AN: Well guys...this is THE chapter. All the other chapters before this one have really just been the building blocks to this very chapter. After I finish it, I'll tell you a little background story behind this particular chapter, how it came about, and why some other things that have previously occurred...did occur...lol.

So please enjoy. :)

Chapter 33

I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't do anything. Here I sat in the passenger's seat of Dr. Cullen's Mercedes, looking death straight in the face. Because I could tell that Viviene was going to kill me. And I knew I wouldn't be able to stop her.

The whole year of hiding and lies had all come down to this. Like I always knew it would.

Dr. Cullen let out a heavy sigh and opened the door to step out into the rain. The wind immediately blew water into the Mercedes...spraying all over me. I didn't know whether I should stay in the car, or get out and brave the storm, and a angry vampire.

"Viviene." Dr. Cullen said, his voice shaking just a bit. It was very obvious that we were not going to be able to keep our cover up anymore.

"Well Carlisle." She said, reaming surprisingly calm. "This is certainly quite a surprise."

"Not as much of a surprise as you being here. Why aren't you in Sweden?"

"Well Carlisle, you always say I never come home enough to see the children...why not come home now?" She asked, a devilish grin spreading across her face as she looked in my direction.

"Ok, before you start questioning me...I'm simply bringing her home from the airport." I heard him say, as he ran one hand through his rain-soaked hair.

"And you are bringing her here?" She asked.

"Yes, yes I am." He said, trying to see if he could come up with any kind of believable excuse for that. I think him and I both knew that was never going to happen.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to open the passenger's side door quickly. The wind nearly blew it shut, but I used all the strength I had in me to push it open. I was instantly drenched with rain, and the noise from all of the thunder and the wind made it impossible to hear. I quickly ran around the back of the car to join Dr. Cullen at his side.

He looked at me with such sorrow, as if he knew what could happen to me in a matter of moments if we didn't talk our way out of this.

"This is your assistant...correct?" She asked him.

He starred at me standing beside him and nodded once. "Yes, Brooke."

"That's right...Brooke." She said, taking a step forward and smiling at me. It was if the rain didn't bother either one of them at all. "I thought you had a boyfriend up in Alaska? What are you doing with mine?"

Dr. Cullen now looked at me with a very confused expression on his face. This was obviously something his children's "superpowers" hadn't picked up on.

"I um..." I said, trying to think of the words I wanted to say, but nothing would come out.

"Tell me honey...I don't bite." She said smiling at me evilly once more. However I don't think she knew that I got her joke.

"She knows Viviene." Dr. Cullen said simply, wrapping one arm around my shoulders and hugging me close.

I don't know if it was Dr. Cullen's words or his actions that made her mad, but regardless, she seemed furious now.

"She knows? What do you mean she knows!" She yelled.

I shivered and buried my head in Dr. Cullen's shoulder.

"I told her about us."

"You...told her...about us?" She laughed again. "Carlisle, Carlisle, Carlisle. I thought you were such a law follower. Why would you tell our secret?"

"She deserved to know." He said simply.

"She deserved to know...or you wanted her to know?"

He thought for a moment. "Both."

Viviene didn't say anything, she stood there with her arms crossed, tapping her foot on the ground.

"Ok Viviene, this obviously cannot be avoided."

"Obviously." She said, still not taking her eyes off of me.

Dr. Cullen remained silent, and I could tell he was thinking about how to explain this with as few details as possible.

"I'm waiting Carlisle." She said.

"Yes, Viviene I'm cheating on you!" He screamed, which frightened me just a bit. I was not used to hearing him yell.

"I knew that." She said, venom biting through her words.

"And you're cheating on me as well." He said simply.

"So? Your point?" She asked, looking at him for an explanation.

He moved his arm from around my shoulders and took a step forward. "You do not love me. You never have loved me."

"Does that really matter?"

"Yes Viviene...it really does." He said. The lightening struck behind me, and I screamed in fright.

"Why?"

