A/N: Sorry for taking so long, I've been a little busy this week. I picked up two shifts at work because someone I work with broke their foot.
However, since paying attention in class doesn't suite me well, I write there and type when I get home.
But this chapter is worth it, it's my longest one to date. 10 pages and 6060 words (no chapter has been over 8 pages but this has a lot of dialogue)
Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, I got the 15 I was looking for and then some.
More at the bottom but here is chapter 20!!! Enjoy.
Renesmee's Point of View
The week went by slowly, of course. Every time you have something to look forward to time seems to drag by. I wasn't even in the mood to practice most of the time. The only thing that I could think about was the weekend that was almost here. I fiddled with my pen during music class. My entire family looked at me with anxious eyes, as they all knew what I was thinking about. However, to anybody else would think that I was just drumming to the beat of the music that was playing which worked out to my advantage. I had gotten through the day without much homework, except for a Spanish project that needed to be started.
We needed to research an animal of any kind and make a presentation translating the facts on the animal into Spanish and then we would need to present it to the class. Although the project was going to be less than entertaining, it would give Ross and I something to actually work on. I thought about what else we could do, kind of like a study break. We would have to eat, which would mean that some grocery shopping would need to be done. Maybe Esme and I could go tonight since we hadn't gone since we moved to New York. I was the only one who knew what Ross ate which would give me an excuse to get out of the house for sometime tonight.
As I was going over what to buy and possibly make for him the bell rang and it was time to go home. By now my parents knew not to go to their lockers at the end of the day so that I could see Ross alone. It was nice of them considering that I didn't think that they approved much. When I arrived Ross was already leaning on my mother's locker beside mine.
"Don't you need to go to your locker," I asked him sarcastically as I focused on unlocking my locker and grabbing my Spanish book.
"Nope, I've got everything that I need."
"So are we still hanging out tomorrow?"
"Of course we are," he said with a smile creeping across his face.
"Good," I said closing my locker smiling at him. He gave me a gigantic hug and then took my Spanish book out of my hands. "What are you doing?"
"Don't girls like it when we carry their books." He paused for a moment to look at me before we started walking. "But you aren't like most girls are you?"
That was an understatement. "No I'm not like other girls but you may carry my books." I opened up the front of my bag and handed him a piece of paper. "Directions to my house and my phone number incase you get lost."
"Thanks," he said grazing his hand up against mine. I then wrapped my fingers around his and smiled contently. I don't think I ever smiled as much as when I was with him. "You're really warm."
I panicked for a second. Damn it! "Is that a good or a bad thing?" That was the only thing that I could come up with and I was hoping that he would buy it.
"It's a good thing, I'm always freezing." I looked at him and noticed that he was wearing a pair of khaki shorts and a black t-shirt with his black fox-racing hat.
"Well wearing shorts and a t-shirt in 50 degree weather will tend to make you a little bit cold."
"But I'm comfortable."
"Then don't complain. I'm always warm because I can actually dress myself appropriately. Plus I have really great circulation."
He nodded his head in understanding and we held hangs until we got to the parking lot where we reluctantly let go.
"You live outside of Utica," he asked.
"Yeah we like to be near the woods and have a lot of space to run around. I'm going to put out a balloon or something at the end of the driveway so you don't drive right past it."
"Not a problem."
"And we have a very long driveway so don't think you are going the wrong way."
"Alright."
"And I'll be waiting for you outside of my house so you don't get confused."
"Nessie, stop, I'll be fine. Stop worrying about everything and I'll be at your house around 11."
"Okay."
He handed me my book back as we walked to the parking lot and he said goodbye to me and waved goodbye to my family. I watched him walk to his car before turning to my family.
"Edward," I asked my father. "Is Ross thinking anything suspicious?"
"Like what, what happened?"
"He noticed how warm I am and I'm worried that he thinks something that I don't want him to be thinking."
"He's fine Nessie. Just trying to figure out what to do about tomorrow."
"He's gonna show up right?" I was panicking. He was fine with it earlier and genuinely looked excited about hanging out tomorrow. Why would he get all my hopes up just to crush them?
"Calm down would you. It's all good thoughts from his end and he will show up, I promise."
"You sure?"
"I promised didn't I?"
"Yes."
"Come on, let's get going so you and Bella can go grocery shopping."
