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The trip home was uneventful, save the continual tension that made Callie want to peel herself out of his firm arms and run away, and also get closer, all at the same time. Edward noticed her confused expression. He continued to run at light speed, but decided to strike up a conversation. "Tell me about your brother."

She was surprised by the conversation. Immediately, she mentally ran through the list of things she could start on. The fact that Edward could hear her already slipped her mind, and she decided.

"He was the only one to come look for me," she said quietly. Edward didn't reply, just kept running. Callie took a deep breath, trying to control her emotions. For a moment, Edward wished he had Jasper's abilities. "He was also the first one I told. He took me to my appointments; he made excuses for my parents. We waited until it was particularly noticeable to tell them. I suppose we knew then that we were only delaying the inevitable."

Edward nodded, remembering some of his own tendencies. Callie looked at him, searching for permission to go on. He nodded her on more enthusiastically, and she continued.

"Before this all happened, we were close. He was building a car for me, actually; he's a mechanic."

"So you've said."

She blushed, but didn't stop. "That's how I met Jake. He and Nate ran into each other at the junkyard."

Edward distracted himself from the name of that dog by asking, "Nate?"

"Nathaniel, actually. My parents used to…strongly dislike it when I called him Nate." Edward nodded. "They stopped caring about what I called him, mostly, when he dropped out of law school to become a certified mechanic." She stopped, and considered something. "He's doing so well for himself, though. I can't see them being ashamed of him, though they probably are. No one appreciates the blue collar anymore."

Edward's eyes screamed curiosity. Callie sighed, and began to talk about her parents. "My mother was a housewife, and she was so excited to have me, or so I've been told. Nate always used to harass me with pictures of me, as a baby, dressed in frilly outfits. Since I was four, I was in pageants. She made sure I had a proper introduction into society, and at fourteen I was a perfect debutante. I had taken etiquette classes and dance classes. I played the piano and sang quite well, and knew all the classics of art, music, and literature. She intended for me to be the perfect lady. I took drawing classes, once, and was rather good, but my mother made me drop it when she found out about some nude sketches.

"I did it all to please her and my father when I was young. He never minded me except when I had achieved something. He was too caught up in my brother's perfect baseball pitch."

Edward wondered if he'd be any match for a band of vampires up to bat.

"I suppose both Nate and I wanted more freedom, by the time I was a teenager. I could go out with him, which was good, but never on my own. So we spent almost all of our time together. One day, he took me to meet Jacob Black. He was everything my parents would hate…and that was alluring." She paused. "Soon, Nate started dating a girl on the reservation and we would go on double dates, without my parents' knowledge, of course. The rest is history, I guess."

Edward nodded. They had arrived back at the house, and he let Callie out of his arms. "Let me get you a jacket," he said, bolting inside. She wandered to the car. He beat her there, and she stuck her tongue out at him. He couldn't help but smile, and once they were both settled into their seats (Callie firmly restrained in her seatbelt), he looked to her and said, "You make me happy."

She looked back at him, green eyes intense and sincere, and said, "I'm simply returning the favor."

His phantom heart started pounding once again. He would have to ask Carlisle about that at some point. He didn't take his topaz eyes off her, instead examining her every feature as she sat there in his car. Her freckles formed Orion and Medusa, Draco and Pegasus, Libra and Cassiopeia on her cheeks. Earrings that looked like they were made by hand out of wire and beads formed little birds dancing below her ears. Her eyes were jewels resting in perfect white clouds, rimmed with her feathery lashes. Her legs, in the passenger seat, pushed her knees against the airbag, and the crown of her head just barely touched the headrest. Her arms, long like her legs, folded demurely on her lap, reaching around her round torso.

He looked at her nails, painted green with little flower stickers on them. Her hair, pulled back haphazardly with a band, tumbled down onto her shoulders anyway. Her skin was smooth and tanned thoroughly. She looked like she fell into his pallid life off a beach, speckled with sun and sand and nature. She was so natural, he was so unnatural. How were they here, sitting in his car together?

Callie blushed under his scrutiny, and looked out the window. "So, to the hospital?"

"Of course. Right." He put the car into reverse and spun around, then took off down the driveway, in fifth gear within a minute.

Callie laughed to herself, and Edward looked to her.

"What were you thinking, before?" She asked.

"When?"

"When you were staring at me," She explained bluntly.

Edward's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "How do you do that?"

"What?"

"Make me blush without the blood rush."

Callie smirked. "Wouldn't that be an amazing name for an LP?"

"Oh yes, let's go public, start a band like Lestat in Queen of the Damned." His voice dripped with sarcasm. Callie laughed, and Edward smiled despite his efforts otherwise. Meanwhile, they sped along.

"You never answered my question," she said after a few minutes.

"I know," he said resignedly. He pondered his words for another moment, before saying, "I was thinking how very natural you are. You're like the archetypal Earth Mother; Faulkner's Lena or Hawthorne's Hester. It's as if the world becomes more beautiful when you breathe air into it. The grass is greener with your step, the trees are taller with your reach, the flowers bloom when you inhale their fragrance. You're quite amazing."

Callie was a little flustered. "I'm sure I'm just another teenager. You just may be crazy."

Edward shrugged nonchalantly. "I've never really been around a pregnant woman before. Maybe it's just that. There is something so right about it, so amazing. You're producing life, and here I am, walking death. The juxtaposition is almost poetic," He said sourly. She had nothing to return with, though she thought to herself, with almost indignant refusal to accept his opinion of his state of existence, "I've never been more alive than I am now, with you."

Edward heard her thoughts, and though he didn't respond with words, his phantom heart fluttered with happiness.

They pulled into the hospital parking lot. Edward got out and was around the car in just a second to open Callie's door and let her out. He offered her a hand to help her stand. "What a gentleman," she said with a smile.

"What a lady," he returned. They ventured towards the bleach-white building, and she never released the hand he had offered her. He never pulled away.