. "Sometimes, my brother thinks the most inappropriate things," he mused with a glance in Emmett's direction. "And I have to pretend that it doesn't bother me. I'll be so glad when it's not strange for me to spend the whole day without him on my coattails."

I wrapped my free hand around his arm. "Well, right now, we just have pretend that he's the best brother in the world for driving you all over creation."

Edward laughed. "Yes, I suppose we can."

"So are we goin' or what?" Emmett asked us.

We both looked at him, and only a few more seconds passed before Edward stood up and then pulled me to my feet.

"Have fun, little sister," Fisher encouraged.

I blushed again, bowing my head.

Emmett led the way to his car, and I slid into the front seat like I always did to sit between him and Edward. He gunned the engine gently, grinning at me and then shifting gears so he could pull away from my house. Edward draped his arm over the seat behind me, and I settled back into the seat for our ride to their house.

The road we took was becoming all too familiar when I realized we were nearly there before I thought to look around. We'd taken this path so many times, and I wondered how much longer we would be able to take it. So many different thoughts were filling my head, and the possibilities were overwhelming me. I'd never wanted anything like this in my life, and it felt strange knowing that all I had to do was have it. No one could take it away.

Emmett stopped where he usually did, and Edward and I stepped out of the car to start our walk as the car sped off closer to the house. We were alone in the woods, but I'd never felt safer. I could see that Edward was much more comfortable now that we'd overcome the hurdle of our families spending time together. I wanted to build on that.

"I wanted to do something different today," Edward said as we walked slowly. "But it seems the only way I can do that is to leave town. So I decided we would just walk today, since we can do that without Emmett."

I laughed softly, holding his hand a little tighter. "That's fine," I said shaking my head. "Any time with you is time well-spent."

He pulled me into his arms, and I laid my head over his shoulder, unconsciously breathing him in as deeply as I could.

"I also wanted to tell you more about me," he revealed softly. "There's so much, and I want you to know it all. Not all of it is pleasant, and I need to say it right so it won't scare you."

"You can't scare me away, Edward," I promised.

He bit his lip and glanced around. "I hope that very much," he avowed stopping and looking at me.

He didn't say anything else for a few minutes, and we stood there silently while the world went on around us. He lifted his fingers to my cheek, and I shivered grasping onto him more securely.

"While I was away from Carlisle, I didn't only kill criminals, Keira. I stole and I lied, and I wanted things I could never allow myself to have. The men I killed were something entirely different to all the women who offered themselves to me. It was wrong for them to believe it was something they had no choice in doing."

I listened to what he was saying, only understanding partially and completely confused about everything else.

Cradling my face in both his hands, he lowered his voice a little more, almost trying to soften the words he spoke.

"I met a woman who was so broken and thought so lowly of herself that she allowed everyone she knew to hurt her," he whispered, caressing my skin gently. "I tried to help her, but I couldn't. I think a lot of what I did the last year before I returned to Carlisle was for her. It wasn't enough, but it was all I could do. Underneath her pain and grief of a life lost, she was actually a lot like you. Curious and warm — and forgiving. I still sometimes wonder what she might've become if her life had been different — more like yours with your parents and your brothers."

At a pause, he laid his forehead against mine. I tried to comfort the painful memory he was obviously reliving for my sake, caressing his chin and the gentle curve of his bottom lip.

He smiled and leaned closer, almost kissing me again but whispering instead. "I never thought I would ever want those things — the things I denied myself the few years I was on my own. But these last few months with you have opened my eyes so much. I see the possibilities before us as well, and I want nothing more than to see them with you. It no longer matters how much time we have. Do you understand that?"

I grasped onto his arms, happy but also terrified for some reason.

"I don't mean to frighten you," he insisted, leaning away to look at me. "As a vampire, I simply feel things more intensely than I did when I was human. I never believed something like this would happen to me, but I can't deny that it has. I feel something for you I've never experienced — even though I know what it feels like because I've been around Carlisle and Esme and Rosalie and Emmett so long."

There were no words for me to express how completely wonderful it sounded for him to be saying these things to me. He was unlike any boy I could've possibly encountered over the course of my life, and if anyone had told me before I moved here that I would be doing this right now, I wouldn't have believed them. I'd been so lost and unsure of what I was supposed to be doing, and even though I knew it would be many years before I knew for sure that everything that had been okay before would be that way again, standing there with Edward felt right. It felt good.

The long succession of thoughts from my head seemed to have a profound effect on him, and he laughed softly, holding me closer and caressing the tip of my nose with his.

"It would be very nice if we could actually find a way for you to express those things aloud," he grinned. "But that's all right. As long as I hear them, it's all right."