"Why must you read my thoughts?" JERK!
He chuckled a little bit before helping me get into the car. I was in the backseat of my dad's BMW in-between him and my mother. Not weird or anything. My dad laughed once in a while at what I was thinking.
I'm glad that I amuse you. You are so lucky my thoughts aren't always about Ross. Oh Ross, I said holding my hand to my chest. He's so dreamy. I laughed at myself because I had been hearing all week how dreamy my dad is and I know that he had heard them too. Soon enough we were home and I drove the guardian into town with my mother in the passenger seat. It looked like a regular Mercedes sedan unless somebody knew anything about cars and then they would fall in love with it. My mother and I got a bunch of food to stock the house with. She had been shopping with Grandma Esme back in Forks so she knew how much we needed to buy.
I never realized how often we got looked at like we were different. High school was different because they were just teenagers but when 50 year old women are looking at you in astonishment it really made you step back and think about what you really are. We aren't normal, we're vampires and as much as we try to hide that and go against it, it's still who we are.
I would eat certain human foods. Pizza was okay with the right toppings to go with it and I liked eggs also because my mom ate them constantly when she was first pregnant with me. I could also deal with steak, very raw steak, and some Italianish foods like lasagna and tortellini. I guessed that I would be able to keep up appearances with Ross after all.
"Ness are you alright," my mother asked me.
"Yeah, I'm just thinking about tomorrow is all."
We rounded the corner to the produce department, which was right next to the flower shop. My mother and I were looking at various fruits and vegetables and grabbing different kinds. I really needed to learn how to cook and Ross would need to be my test dummy.
Bella's Point of View
I never thought that I would be grocery shopping with my daughter for her boyfriend, if that's what you could call him. But as much as I was calm and collected when we talked about him it petrified me. She was too young to be dating but I wasn't going to deny her anything that she wanted. It was as if I tried to make her happy no matter how much it hurt her father or me.
I looked up from the celery that I was looking at and I saw Ross over at the flower shop, looking around like he was dazed and confused. I smiled towards him, although he couldn't see us and I thought that he was being a really romantic guy.
"Hey Nessie, why don't you go look at some meat and I will be over in a minute."
"Sure why not? But I don't even know what I'm looking for."
"Get a little bit of everything okay sweetie?"
"Alright."
I watched her walk away with her carriage before I went over to the flower shop. I looked around a little bit without him seeing me and I stood behind him.
"She'd really like these," I said holding up a bouquet with yellow and orange flowers with little pieces of baby's breath. He jumped at the sound of my voice before he turned around and smiled at me but it also looked like he was blushing a little bit.
"Will she," he replied. "I've never bought flowers for a girl before."
"She would love them. She likes light colors and the thing when buying flowers for a girl is that the bigger the better. Nessie, however, doesn't like roses at all because they seem a little bit too cheesy and too easy for a guy to just go out and buy a bouquet of red roses."
"Thanks for the help."
"You're welcome. I'm Bella by the way."
"And you're her cousin?"
"Yep." Oh how wrong he was.
"I'm Ross," he stated extending his hand. I shook it quickly. "It's nice to meet people from the family. I'm beginning to think that you all hate me."
"We don't hate you, we just don't want to scare you off. Some of us are shy and we are just very protective of her. She's the baby of the family so we all want to keep her safe."
"I promise that I won't hurt her." He looked back at some of the flowers. "Should I buy her more than one?"
"It's up to you but if I were you I would buy a vase here and then have the florist arrange the flowers for you."
"They do that?"
"Yep just for big guys like yourself that wouldn't have clue what to do with a bouquet of flowers. Remember that appearances are everything. Dress up a little tomorrow."
"What's wrong with the way that I dress?"
"Just wear a pair of nice jeans and maybe a fun t-shirt with a button up shirt open over it. She will love that you attempted to look nice for her without overdoing it." Great now I was giving fashion advice just like Alice.
He smiled at me and grabbed the bouquet in front of him and I handed him the one that I had chosen.
"Great choices, she will love them. Now, what's your favorite dinner?"
"That's easy, steak and potatoes."
"Good now get these and get out of here before Vanessa sees you. She is here you know."
"And you couldn't have to me this before?"
"No because she is shopping for you too. Now get these and get out of here."