"Maybe because when you are in a relationship with someone, you are supposed to love them. You should care about them, and be there for them, and support them, and care about them no matter what. Not take all of their money, never stay around, cheat on them with other people, and threaten their lives." He said, calmer than before.

"You love me though." She said, stepping closer to him.

"I did." He said, starring down at the ground. "That sort of changed when you started doing the last four things I mentioned. You have done nothing but take advantage of me the whole time we have been together."

"You're a liar Carlisle Cullen!" She yelled, but all three of us knew what he said was true.

"I would never lie."

"But you did about her!" Viviene said, walking far too close to me for my comfort. She pointed right at me. "What do you even see in her? She's a skinny, tan, frizzy-haired, blue eyed, short legged freak! She's nothing in beauty compared to this!" She said, motioning at herself.

I was truly hurt by her words, because I knew that they were true. Even soaking wet and really ticked off, Viviene was gorgeous. Her short black hair gleamed against her pale skin. She was tall, and perfectly proportioned. I never had understood why I was Dr. Cullen's choice.

"She is the definition of beautiful in my book." He said, not moving from where he stood. "Both inside and out."

I starred straight past Viviene and directly at him, and our eyes met in a very intense and passionate stare.

Viviene was silent as Dr. Cullen continued.

"She is one of the most intelligent people I know, she has such a kind and caring heart, she's always thinking about others before herself, she's sweet, she's funny, and she is more beautiful than anyone or anything that I have ever seen in my three hundred plus years."

I remained starring at him, my mouth wide open in disbelief. He had always said that he thought I was beautiful, but he had never talked so highly about me before.

"And she loves me for who I am, vampire and all. She is twenty years old..nineteen when I met her, and she was willing to date me when she was still under the impression that I was thirty seven. She still wanted to be with me when she knew I had five vampire children her age. Most importantly she still wanted to date me when she knew I was a vampire!" He actually laughed a bit.

"Which is quite surprising because she's terrified of them." He said, his laughter quickly fading.

"Oh and she's certainly going to be after tonight!" Viviene said, taking another step closer to me. I took a step back, and Dr. Cullen stepped forward to be at Viviene's side.

"How long has this been going on?" She asked me.

"Us?" He asked, motioning towards me.

"Yes." She said.

"A little over a year or so now."

"That long?" She asked, looking surprised. "I should have known. That's the way it always works on TV. You cute doctors always sleep with your assistants."

"Oh we haven't slept together." He said, sticking his hands in his jacket pockets. The storm was becoming more intense by the second.

"You haven't?" She asked, and laughed once more. "Ha! I wouldn't believe that for one second."

"Why not?" He asked her.

"Well because...look at you gorgeous! For heaven's sake she's practically a teenager! She wouldn't be able to resist herself if she was around you every second of every day!"

I almost felt embarrassed as I listened to Viviene rant.

"She does a pretty good job at resisting herself then, since it has never happened." He said, a small smirk spreading on his face.

"Do you watch TV?" She asked him. "Gosh Carlisle."

"How come whenever someone talks about Brooke and I's relationship...they automatically refer to television?" He asked.

"Watch TV and maybe you'd know!" Viviene yelled at him.

"I watch the news." He said, looking down at the ground.

"Ugh!" Viviene screamed. "You are such a freaking nerd!"

"Thank you for the compliment, I'm glad that my intellect is higher than yours." He said.

"You are not helping your case Carlisle." She said, turning her attention back to me. "Did you ever think about how you would die...Brooke?"

"Actually...um...yes...a lot." I said, shaking uncontrollably due to cold and fear.

"Did you ever think you would die sometime soon?" She asked.

"Not until about fifteen minutes ago..no." I said, hugging my arms tight around my body.

She grinned evilly and took another step towards me.

"Please don't!" He said, resting a hand on Viviene's shoulder.

"We had an agreement, Carlisle." She said simply.

"I never wanted to agree to it, I was forced to, remember?"

"It was still an agreement none the less. You were not supposed to cheat on me...or else." She said.

Dr. Cullen looked in the general direction of the house.