Wind rustled the trees, and a stray bird squawked loudly, breaking up the moment we found ourselves within. Edward glanced around, lowering his hand to mine. He didn't say anything about where we were going. He simply started walking.

The woods around us should've looked more uninviting than a stray dog pawing through the trash, but I was amazingly content walking through their familiar surroundings. There was no reason for more to be said, but just as we entered th small clearing where Edward had taken me before, he spoke again.

"Most of this is new to me as well," he said as we walked. "But I have actually kissed a girl before." He grinned. "Three actually, and all before I was seventeen."

I laughed softly and nudged him playfully. "That must have been scandalous," I teased, leaning in and kissing his cheek.

A light chuckle bubbled up from his chest. "Well, I suppose. I don't know if anyone realized it. The first was when I was twelve. She was a year older and much more rebellious than I. One could say she was trying to rob me of my virtue. The other two were both when I was fifteen, but it was never anything more than a chaste kiss. Whether it was them or me preventing more from happening, I suppose we'll never know. But now," he said, stopping again and lifting his hand to mine as it rested over his chest. "Now I want it to be different."

There was no denying the fact that I understood what he was saying now much more than I would have when we first met. The things about him that appealed to me now had nothing to do with the way he looked or sounded. He was more protective and much kinder than any other boy I knew — well, other than Fisher. But he was also funny and insightful and modest, and those things meant much more to me than how he looked.

Edward grinned again at what I was thinking, and I blushed. He leaned in a little closer, almost kissing me before he again whispered. "But it's certainly a good quality, yes?"

I laughed and held him tighter. "It's a plus," I joked.

When I thought he might tease me back, he smiled wider and continued walking, obviously happy with the fact that I wasn't completely blind to the fact that he was very attractive — aesthetically and intellectually.

The clearing was wetter today than it had been before, but my boots kept me from getting dirty. As soon as we were at the spot where I knew he would want to climb the tree he had previously, I only paused for a second so he could pull me onto his back. I shut my eyes and held onto him as tightly as I could less than a second before he began climbing. Ascension was quicker this time, and the air was cooler when we reached our resting spot, but I wasn't scared. At this point, I didn't think anything would really frighten me anymore, and with that, so many more thoughts were running through my head.

Now that they'd accepted me to a degree we could all agree on, he was much more open than I thought possible. Rosalie was still wary of me, even though Emmett was about as ecstatic at my presence as a six-year-old child opening his first present on Christmas morning. Esme was more polite and gentle than the most polite and gentlest mother that ever existed other than my own, and she never overlooked my comfort or ease. Carlisle was the most amazing father figure, other than my father of course, and he was a wealth of information to my eager mind. He had books on just about every subject I could imagine wanting to read about. I couldn't believe the year had come to this — me, the new girl in town being friends with a family more beautiful and incredible than any other family should've been. I could still remember the talk Carlisle had sat down with me to have about his family — Vampires.

Why wasn't I scared? I should've run away screaming the first time Carlisle had told me this unbelievable story. But he'd been so serious. So earnest. So gentle. He'd made sure I was aware of their situation, and he told me that it was better for me to not become involved. But he assured me that I was safe whenever I was in their presence. I couldn't really speak for Rosalie yet, but I knew she wouldn't hurt me.

Now that I was standing precariously in the upper limbs of a pine tree with Edward holding me securely against him, I wasn't really thinking about Carlisle. I wasn't really thinking about Rosalie. I was only thinking about Edward. He was here in front of me, and I wanted him to kiss me again. I wanted his lips on mine, and I wanted to know what it felt like to be kissed only by him. His hands held me possessively, smiling as his nose lingered close to mine.

The shade of his pale, icy skin was perfectly snow white, with a slight blush in his cheeks, indicating he had hunted recently. The shape of his lips made an oval with his upper lip curved to one side as he grinned and his lower lip much fuller and slightly tantalizing — inviting me to kiss him. The line of his jaw was straight and smooth, and at the moment, with his grin, his jaw was a little slack with amusement. Apparently, something was funny.

"You do this a lot, I gather," I teased softly, grasping onto his shirt and trying not to rest my back against the tree behind me.

"Hold beautiful girls perilously high above the ground?" he asserted, rubbing the tip of his nose against mine.

I laughed softly. "Climb trees," I pressed.

He looked around the treetops, and I did too, taking in the breathtaking view as the forest stretched out around us. I'd never seen a view like this one in all my life, not even when I'd been visiting my grandmother before she died. I'd never thought it was possible for a place like this to exist, but being here again with Edward made it feel surreal and dreamlike.

"Sometimes," he admitted to my question. "When I need a break from Rose and Emmett. When I thought I was going mad from all the monotony of the tiny town I've had to live in the last several months of my life."