"Yes ma'am."
I waved goodbye to him and turned to walk away.
"It was nice meeting you Bella." I turned around to see him laying the flowers on the table and grabbing another bouquet of baby's breath. I gave him the thumbs up. He was ready to do whatever it took to dazzle her.
"It was nice meeting you too."
I smiled at Ross again before walking back to my carriage and then grabbed a bag of potatoes before going to see Nessie.
When we were finished we went back to the house and unloaded all of the groceries before joining our family for practice. Today I was working with Camden and Emmett. Emmett was basically teaching us tactical strength movements and I was doing alright at it. I had been improving all week on my fighting motions but I knew the fight against the Volturi would be much harder than the Cullen's fight against the newborns. Part of the reason that I hated training was the fact that I didn't really have time to spend with my daughter because she was working on her telekinesis powers with John.
Around sunset when it was about time for us to retire for the night, Renesmee came running towards me from the forest.
"Mommy, I want to show you something," she yelled running towards me. Before I could ask what she wanted to show me, she grabbed my wrist and tugged me into the forest. We came to a stop and I saw something hanging from a tree.
"So John had the idea of using a 'vampire dummy' to help me concentrate more. It's build out of metal and I then had the idea of putting a black cloak on it to make it more realistic."
I ran over to the dummy and it seemed to be as strong as vampire skin. I smiled at her and got out of the way.
"Go ahead, Ness. Show me."
"You've got to come over here otherwise you'll get hit."
I went back over to her and she was standing around 25 feet away from the 'vampire dummy.' Within a split second I saw the dummy being shredded into pieces. I stood with my mouth wide open in astonishment. I looked at my daughter and she seemed so proud of herself. She smiled at me and I ran over to her scooping her up into my arms and squeezing her gently.
"I'm so proud of you honey."
"Thanks mom."
"You did so great and you've only been training for a week."
'This has definitely been one eventful week."
"That it has been. Let's go hunting and then you can get some sleep."
"Sounds good to me, I'm exhausted."
"Me too."
We laughed at each other before running deeper and deeper into the green forest ahead of us. The forest here reminded me of Forks in a lot of ways. The deeper that you went the greener that it became and there was no light shining in through the roof above our heads. It was serene and relaxing to be somewhere that reminded me so much of the place that I missed so much.
Renesmee's Point of View
After feeling so great about everything that I had accomplished in one day, I was nervous again as I lay in my bed unable to sleep. I guessed that it was around 2 in the morning but I didn't want to roll over to look at the clock, afraid that I would just be laying there looking at the clock as the minutes rolled past me. I should have been zonked out by now but instead I was left with all of my thoughts. I was mentally going through my closet for something to wear and flipping through magazines in my head to figure out how to do my hair.
After about another hour of still laying wide-awake I got out of my bed and decided to take a shower. When I got out I put my hair up into wide curlers and looked through my never-ending closet. I needed something that I would look nice in but not something that was too dressy because I didn't want it to seem like I was trying too hard. I decided on a pair of light blue flare jeans and layered black and pink tank tops with lace around the bottom near my waist. My shoes could wait until later.
I went back into my bathroom and realized that my hair was almost dry. Had I really taken over 2 hours to pick out an outfit? Yep but I wasn't going to complain. It allowed me to waste some time and not really stress out too much. I used my blow dryer and hairspray to stick my hair into place as I undid all of the curlers. I then used my flat iron to straighten out the roots of my hair and then let my big curls flow down my back. I looked at myself in the mirror and I guessed that this was as good as it was going to get. Ross liked my hair the best when it was natural but I needed to waste time doing something and my hair usually took the longest. Around an hour and half with the length that my hair was. I wanted to cut it, not too much, but Alice refused to let me touch it considering that it would never grow back so whatever I did was going to be permanent.
I looked at my clock and it was 8:30. I only had another 2 and a half hours until I got to see Ross. I put on a pair of tan boots that I tucked under my pants. I walked upstairs and my parents were sitting on the couch watching the news.
"I thought you guys were leaving," I screeched at them.
"We will be," my mother replied. "We just have to figure out where to go."
"Go hunting or hiking or something. Just don't be anywhere near here. I want to be comfortable with Ross here, not worrying whether you guys are hanging out in the trees outside the house listening to every word that we are speaking."
