A/N: Wow! 53 reviews for last chapter! I believe that is officially the most I've had for any one chapter! And can I just say… I've been meaning to say this for a while actually. A few of you know that my first fandom was (and still is) the Harry Potter fandom. It's how I got into fanfiction, what actually started me writing too. And though it will always be my first love, I must say that the Twilight fandom has much better reviewers!! Yes, that's all of you guys! I can look at my stats for my Harry Potter fic and have the same amount of reviews that I get on average for a chapter of this fic, yet there are nearly twice as many people reading that story. So even though less people are reading this fic than my HP one, I'm still getting the same (if not more) amount of reviews. So do you know what that means? It means you guys are awesome. And I'm working on this fic, when I really should be working on my HP one.

Disclaimer: This one time I picked up a daisy and started pulling off the petals… "Twilight is mine…. Twilight is not mine… Twilight is mine…. Twilight is not mine." Stupid Daisy.

Anyway…. On with the chapter!

December 22nd, 2008

Edward's skin feels colder than normal, and he takes a deep unnecessary breath, before releasing a fake laugh.

"What do you mean?" He asks, but he can tell by the look on Renee's face that he's not fooling anyone.

"I'm sorry. Do you not like that term? Would you prefer Cold One?"

The name sends a tiny shiver up his spine. What is with this family and knowing things they shouldn't know? And why in the hell could the Quileute's not seem to keep a secret?

He grits his teeth and slings Bella's bag over his shoulder.

"The werewolves told you?"

Renee merely laughs, as though this is an everyday occurrence.

Not by choice, they didn't.



"Something like that." She replies.

There is something she isn't telling him, but her thoughts are giving him nothing. That is something else about this family. Bella's mind is closed to him completely, and though he can hear Renee's thoughts they are different than that to which he is accustomed. There's an almost childlike quality to her thoughts, but at the same time they're fragmented, and some of them don't make sense, and other times he feels like he's missed something completely. It's like her thoughts are a puzzle that he has to put together without all of the necessary pieces.

"Does she know?" Renee reiterates.

"She does." He replies tersely, unsure of how Renee will take it. Will she still approve of their relationship? Could this be the moment? The moment when he might lose it all? Lose Bella?

Renee only sighs, and her thoughts still give him no insight.

Slightly less complicated, then.

Slightly. That is an acceptable way to put it. His relationship with Bella will always be complicated to some degree, no matter what.

"I'm sorry, but would you mind telling me why you—"

Renee cuts him off as Bella starts heading in their direction.

"Let's keep this between us for the moment. I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to talk while you're here."

He nods, and Bella is at his side a few moments later.

"You're being awfully slow." She grins, raising her eyebrow teasingly in his direction. He rolls his eyes, and grabs his bag before taking hold of Bella's hand.

She doesn't even flinch at his cold touch.

Edward's eyes reflexively shoot to Renee, before he remembers that she doesn't know about his special ability.

She looks at him peculiarly and he forces himself to look away.

And for him to have already told her, this must be much more serious than he let on.

Edward wonders if he should share the knowledge of his gift with Renee or not. It would be in his advantage to know the thoughts of his love's mother. It is certainly a foolproof 

way to make a good first impression. But she knows his secret. What harm would there be in being completely open with her? He is beginning to think that this may just solve even more of his problems. She should have rejected him from the moment she realized what he is. Any sane person would have. But perhaps that means she might still approve. And that would mean that one of them wouldn't necessarily have to lose Bella. If Bella remains human, they could still be together and wouldn't have to hide from Renee the fact that Edward never ages. Or if Bella doesn't remain human, she wouldn't have to give up her mother, at least not forever, only until she could control her thirst.

He is getting ahead of himself.

"Perhaps we should head inside." Bella smiles, wrapping an arm around his waist and tucking herself into his side. He puts an arm around her shoulder and pulls he even closer.

She looks so happy. Happier than I've ever seen her.

Edward grins in response, and that ever present tension, that guilt lessens slightly. He doesn't hate himself quite so much for his inability to let her go when he hears things like that. As long as he can make her happy, he can deal with his weaknesses.

They follow Renee towards the house, and the wind wafts two scents towards him. As always, Bella's scent causes venom to briefly flood his mouth, but he swallows it back easily. Renee's scent is not the same, but not entirely different. It is still floral, and she still may be one of the best smelling humans he's ever run across, but nothing can compare to his Bella.

"Are you hungry, Bella?" Renee asks.

No need to ask him, at least I hope not.

Bella shakes her head no, and then just for appearances sake extends the question to Edward with a playful grin.

"No thanks, I'm perfect." He replies, feeling her warm, luscious scent fill the space of the living room.

December 23rd, 2008

2:00 A.M.



Edward is watching Bella sleep from his position leaning against her bedroom wall. She is smiling, mumbling happily about being home, loving her Mother, and having missed the sun. He may have originally brought her here with less than perfect intentions. He really had just wanted to get away from the threat of the wolves, but he couldn't have made a better decision. She fit with him in Seattle, but she fit here, too.

She's saying something about a jellyfish sting, when Edward hears someone maneuvering downstairs. Something clangs to the floor and he hears Renee whisper a quiet, "Shoot."

He places a gentle kiss on Bella's forehead and quietly treks down the stairs and into the kitchen. Renee is picking up a few pans as he switches on the light.

"Is this how Bella became so clumsy?"

