A/N: I am so sorry this is so late. But I have a good excuse! My English teacher is insane and decided she should assign us a wondrous project known as the Novel Contract. Well, it started out okay, I read The Great Gatsby, but then we had to write like a collection of small essays complete with edits and rough drafts. Needless to say, it was a huge project (and I'm considering hitting my teacher in the face) and the final product turned out to be 98 pages long. I was quite tired of writing on the computer, so I took an extended break of any work related computing. And it's been like -35 degrees (Celsius) in March! and I was really not in the right writing mindset.
But I'm back now and it's warmer outside (I think it's above zero) and I'm eating Nutella with a spoon and ready to write you all a wonderful chapter for your patience with me.
Okay, just to clear something up down the line, I did once say it was set in the future, but I don't like that anymore. It doesn't fit with a few things I want to do, so it's set about a year or so later, Renesmee just never happened. And assume that the treaty issues were all worked out in the end and everyone is friends.
Disclaimer: I only own the fictional Walling family.
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Chapter Eight: The Cullens Home
The kitchen was once again presentable. The tons of flour, globs of chocolate batter and all the dishes had been cleaned up by three very remorseful boys under the watchful eyes of Linda Walling. She would tolerate nothing less that perfection from them.
Needless to say, Linda was rather shocked at the scene that was played out for her when the four women returned form their shopping trip. The kitchen was completely defaced, and the boys were no longer recognizable they were covered in so much filth. Linda didn't expect this kind of behavior from them, they seemed like such good boys. She was completely horrified, and even more horrified at what Carlisle's reaction would be. She could only imagine that he would be even more shocked than she. They were his kids after all. So she reached deep into herself and pulled out what was long since buried; her motherly strictness. And forced them to clean it up (which was much easier to do than she expected). So she watched them wipe (at human speed, much to the boy's dismay) every inch of surface on the expansive granite counter tops, sweep the flour from the honey brown hardwood floors and scrub the dried batter from the stainless steel appliances.
It took them about three hours to clean the kitchen. Every surface was practically shining with the precision of their scrubbing and cleaning and wiping. Linda was very proud of their cleaning job. And their impeccable, timing as well. Carlisle walked through the door only moments after they had finished. It was like they knew he was approaching.
Carlise silently came through the door after a long shift. He was mentally exhausted, but still noticed the improvements to the kitchen.
"What happened in the kitchen?" He asked even though he knew the answer: Emmett happened.
Linda was a little astonished he noticed. Even though the kitchen did look remarkably cleaner than it did three hours ago, there was not much of a change from before the disastrous lesson. Carlisle hadn't been in the kitchen for about nine hours. There was no way she would have ever noticed a difference.
"Just a cooking lesson." Emmett replied.
Out of the corner of her eye, Linda thought she saw Edward give Carlisle a small nod. But she couldn't guess as to what it was for. Carlisle hadn't asked a question.
"You were cooking?" Carlisle asked incredulously. He couldn't even imagine a world where Emmett cooked.
"Edward was teaching me." Emmett replied.
The answer just shocked Carlisle even more. Not only could he not imagine a world where Emmett would cook, but one that involved Edward teaching him? Now that was impossible.
"Um, I wasn't planning on cooking dinner because we ate when we were at the mall today, is that okay?"
"Yes!" Emmett shouted, elated, "We ate while we were cooking, how about you Carlisle, hungry?"
"No, I ate while on my break not long ago. I'm fine."
"Alright, if you guys are all good I'm going to go to bed now, I'm exhausted." Linda said.
She slowly made her way to the staircase. Glancing curiously at each of the vampires in the living room before trudging her way upstairs.
Once she was out of hearing range and the camera's had left, probably following Linda (the new mother always provided the most excitement), Carlisle turned to Edward.
"Is she suspicious of us?" He asked.
"She thinks you're unnaturally observant, and we're all a little bit strange and she thinks it's weird that Emmett never wants to eat and always acts really jumpy around her."