"When was the last time you came out here without me?" I asked, feeling our breath mingle gently and amazed how it caused a set of deep chills to ease over my body. I almost lost my footing and he held me closer.

He opened his eyes, their brilliant emerald hue almost electric as he gazed at me. "It was before I . . . met you," he confessed with a grin. "After that first day we spoke in French, I couldn't deny how you began to permeate my thoughts. I couldn't figure you out, and I'm still struggling with my inability to do so. But you've seemed able to suck the urgency right out of Rose and Emmett's show. For that, I believe I will be thanking you for a very long time."

I leaned closer, caressing the tip of his nose with mine and allowing our breath to mingle more until our lips were almost touching. "Until I'm old and gray?" I whispered.

He laid his forehead against mine. "Longer," he swore.

He nudged the tip of his nose along the inside of my cheek, causing me to lean my head back up he whispered again. "Try very hard not to move," he pleaded. "I'm still a little uncertain of how this will affect me, but I want this to be different from our first kiss. Do you understand that?"

I wrapped my arms around his neck and shoulders, combing my fingers through his hair at the back of his head and feeling him shiver slightly. I laughed softly, reveling in my ability to make him react to my touch. His hands eased down my back to my waist, and I whispered softly. "I'm all yours," I promised.

His grin became a smile, much more beautiful than any smile I'd been graced with so far, and while he was still close, he gently leaned forward, brushing my lips with his and again sending a million tendrils of electricity down my spine and back up into my neck. I barely had time to react as he closed the distance between us more easily than any other boy would have. His lips made contact with mine gently, his cool lips strong and full as he pulled me closer until my feet left the tree limb I was perched on.

I held him tighter, locking my arms around his neck and trusting him completely as he took our second kiss even further by opening my mouth and tentatively easing his tongue along my upper lip. Even more electricity struck me, and I lifted my hand to the top of his head as my own deeply imbedded instincts caused me to lean into him until I was literally hanging there by sheer force of will. I felt like I was floating and he was the only thing I needed to stay in the air. It didn't matter where I was or how I'd gotten there.

He lessened the intensity in his lips slowly, laying his forehead against mine gently and loosening his hold on me. I touched my feet to the limb and relaxed, but almost as soon as I did, the dreamworld disintegrated as I slipped and lost my footing completely. I fell the few feet from where we'd been standing, and he caught me with a startled expression on his face. I was glad for his hand, and he began to pull me up even as my heart pounded in my chest harder than it ever had — even when he'd just kissed me and held me. I was almost back to where I'd been before when a bird suddenly took off from a limb above us and took his eyes off me for less than a split second, and though he tried to keep my hand in his, I slipped again, falling faster than it seemed possible.

The air whistled passed my ears, drowning out the sound of his voice as he called to me and began his descent from the tree. He stepped down like he was merely taking a step to the ground that wasn't a hundred feet below him, and I realized he meant to catch me. I reached for him with as much of my hands and fingers as I could, but it wasn't enough. I'd thought I was completely safe with him, that if anything were to happen to me, he would be the one thing that kept me alive and secure. But as I fell from the tree he'd ascended with me in his arms, all I could think was that I'd slipped right out of his hands.

The last thing I saw, before I felt the sharp pain in my back and then my chest, was Edward landing on the ground less than fifty feet away. The pain was immediate and confusing. I could still breathe, and I could still move. Something wet and warm filled my mouth, and I realized it was my own blood. I was bleeding inside my own body, and there was nothing I could do about it. I was hanging there with what felt like a jagged spear puncturing my back and sticking out of my chest, and I was going to die. Edward was going to watch me die, and it wasn't fair that I had to die like this. It wasn't fair that I might not get to see his face before the darkness began to overpower my vision.

I thought about Fisher and my parents. Kyle. I was never going to see them again. I thought about Abigail. She'd been so excited about me spending time with Edward. I'd been excited for her being able to spend time with Fisher. Now all of that seemed so unimportant. So insignificant.

I tried to focus on the trees above me — tried to focus on Edward's face as he appeared above me in front of the trees. But it was no use. The pain was overwhelming now, spurred on by the pounding of my heart until it touched every centimeter of my body and paralyzed me unwaveringly. I could no longer differentiate a soft caress from a hard blow to the chest. Everything hurt. Nothing felt good anymore. Was my life so worthless that I was being forced to perish this way?

It just wasn't fair.

Though the response here hasn't been very vocal, I can assure you everything happening right now has been planned from the very beginning. Comment? Speculate? Please.

And no, I'm not going to clue you in as to what will happen next. You're gonna have to guess.

Like I said, I'll try to have the next chapter out by the end of the week. But real life, you know?

See you next time!