I noticed his gaze shift in that direction, and I remembered the words he told me on our very first "date" in the coffee shop over a year ago.

"But she even made me sign a contract saying that if I ever tried to break up with her, question her, cheat on her, etc...there would be problems."

And since then I had learned those problems were that she would hurt one of the children.

I didn't want any of the Cullen children to have to die for me. I didn't find that hardly fair. Something that did kind of surprise me though, was that none of them had came out here yet and tried to help their father. Did they somehow know he didn't want them in this mess too?

Viviene laughed. "Oh don't worry Carlisle. I won't harm any of the children."

He seemed very shocked. "You won't?"

"Of course not." She said, with a smile on her face as she took a step closer to me. "Why hurt one of them when I could hurt someone much closer to your heart?"

"No!" He screamed, jumping for me, but Viviene suddenly dragged me into her arms, and dodged out of the way.

I was completely taken aback by their incredible speed. I hadn't been able to witness it before that moment. It would have been much more impressive if I didn't have an angry vampire at my throat, literally.

Viviene laughed again, and I now remembered why I secretly called her Cruella Divel. They laughed the same.

"Viviene...what good would you get out of killing her?" Carlisle said, quickly getting up and coming in our direction. Viviene released me, and took a step closer to him.

"What do you mean by...what good would I get out of killing her?"

"You are a vegetarian...killing her would just cause her to go to waste." He said, as if it was nothing.

I was slightly shocked by Dr. Cullen's words. I had no idea where he was going with this.

"It would...wouldn't it?" She said, turning towards me with her evil grin plastered on her face. "Ah, not really."

It was then for the first time that I really starred into Viviene's eyes, and I noticed something. Her eyes were not as bright a topaz color as Dr. Cullen's were. They weren't even black like Jasper's seemed to be quite frequently. In fact they were almost a orange-red color.

Red.

"Oh no!" I screamed, my hands flying to my face.

"What?" Carlisle asked, rushing up behind Viviene. "What did you do to her?"

"I didn't do nothing you moron!" She said, looking him in the eyes. And I could tell he noticed too.

"Viviene?"

"Yes Carlisle...can we get with the program here?" She asked.

"Your contacts have dissolved."

"Oh thank you." She responded, then she realized what he said. "Crap."

"So you're not a vegetarian...you lied about that too?"

She laughed again. "Yes Carlisle...I did. I lied about my diet. You wanna know where I really was when I was on my "trips"? Out hunting in other states, other countries...so you wouldn't know. I only just recently took my search into the city of Seattle...because I knew that's where she was." She said, looking at me.

"Seattle? So you are responsible for the killings up there?" He asked.

"Yes I am."

Tears stung at my eyes. So Viviene was the one that killed my grandfather? I despised her now more than I ever had before, and I didn't even know that was possible.

"You were looking for Brooke?" He asked.

"I could tell there was something going on between you two! I wanted her gone! Out of the picture!" She laughed once more, and then suddenly lifted me up by the wrist. "And I'm going to take care of that right now!"

I suddenly heard a loud crack as her grip on my wrist tightened. According to the instant pain, I knew it was broke. Tears stung at my eyes as the wind ripped at my hair.

"Put her down this instant!" He screamed, dashing our way.

"Ok." She said smiling. "I'll put her down."

Before I knew it I was basically flying across the driveway, watching the treetops surrounding me fly past at an incredible speed as the thunder continued to roar and the rain poured harder. I had no idea what was going on until I slammed against something hard, and felt this immense pain in my head.

I suddenly realized my eyes were closed, and when I opened them as much as I could, I saw I was sitting on the ground beside the Mercedes. There was blood all over my clothes, and it was smeared on the rocks around me. I couldn't identify what the sharp pain in my head was until my hand hit the side of the Mercedes. I turned around and noticed a huge dent, about the size of my head, in the Mercedes's perfect exterior. I reached my uninjured hand back to feel the area of my head with the most pain, and when I pulled it back...my hand was soaked in blood. I was finding it hard to breathe, and everything was starting to get really fuzzy and unclear.

