Third Party POV

"Hi, Tatiana," Ethan said quietly, rather nervously, as she climbed into his car. He was slightly daunted by the sudden proximity, but it wasn't out of fear; rather, out of normal human nervousness.

"Hey," she replied, no more at ease than Ethan. Oh, shoot, she thought. How do I tell him? He'll probably stare at me before freaking out and then he'll never want to see me again….

Ethan turned the car around and drove away from the house.

"Where are we going?" Tatiana asked, when the silence became uncomfortable.

Ethan grinned to himself: he was sure that Tatiana had never been to this place. "It's in the woods," he said, amusement leaking out into his tone. "You'll love it."

"Cool," Tatiana replied, not sure if that answer was appropriate.

After about thirty seconds, she spoke again.

"I never did get to ask you," she began, her voice much lighter now. "Where did you move from?"

Those words invited conversation; Ethan's fingers relaxed from their death grips on the steering wheel. "I moved here from a small town in Illinois," he answered. "Skokie. It was in the suburban area near Chicago."

Tatiana laughed, and her laughter was infectious. "Was the town as small as this one?" she asked, still chuckling, as she gestured out the window.

Ethan laughed, too. "Not quite."

"I figured. What are your parents like?"

That was a question Ethan was hoping to avoid. He hated having to talk about his home life at any time, granted that it wasn't a very good story. However, when he glanced over at Tatiana, and her clear, topaz eyes, he found it difficult to ignore the question as he would if anyone else was asking.

"Oh, um…." He hesitated, not knowing how to word his explanation. "Well, they're parents, and…uh…."

He was still at a loss for words as they pulled into the tiny, vacant parking lot by the forest. When he cut the engine, he sprang from the driver's side to open Tatiana's door for her.

Tatiana smiled, appreciating the gesture. "Yeah? So…."

"Well," he began again, and cleared his throat nervously.

Tatiana was perplexed. What could cause him to become so nervous all of a sudden? It was a simple question, but perhaps it hit a nerve.

"You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to," she added hastily, though she was dying of curiosity.

"No, no…it's all right." He took a deep breath as he led Tatiana away from the trail and to the opening between two trees that he'd remembered. No one ever used the trails; hiking was extremely unpopular in Forks. He remembered his great-grandmother telling him about a store called Newton's Outfitters that had closed down many years ago when no one wanted to hike anymore. He smiled, but it was tight. Would Tatiana really want to spend an hour hiking around in the forest?

"My parents…see, they're not the best in the world," he explained in a rush. "My mom…she had me when she was only seventeen. I was an accident, and my dad never let me forget that. My mom is just over thirty, and she's with other men, too. Dad is hooked on crack, and he spends more money buying his drugs and alcohol – he drinks, too – than he can earn, so I have to find work wherever I can. We're still in debt…and…and my parents aren't doing anything about it and…." He trailed off, his voice diminishing in volume, his pace decreasing.

Tatiana gasped; she had never thought that Ethan's life could be like that. What had he done to deserve such a family? He was so sweet, so kind…and his expression very nearly broke her heart when he looked up into her eyes, his face carrying a tortured expression.

"That's…that's horrible," she finally whispered.

"Yes," he nodded. "It is." He pulled up his sleeve a little to show a jagged scar on the smooth skin of his forearm. "My father was drunk, and he had a knife. Not a good idea."

Tatiana traced the scar gently, her face horrified.

Ethan withdrew his arm and pulled his sleeve back down. "That's why I don't like to talk about this."

Impulsively, Tatiana reached over to take his hand. Ethan stiffened in shock as she squeezed it reassuringly, but then he relaxed, a hint of color in his face. Tatiana looked up at him in apology.

"Sorry," she stammered, letting go of his hand.

"It's…it's okay," he whispered, reaching out to hold her hand again. They locked eyes, shocked, at the surge of emotions that ran through them. Finally, Ethan broke the eye contact and concentrated on the way to his special place that he found a few days ago, having to escape a screaming match between his parents.

Tatiana was still reeling from her emotions. She'd never thought that she would feel so strongly to someone – a human, at that. She thought that she was complete in herself, but she'd been proven wrong. An urge to take his face between her hands seized her, and she bit her lip, hard, to hold back that desire.

Her ears perked up, hearing rushing water. Silly, she told herself. It's just the Sol Duc River.

Ethan opened his mouth to ask a question, but quickly revised it in his head. "Your hand

is so cold. Why is that?" he asked softly.

"It's, well…." It was Tatiana's turn to scramble for an explanation.

Thankfully, Ethan picked up the pace until he broke through a curtain of ferns.

"Look," he told her, his mood brightening. "Do you like it?"

Tatiana's breath caught. Before her lay a small creek, and tall trees lined both banks of it. The sun had picked that moment to shine through, and made the water's surface shimmer.

"It's beautiful," she said quietly. "How did you find this place?"

He smiled wryly. "My dad was high two days ago, and my mother happened to be home," he explained. "They were in a fierce screaming fight, and I couldn't take it anymore, so I wandered around randomly and found this place."

"Wow," Tatiana breathed.

Ethan grinned, a beautifully human grin, and pulled Tatiana over to the base of one of the larger trees, which happened to have a clump of broad-leafed ferns covering it, so the place was dry. She sat down next to him, and they remained in comfortable silence for a moment. She breathed in Ethan's wonderful human scent, and subconsciously leaned her head against his shoulder.

"You never did answer," Ethan reminded her.

"About?"

"Your hands." He squeezed her hand again, to prove his point.

"Oh."

"They're extremely cold," he commented. "Inhumanly cold."

Tatiana was surprised – Ethan had caught on to much more than she thought. "You're right," she whispered, not sure how to phrase her explanation. She decided to be outright and blunt. "That's 'cause I'm not human."

Ethan stared at her, but his face seemed carefully composed. "What are you, then?" he asked her cautiously. His voice was calm, too, but there was a thick coating of underlying tension.

"We're…." She paused. "Vampires."

"Prove it." He still wasn't scared.

Tatiana sighed and raced up a tree in less than a second. She then proceeded to throw herself from the tree and landed, unharmed.

Ethan stared, and his shock was now evident on his face. He couldn't believe it – the girl he'd fallen for, and she wasn't even human?

She walked forward, away from him, and by the creek. As the sunlight washed over her, Ethan's mouth dropped open.

The sunlight sent hundreds of sparkles dancing across Tatiana's pale, flawless skin, and

dazzled Ethan's eyes. Tatiana's hair whipped about her face, and her eyes snapped open, to bore intently into Ethan's. "Do you understand now?" she asked him, her voice tense and pained.

Ethan opened his mouth, then closed it again. Tatiana walked back into the shadows, and sat a few paces away from him.

"We're vampires," she said. "We sparkle in the sun. We don't eat, we don't sleep, and we drink blood. The sunlight doesn't hurt us, but it makes us sparkle. Us 'vegetarian' vampires who only feed on animal blood have eyes of this color." She gestured to her eyes. "We can run extremely fast, our skin is cold, we have immense strength, and we never age." She finished her speech in a dead monotone.

Ethan continued to stare at her, his eyes wide.

"Ethan?" she whispered, anxious now. She crawled over to him and shook his shoulder gently. "Ethan, are you all right?"

He stared at her for one more second and then fainted.

Tatiana wasted no time in whipping out her cell phone, and hit speed dial eight.

"Hello, Cullen residence."

"Carlisle! Please come! Ethan's fainted!"