"Chill out Ness," Emmett said throwing his arm around my shoulder. "Ross will be very welcome here." He was being sarcastic as usual. I couldn't believe this.
"Mom," I wined.
"Stop you sound like a two year old," Emmett said to me. I put my hands on my hips.
"I'm going out for a drive and when I get back you better not be here."
"Wait one second," my father said getting up off of the couch and ran upstairs. He was back within a minute. "You should probably take these." He handed me two cars. One was my license and the other was a credit card. "Incase you need gas or you get pulled over."
"Thanks." I gave him a hug and he embraced me tighter than he ever had. "What's wrong dad?"
"Nothing. You're just growing up so fast is all."
I smiled at him and gave him a hug before releasing and giving him a kiss on the cheek. He smiled a half smile at me and I said, "I love you daddy."
"I love you too, now calm down and take a relaxing drive."
"Thanks."
I kissed him again on the cheek and the same with my mother before skipping out the door. The hours seemed to pass more quickly while I was driving. Before I knew it it was 10:30 and it was time for me to get back to the house. When I arrived my dad's car and Emmett's jeep were both gone. I smiled inwardly to myself as I pranced up to the house and prepared the living room for Ross getting there. I laid out a blanket on the floor for us to sit on and set out a few things for us to eat before I went downstairs to my room to look at myself. I had bags under my eyes that I couldn't get rid of but my hair was still intact. I took off my boots and settled for a pair of slippers. That would seem homier I thought. I looked at myself in the mirror again before I ran upstairs and sat on the front steps of the house. I heard his car pulling up the driveway. He was still about a mile away and I was wishing that he would just more a little bit faster.
Eventually he made his way into the circle in the front of the houses. He took a deep breath before turning his car off and grabbing something off of the passenger seat. When he got out he was in a pair of jeans and a plain black t-shirt. I had never really noticed how short his hair was until right now. I glanced down quickly to his hands and he was holding his Spanish book in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other. I made my way down the steps and met him halfway.
"You're house," he said. "It's amazing."
"Thanks. My mom is an architect."
"Amazing but now I see why you thought I would be confused. It's like you have your own little compound here."
"Yep, the Cullen Compound. Great name for it."
"You look beautiful."
"Thanks. You don't look too bad yourself. I see you decided to opt for the pants today."
"I figured that I would try to dress normally. I love the fuzzy slippers by the way." Maybe I should have kept on the boots after all. I felt my face lower a little bit at his comment. "I really like them, don't get all sad on me." I looked up him and smiled half-heartedly. "I brought you something," he said motioning the flowers up to the front of me.
"They're beautiful thank you."
I felt the blush creep across my face and I turned back into the house. Carlisle and Esme were sitting in the kitchen where I led Ross to first.
"Mom, dad this is Ross. Ross these are my parents Carlisle and Esme."
"It's nice to meet you," Ross said extending his hand to both Carlisle and Esme.
"Pleasure is all ours," Esme said. "I hope that you make yourself at home. Carlisle and I have some work to get done but I hope you two have fun. Nessie, why don't you take him on a tour of the grounds."
"Umm, sure," I replied. I wasn't expecting their fabulous acting skills and their not so subtle way of letting us be alone. I was really going to have to thank them later. "Come on," I said to Ross taking his book and setting it on the coffee table. "We will start here and make our way around."
"This is going to be a long tour isn't it?"
"Yep." I led him downstairs to my room first, sending a gratified smile towards Carlisle and Esme.
Carlisle's Point of View
I watched as the new lovebirds walked down the stairs and looked at my lovely wife. I smiled at her and took her hand leading her upstairs to our bedroom. We sat up at the top of the bed and both picked up the books that we had been reading the night before. I really wanted to be down there keeping an eye on them but Esme made me promise not to interfere too much. I still kept my ears open so I could hear anything that was going on between them.
"Would you stop," Esme asked me poking me in the ribs. "Renesmee isn't going to do anything and you know that. Give the girl some privacy."
"Sorry but I have strict orders from her father."
"Guess what honey, you have the authority to overrule Edward on anything that he asks you to do. Nessie is just trying to understand what is going on in her head even if we already know what the result is going to be."