"Why are you so jumpy around her, Emmett?" Carlisle asked.
"I don't know. She puts too much pressure on me all the time. I know Edward is a natural born liar, but I'm an innocent boy. I can't think up stories that fast. I get really nervous when she's around because I know she's going to ask me something I don't have an answer for. I don't want to eat anymore!" Emmett cried, exasperated.
The rest of the vampires were silent. Not even Edward was expecting Emmett's little outburst. Emmett was not one to get so wound up, he was usually the one to shrug everything off. Even things that should not be shrugged off. No one knew what to say to him. It was so uncharacteristic they didn't know how to deal with it. They needed Esme.
"Uh," Edward started, "Why don't we do a little hunting to let you blow off some steam, okay? You'll be able to eat something that doesn't taste bad."
Emmett sighed and nodded. He really did need to get out.
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Linda woke up the next morning to another cloudy day. The weather had been like that the entire time she had been here. It was always gloomy outside, and that made her miss the sunny Atlanta days that she had at home. It was impossible to tell the time by looking outside, the sun was completely hidden, so she lazily rolled over to look at her alarm clock. 8:43 am. It was a fairly justified time to start the flopped out of bed and stumbled into her personal bathroom to take a shower.
It was about a half an hour later she emerged from her room. No one else was awake yet, so she decided to make them all a hearty breakfast. Emmett hadn't been eating lately, and that worried her. He was a big boy and needed to get a fair amount of food, but every time she asked if he wanted anything he would become all strange and paranoid. It made her nervous, so she made her son Andy's favourite breakfast; bacon, sausage and eggs.
Linda was just slicing some cheese and vegetables to add to the frying eggs when she looked outside and saw the most enormous bear she had ever see in her entire life. It was a reddish brown colour, with slightly shaggy fur. Its shoulder's were about the height of Linda's shoulders. The sight made her freeze in her position. She was terrified, to say the least, there were no bears back at her home and she had never spent any notable amount of time near the woods and she had no idea how to deal with bears. Especially bears of that size. She did the only thing she could think of doing. She called the Forest Rangers.
The Treaty between the wolves and the vampires had been slightly adjusted since Bella's change. Jacob had been quite upset by the lack of response from the pack, but Sam had decided that it was her choice to make the change, nothing was being forced upon her. The relationship had been a bit strained for a while. Even though the wolves had decided the treaty was still intact, it made them slightly nervous to have a change occurring so close to home. The Cullens had met with them and they created a suitable compromise. The wolves would be allowed to survey the Cullen's land every once and a while to make themselves feel better about the arrangement that had been made. Today was one of the days Sam decided was a good day to survey the land. It was not a good day to survey the land. The wolves had not been notified of a human visitor, and were not taking the time to make sure they would go unseen. Linda had spotted Jacob, and he had not noticed. She was now calling the Forest Rangers and they would be here in a matter of minutes. It had only been about a one year since the wolves had gotten sloppy the first time and there were several sightings of massive bears in the area.
"Yeah, I just saw one. I was huge!" Linda said into the phone.
"How big would you estimate, ma'am?" The ranger on the other end asked.
"Well, its shoulders were at least five feet tall, probably more."
"There were a few sightings like your own about a year ago. It might be one of the same ones seen then. We'll be there soon."
"Thank you, good bye," she replied and hung the phone up before making sure all the doors and windows were locked. Just incase.
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Edward was minding his own business in his room. He was, as all the other children were, forbidden to spend any notable amounts of time with his significant other. It would be too weird to broadcast a family who were all sleeping together. So he spent his morning alone. Mostly organizing his music collection in several various ways. It was an easy was to preoccupy his mind. He was not really listening to anything outside his room. He could hear that Linda was cooking, and somewhat anxious about something that he wasn't interested in enough to care. Carlisle had left for the hospital. Emmett and Jasper had already 'woken up' and were playing some new card game they had invented. Bella was reading in her room. Rosalie was sorting her clothes. And Alice was working on some intense fashion involved project. There was nothing to tug his attention away from his sorting until he heard the familiar sound of tires turning onto the long dirt drive to the house. There weren't expecting anyone, were they? He used his extra abilities to listen further.