All of a sudden, I was aware of Viviene being near me once again, and my eyes fluttered open instantly. She looked at me with the same evil grin on her face, and wiped one hand across my forehead. She looked at the blood dripping off of her fingertips, and then she gently licked her hand. Afterwords she laughed...and it sent chills up my spine.

"Time to finish the job I started." She said simply, as she leaned forward towards my neck.

I closed my eyes again and prepared for her to bite me. This was it, I was going to die, and there was no stopping it.

But after I heard a loud cracking noise that did not sound like thunder, I opened my eyes again. Viviene was no longer at my throat. In fact she didn't even bite me.

I tried my best to lean forward and see what was going on, but it hurt too much to move, let alone breathe. Finally I saw what had caused all of the noise.

Him and Viviene were fighting not to far up the driveway from where I sat beside the Mercedes. And they were in a full out vampire fight. It was a matter of life or death. And according to the looks of it, he was not winning.

I didn't know what to do...I just sat there, watching them fight. The rain continued to beat down around me, and I swore it was raining even harder than before. It was like anyone's worst nightmare come true.

All of a sudden I saw Viviene pick him up and throw him at least fifty feet into the nearby woods. He smacked against a tree and fell hard against the ground. Viviene was at his side once again in less than a second, and she was pinning him up against the tree by his jacket collar.

And I was just sitting here, watching this, because I couldn't do anything to stop it. He tried to fight back by trashing around and kicking at her legs, but nothing was working. Viviene held him tighter by the throat and leaned forward to start tearing him apart with her razor sharp teeth.

But suddenly he regained his strength, and he managed to push Viviene off of him. She flew a few feet in front of him, giving him enough time to run to her in order to continue the attack. They fought for several minutes longer when Viviene threw him to the ground in a similar way that she did with me. I could tell that he was becoming weak, because he was finding it difficult to get up. I knew this was going to be a battle he would loose. Viviene was younger, stronger, and she had a natural will to kill. He wouldn't fight anything unless necessary. And I wasn't sure why he found me necessary.

Viviene rushed to his side laughing, as he continued to try so hard to get up. She stood there looking at him for a moment, before he finally rose. But as soon as he got up, she threw him to the ground again, and this time he found it harder to move.

I starred at him trying to get up...and I felt like I had to say something, anything to get his attention and give him encouragement to keep going. So I said the first thing that I could think of at that time...just to see if it would help.

"Carlisle no!" I screamed as loud as I could, and I noticed that he looked up at the sound of my voice. Viviene did too, and that distracted her long enough to give him time to tackle her to the ground.

They continued their fight, as if my words had given him more strength. But I knew that wouldn't be enough. I had to do something, and fast.

My parents and my grandparents had all passed away in my twenty years on earth. I loved all four of them unconditionally, all four of them passed away, and all four of them shouldn't have.

And I couldn't have done anything to save my mom, my dad, my grandmother....or my grandfather.

But now here I was, watching the absolute love of my life die right in front of my eyes, and I could do something about it.

And I certainly was going to do whatever it took, even if it meant giving up my own life for him. Because I would have given my life up for my parents or grandparents if I had been given the chance.

I was not going to watch him die and not even try to do anything to save him.

But there was a slight problem. Viviene was thousands of times faster, stronger, and more powerful than me. Even if I tried to hit her with all of my strength, which wasn't much at that moment, it wouldn't do any good. I was even weaker than he was, and I would be even more likely to loose against her.

I needed something powerful, something that could do the damage for me. Hitting her with a stick wouldn't work, neither would throwing a rock at her head, and there wasn't a bulldozer around...so that cut out those options.

Something with power. Where in the world would I be able to find something with power in the middle of the Cullen's driveway?

I was just getting ready to give up, and I was becoming very exhausted. I gently rested my head against the side of the Mercedes and closed my eyes, trying to think through the pain.

Then suddenly it hit me.

The Mercedes.