Renee jumps slightly at his presence, and her heartbeat skips.

"I apologize for scaring you." He says.

"It's fine." She laughs quietly. "I've always been a little jumpy. Bella may have gotten her clumsiness from me, but she didn't get that trait. I swear nothing could scare her as a child. I was always more likely to come crawl into her bed when I got scared."

One side of Edward's mouth quirks upward in a soft smile. "I've noticed. Your daughter is very brave, almost to the point of stupidity sometimes."

"Yes," she smiles, "Yes I can see that."

Edward's expression grows serious. He wishes that he were a better man. That he could be proud that Bella chose him. And he is proud. But there is always that small part of him that thinks… that knows she could do so much better. So much guilt.

He sighs, "If it helps at all, I promise I did try to do the right thing. I tried to stay away from her, to stay out of her life, but she is very persistant."

He doesn't want Renee to think that he has tricked Bella into their relationship with his powers of temptation.

"I've always felt that if you want something bad enough, then it will come to you." Renee responds, "That only tells me that she really wanted to be with you."

I think she loves you too, you know.

"She does." He replies, "Or at least, she believes she does."



He thinks that he has given away his last remaining secret, but then realizes that he managed to respond to both her words and her thoughts.

"So I'm guessing that this is a little more serious than you made it seem on the phone? Surely she wouldn't know your secret if you two were new to dating."

"Not new." He replies, "Not really at least. I guess it hasn't been that long. We met at the hospital at the beginning of November, but it feels like I've known her my entire existence. I feel like life barely counted before her."

She smiles knowingly.

"And how much life is that exactly, before you met my daughter?"

He laughs. Just as tricky as her daughter.

"Too much life." He says, and he means it. He has lived entirely too much of his life without Bella at his side. "I was born in Chicago in 1901."

"Chicago?" Renee asks, "Lovely city, a bit cold though."

He laughs. Renee, like her daughter, is unpredictable, only slightly less so because he can hear her thoughts a moment before she replies.

There is silence for a moment, before Renee sighs. "You should go back to bed, I'm sorry for waking you. I'll pretend I don't hear you sneak into Bella's room."

"You didn't wake me. I can't sleep."

"Me neither." She sighs, rubbing her red eyes.

Apparently she didn't know everything about vampires.

"Sleep just won't come. I'm so tired I feel as though I haven't slept in decades." She yawned.

He laughs, "I actually haven't slept for decades."

What?

Her expression is puzzled, and he thinks that now may be the perfect time to get some answers, while answering a few questions along the way of course.

"Vampires don't sleep. I haven't slept since I was changed in 1918. It might be the thing I miss most about my old life."

She looks torn, perplexed, but her thoughts don't match her expression.



That must be awful. Nineteen eighteen…

"So, wait, you're seventeen?"

He laughs, "That's one of the first things Bella said also. She hates that she's older than me, although technically I'm more than half a century her senior."

He takes a seat on the couch, and Renee follows, curling up in a recliner.

"So I must admit, the similarities between you and your daughter are uncanny. Right down to your surprising knowledge of things that are supposed to be secret."

What does he mean?

"Bella guessed my secret before I told her, just like you."

Renee's jaw drops and her eyes widen.

"How?"

"Same as you. The werewolves."

Not the same as me. Never the same as me.

She nods quietly.

"Her friend Jacob, I believe, is the one who told her. Of course, when he first told her the legends, he thought they were only that—legends."

"Yes, I heard them as a child, too. Anyone who is friends with a Quileute probably has. Children aren't so good at keeping secrets."

"So that's why you called me Cold One?"

She nods.

"Do you have any questions for me? I'd be glad to answer anything I can."

"You're eyes?" She asks.

She knows about the red eyes? Edward supposes that the Vampires in the original Quileute legends had red eyes.

"My eyes are this color because I have a slightly different diet. I drink from animals instead of humans."

"That's right, I've heard of your little group."



The Quileute's still didn't trust you.

"The temptation is always there of course, but I have been denying my thirst for a very long time. I am quite practiced. May I ask how you know of my family? From what Bella has told me, you wouldn't have lived in Forks at the same time as any of us."

"Oh, kids from the tribe used to talk about that house, how it was where the cold ones lived. I think it was a tradition to try and break in before you graduated."

"So I've heard. That is how Bella knew as well. When her friends made the change to wolves, she realized that if one mythical creature was real, the other must be as well. Is that how it went for you?"

Not exactly.

"I wasn't quite as close with the Quileute's as Bella. I had no idea that Werewolves were real. Not until I was pregnant with Bella."

Edward's brow furrows.

"I don't understand."

"The Werewolves didn't reveal themselves to me until it was absolutely necessary."

Edward is silent, waiting for her to go on or waiting for some clue from her thoughts.

"Necessary?"

She took a deep, shaky breath.

"Necessary to save me and Bella."

From your kind.

He shuts his eyes tightly, and pinches the bridge of his nose. Only Bella could have attracted the attention of a vampire before she even left her mother's womb.

A/N: Interesting enough for you guys? Things are starting to unfold in my mind very nicely. Though I would like your help deciding something.



As the end of this chapter reveals, Renee was stalked by a vampire when she was pregnant with Bella… now I need your suggestions choosing the name of this vampire. I have no preference, and thought it might be nice to let you guys have some say in it.

Whoever's suggestion I decide to use will get a chapter dedicated to them! And perhaps a sneak peek at something coming up in the story!