Another large bear sighting. I thought we were done with all of this. Those bears just seemed to pick up and leave one day. I guess they're back for round two. The mental voice sighed.
There were two men in the car. Forest Rangers. They were investigating bears. This was the first time they had ever come out here. Of course the Cullens never called them, and the only other people who ever came out this far were hikers who were expecting bears or other animals. He was somewhat perplexed until a sudden realization came to him; Linda was here. And the wolves did routine searches around these woods. Normally, they weren't concerned with going unseen. All the Cullens knew they existed and it was unnecessary. But they hadn't been notified of Linda's visit. It must have slipped their minds. The search was so routine it went by unnoticed most of the time. If Linda had seen them, which Edward was assuming she had, she would have practically ripped the phone off the wall in her haste to call the Forest Rangers. Who wouldn't?
He ran down the stairs as fast as was acceptable, a little frantically even, until he ended up in the kitchen.
"Sleep well?" He asked. His tone was not completely deranged, but there was a little bit of an off tone in it.
"Oh, hello Edward, I didn't hear you come in." Linda said a little startled.
Edward nodded and then started his cross examination.
"Nice view, isn't it?" He gestured towards the window-wall.
"Oh yeah, it's nice. But I saw an enormous bear outside about half an hour ago. Don't worry, though, I already called the Forest Rangers. They should be here quite soon."
"Okay, great." He replied.
He could hear the rangers. They were very close. taking the last few turns of the long drive. It would be only moments until they climbed the eight steps to the front door and Linda told them everything she heard last night. It relaxed him some to know that they had safely gotten rid of all evidence. He clung onto that fact that as he heard the three menacing knocks on the large white door. Emmett and Jasper turned to him with questioning looks on their faces. He gave them a small shake of the head as if to tell them he couldn't talk now.
Linda quickly made her way to the door and greeted the two uniformed men at the door.
"Hello, sirs, please come in." She greeted.
"Did you call about the bears?" The first man asked. His name tag read Pinsky.
"Yes, it was me. I was just making breakfast when a huge bear stepped out from the trees. It was only about a half an hour ago."
"Do you mind if we take a look around the woods outside?" The second, whose name tag read Burg, asked.
"No, no, not at all. Take all the time you want." She answered.
This upset Edward. Although he was very sure they wouldn't find anything. The wolves would hear people approaching and would make sure to stay out of sight. It still unsettled him to have them snooping around, though.
Linda and the cameras followed the two rangers outside. Probably to give them more details about what went on last night, or the general area where they should search.
Edward turned to the two boys seated on the floor to explain.
"Linda saw Jacob outside. She called the Forest Rangers to inspect."
"What do we do?" Jasper asked.
"I guess we have to wait it out." Replied Edward, "The wolves should know when they're coming and will make sure to stay out of sight. They shouldn't find anything."
The two nodded in response. All they had to do was wait out a search that would turn out empty.
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The two Rangers, Pinsky and Burg, were aimlessly wandering the woods outside a large white house. They didn't expect to find anything. Bears were not uncommon around this part of the state, but they were rarely seen by hikers or citizens during daily life. You had to travel fairly far into the forest to really start spotting bears. Neither Ranger really knew what to do if they did see one of the beasts. They were known to be fairly viscous, even murdered a few people the last time they were seen in town. The had tried to contain them then but no one could find them after a few weeks. Now, here they were again. Searching for the same elusive, aggressive bears that had haunted the forest just over a year ago.
"Do you think we're actually going to find anything out here?" Burg asked Pinsky, his superior.