"Yeah but with Alice we don't know. Ross' future could have disappeared because something happened to him or he might have chosen Nessie. We know that Alice can't see her."
"Exactly what I mean. I believe the good in everything Carlisle and I believe that Ross has chosen Nessie. If he has then all of his future has been blocked along with Nessie's. I don't think that anything is going to happen to him so we shouldn't worry too much."
"But Esme, they are so young."
"And what about Edward and Bella? They were young too and you knew how strongly that Edward felt towards Bella and you were supportive of it for the most part. Why can't you do the same for Renesmee?"
"Because I have known her since the day she was born. It is completely different because we have seen her grow from a newborn to a teenager and it's just hard to let her go which is why I agreed to help Edward out."
"Carlisle just relax. I will make you go to the hospital today and pick up an extra shift is you don't give the girl some privacy."
"Fine."
She smiled at me and it was like I fell in love with her all over again. There was just something about her that made me feel like I was whole and if I were to lose her then I don't know what I would do. The loving wife that I had chosen and she decided to love me back and care for all of the kids like they were her own.
"I'm happy for them," she spoke after a few minutes of silence. "She deserves to be happy. I feel bad for her sometimes."
"Why?"
"Because we are all together, all of us, and not one of us are single except for Aedan and Camden but they are like real brothers and spend every moment together. It's not like she can go cuddle up to somebody when we are all watching movies together or going out to play mini-golf. Carlisle, I want her to be happy and I want her to have somebody like we all have."
"I understand where you are coming from but it is too early right now."
"It hasn't been a long time but I can see the way that they look at each other even if they don't. They love each other but it's going to take them a while to realize that. We have to give them a chance Carlisle and not scare the poor boy off."
"I thought that was why Emmett and Edward left for the day?"
"It is but we also don't need protective grandpa around."
"I will relax but don't expect me not to listen."
"Give it a chance, please," she asked looking at me. I loved her eyes and the compassion that filled them. I smiled at her and gave her a kiss on the forehead and then on the lips.
"I love you Esme Cullen."
"I love you too Dr. Carlisle Cullen."
We kissed again before returning to our books. Nessie made me nervous sometimes because I knew that she would be able to get away with a lot of things that most teenagers wouldn't be able to get away with. All of us would be willing to give her anything that she wanted even if it wasn't the best thing for any of us.
Renesmee's Point of View
I continued to show Ross the rest of the property once we were done with the main house and Ann's house. After that I took him to the garages. I opened up the garage door and stepped in. He stood in the middle and looked around the octagon shaped garage with our cars along the edges.
"Whoa," he said quietly, probably not thinking that I could hear him. "These cars are amazing but why are there so many? Most of you can't even drive."
"We know that we aren't supposed to legally but that doesn't mean that we follow the rules."
"Do you drive?"
"Yes I do."
"Which one is yours," he asked me looking around at the separate cars.
"Why don't you guess?"
"Alright." He looked around and pointed to Alice's Porsche. "I know that's not yours because it's too bright for your tastes. You seem like you would like a darker color. And I know that the red convertible isn't yours either because you would rather drive fast without the wind whipping at your face. The light blue Jaguar looks like it would be your mom's car and the red Ferrari I could never picture you in. So it's between the two black Mercedes. And I'm assuming that one is yours and one is your dad's. I could imagine a doctor driving this car."
"So which one is it? The Guardian or the AMG?"
"I would say the Guardian because you are the baby of the family and they want you to be protected."
"How do you know me so well after only knowing me for a week?"
"I guess that it's just a gift that I have. So what's the other building?"
"It's the mechanical garage. We have a few cars in there right now getting fixed."
"Who fixes them?"
"Rosalie and Edward but mostly Rosalie."
"Really? I wouldn't picture her knowing much about cars."
"Well most of our cars are modified to go faster. We are an adrenaline fixed family."
"Do you want to take me out for a ride? Maybe we could grab something to eat for lunch."
"I guess so. Just let me grab my keys."
I ran back into the house, at human speed of course, and grabbed the keys to my car. When I got back he was looking at me strangely.
"What," I asked him. He looked at me and smiled.
"Nothing. You are just perfect."
I smiled again and a light pink tone swept across my cheeks before I got into the driver's seat and he got in the passenger side.
"So where to," he asked.
"I don't know much about this area."