"Probably not. Bears are pretty difficult to find in the woods. The only people who ever see them are the ones who stumble on them by accident."
The irony of that statement was at that exact moment one of the less experienced wolves, who was sent with Jacob for his first time, stumbled out of the woods. It was easy to tell he was a juvenile, His paws were large and oversized, his ears floppy and too big. This evaluation only served to scare the Rangers even more. If there was a cub here, then the mother must be nearby.
The three of them were frozen. All starting at each other. None of them wanted to be the first to move, to make any sudden movements. So they stood there for who knows how long. Staring. It was not until Jacob slowly came from within the trees that there was any sort of movement. His large reddish body crept up to the smaller wolf, keeping his eyes on the two men at all times, in an effort to reassure. He made a small growl-esque kind of noise to catch the juvenile's attention before grabbing the skin between his shoulder blades and dragging him back into the trees.
The two men stood in the trees for what felt like forever. They didn't know what to do. Those bears her enormous, and close up didn't quite look like bears, but more like massive wolves. Genetically engineered wolves. The Rangers looked at each other before turning and running in the opposite direction.
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It had been quiet for about 45 minutes. Edward was starting to relax some more and the six children were all gathered in the living room watching a mindless movie. It was the only time this week they had really spent any time together. Everything had to be so played out, they couldn't show anything more than brotherly or sisterly affection for their significant others. But now they could at least squish on the couch together and it wouldn't look like anything except siblings having a fun afternoon together. When all of a sudden Edward stood and muttered a curse.
"What is it?" Bella asked him.
"Sam sent one of the newer wolves with Jacob, and he wasn't paying attention. The Rangers saw him and Jacob."
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It was only minutes later when the house was surrounded with Forest Rangers. They just kept coming and coming. Each one disappearing into the woods within minutes of must have been hundreds of them in the woods surrounding the big white house.
The six vampires inside the house were quite panicked. Too many people were in the woods now. It was attracting too much attention, this scenario was heading down a very dangerous road already. Alice had called Carlisle at work and he was on his way there, hopefully to resolve all of the present problems. And Bella had called Jacob to see if they had gotten out of the forest (which they all assumed they had).
The search had been going on for hours. Rangers were coming and going by the minute. Carlisle had been home for a while and working very hard to resolve whatever issue were being presented. He was doing a very good job of convincing everyone that what they saw was just a pair of bears on the higher end of the height spectrum. And also that there may have been a bit of embellishing the second and third time the story had been told. The bears probably weren't as large as they were described. It was human nature to make stories sound more exciting.
Linda had spent her last few hours talking to Ranger after Ranger after Ranger. She was exhausted. When she called in about the bear she really didn't expect there to be s many formalities to go through. She had to describe the bear over and over again. She filled out hundreds of sheets of paperwork and her hand was severely cramped. She was tired of talking to people and telling the same story over and over again. She really wished that she had never called the bear in. And she really missed her kids and Jim and her home. These people were just too strange. There were too many of them and they all seemed to be functioning on some strange supernatural level. She wanted to go home.
The chaos continued well into the evening. Everyone living in the big white house was mentally spent. They wanted everyone to go home so they could settle down into their nightly routine again.
It took an hour or two more for the search to finally be called off. The Rangers decided it was probably only two or three of the large bears that had wandered off. The two Rangers who had seen them were okay anyways. Everyone cleared out just as fast as they had arrived. Soon the large meadow expanding out in front of the large white house was empty. Linda had trudged back into the house, ready for sleep, and the cameras had been turned off for the night. Emmett was the one to break the tranquil silence.
"Crisis averted."
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Phew, there you go. I worked about three days on his chapter. I had written about five pages before I decided that what was happening was not quite what I wanted. So I pretty much had to rewrite it all.
Anyways I hope you enjoyed this. Tell me if you did, tell me if you didn't. Just press that lil' green button.
Until next time,
- tanis ann