"Well there is this really great grinder place about an hour away."
"Sounds good to me."
He gave me directions as I pulled around the driveway and off onto the streets and onto the highway. I reached about 150 before he told me to slow down. I laughed at him.
"Vanessa you are underage driving and if you get pulled over then we are screwed."
"Well then, it's probably a good thing that this car goes so fast that a cop wouldn't be able to catch me."
"Well that's reassuring."
We continued down the highway and got to the sandwich shop in less than a half an hour. When we got there we split a grinder and I paid for it using my father's credit card. He had paid for my lunch twice in the past week and I wasn't going to let him pay for this also. It was my turn to treat him for once.
When we got back to the house it was time for us to actually start working on our Spanish projects. We did a lot of research on my laptop and the community laptop that was in the corner of the room. Once we got all of the facts that we needed to get we set up the way that our powerpoints were going to go and then later on we would get together to help translate the words into Spanish.
Around 4 o'clock I started to cook dinner. Ross helped me out a little bit because I had no idea how to light the grill that was on the deck in the back of the house. We just hung out and talked while the steak and potatoes were being cooked. I had already prepared a salad the night before so that was all taken care of. When I set the patio table for dinner and brought the salads and drinks out I looked up to see Carlisle and Esme staring down at us from their bedroom. I smiled and waved at them and then they gracefully moved away from the window.
"Why aren't your parents eating with us," Ross asked me while digging into his salad.
"They have reservations at a restaurant later on tonight. Plus I think that they are trying to give us a little bit of privacy."
"So they think we are on a date huh?"
"That's what my entire family thinks."
"And what do you think?"
I was at a loss for words because I didn't know what he thought about the situation. I didn't know if he wanted this to be a date or he was just looking at this as studying and me being nice by cooking him dinner. However all day I had been thinking of this as a date. I wanted this to be a date.
"I thought it was kind of like a date." He looked at his salad and then looked back up at me. "Umm, never mind. I just thought because of the way you were acting this week and then you brought me flowers and stuff and I cooked you dinner that this was a date." He looked at me briefly and smiled at me. "Why are you smiling?"
"Because you are so beautiful. Of course I wanted this to be a date but I thought because you paid at lunch that you just wanted to be friends."
"Ross, I paid because I hate to see you paying for everything. Let me pay for stuff, I don't want you to pay for absolutely everything."
"Tell you what, we will rotate. Tomorrow night I'm going to take you on a date and we are going to see a movie, your choice."
"Are you sure?"
"Nessie I would like you to go out on a date with me tomorrow night. Will you please go out on a date with me?"
"Of course. I would love to."
We finished eating our dinner and he complimented me on my cooking, although I had never cooked before today. When we were finished I put a movie in the DVD player in the living room and we sat on the couch together. I put my head down on his shoulder while he wrapped his arm around me. Considering my lack of sleep the night before and the warmth of his body I was out like a light in the matter of a few minutes.
I woke up around an hour or two later to Emmett standing in front of us.
"Nessie, wake up. Come on, wake up."
"Go away," I said without opening my eyes. "I'm sleeping."
"Edward's coming home any minute and Ross needs to go home."
I shot up and realized that Ross had fallen asleep too. I woke him up and gave him a hug goodbye before scooting him out the door.
"I will see you tomorrow," I called after him. "Pick me up at 7."
"Okay," he yelled sleepily starting up his car and then driving down the driveway. I looked back at Emmett and gave him a hug.
"Thanks."
"No problem but you are still going to have to explain it to him."
"I know but I will tomorrow. I'm exhausted."
"Go get some sleep my little niece."
He kissed me on the top of my head and I then walked downstairs to the basement and got changed into my fuzzy pajamas and crawled under the covers, drifting off into a peaceful sleep. Even in my dreams, the memories from the day kept replaying in my head and kept the nightmares away for at least one night.
A/N: So what did you think? Let me know, good or bad.
Where to go from here???
I have a poll up on my profile about Ross.
I would like to ask everyone to review. I need 20 reviews and I hope that we make it this time
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What do you want to happen or what could have been done differently.
Just talk to me if you want to get inside of my head.
Another update hopefully within the next 5-6 days, maybe sooner, who knows.
I think I'm babbling because I don't want to go to bed even though I have to. Sorry for this.
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