It sounded so stupid...but I knew it just might work. The Mercedes had a whole butt load of power. Maybe, just maybe...if I got in the Mercedes and drove at Viviene full speed, it might knock her over or something long enough to let him regain the upper hand and finish her off. It sounded dumb..but I had to try. It was all I had, and at least I would feel better knowing that I had tried.

But there was one tiny catch. Driving the Mercedes full speed could result in me easily loosing control, or crashing into the trees not far beyond the house. What if I couldn't stop in time? Surely at an impact of that magnitude, I would die.

However I knew I had to do it, if it meant saving him.

I turned myself around so that I was facing the Mercedes, instead of having my back pressed to it. I reached my one good hand up and tried my best to open the driver's side door. But it was very difficult to accomplish, between my lack of strength and the power of the wind.

Much to my surprise, I managed to open the door, and I somehow also managed to pull myself up into the driver's seat and slam the door shut behind me. I didn't know what good it would serve me, but I even buckled my seat belt.

I rested my head against the headrest for a minute, trying to focus on my plan. All I had to do was punch the gas, and hope I hit Viviene in the process. Then quickly slam on the breaks.

I knew the likelihood of me surviving this experience was not very high. But I just had to save him...I had to. I loved him, and I was more than willing to give my life up for him.

I bit my lip as tears stung at my eyes, both due to pain and to worry. I opened my eyes and looked through the windshield...finding it hard to see anything through the pouring rain. This was not going to be easy at all. An occasional flash of lightning would shoot across the sky, and I would see the two vampires just for a moment, before they disappeared into the dark and rainy night once again.

I fumbled with the keys and placed them into the ignition. I placed both hands on the steering wheel and took a deep breath.

Then suddenly this really odd feeling of familiarity hit me. It seemed like I had done this before.

And then I remembered why I felt that way.

This was my dream.

The night after my grandfather had told me that I had been in the accident with my parents, I had my usual dream about being in the car with them, but then it changed over to me today...in the driver's seat of a black car during a terrible rain storm. And just like I did right at that moment, I had put the key in the ignition and took a deep breath, right before I went speeding towards the trees.

That was the last thing I saw in my dream before it all went black.

Now more than ever I knew that what I was getting ready to do was not going to have a positive result on my part. But it still had to be done.

I sat and waited for what seemed like decades before a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, giving me the chance to spot him and Viviene fighting several feet ahead of me. I encouraged myself to carry on with my plan as soon as the next bolt of lightning appeared.

That moment seemed to arrive all too soon...because just seconds later several lightning bolts lit up the thousands of clouds in the sky.

"For you." I said, and then pushed the pedal down all the way to the floor, and before I knew it I was speeding ahead at an incredible pace.

I didn't even have much time to think, the adrenaline pumping through my body was completely taking me over. Even though I didn't see them, I knew I had hit one of them...but I wasn't sure which one, and I feared it was him. But I didn't have much time to think about that, because just seconds later I was flying towards the trees at the edge of the driveway.

I tried to move my foot over to the brake as quickly as possible, and I punched it as hard as I could, closing my eyes as I did so, knowing there was no way I could stop in time.

Moments later, my eyes opened again...much to my immense surprise. I looked through the windshield and saw that I was just mere inches away from the trees.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I rested my head against the seat...when suddenly something told me to open my eyes again. My eyes quickly flashed open, and I noticed some kind of orange light appear in my mirror. At first I thought it was lightning...but then it registered with me....

It was fire.

And I didn't know who was in that fire.

It was then I finally gave into the pain, and everything went black from there.

Well? Sorry for the cliffhanger again. I really hoped you guys liked this chapter...because I gave every ounce of literary experience I had into making this chapter dramatic. This is THE most important chapter in this story to date. Everything else that has happened before this has been because of this very chapter.

Just a little background info on this particular chapter. It has changed so many times in my head, it's ridiculous...because I wanted it to be as perfect as it could be.

I had originally planned that Carlisle would tell her he was a vampire, and she would react in the same manner she did. I also had planned on her grandfather being killed by a vampire, and Brooke knowing about it, but that vampire wasn't Viviene. I then thought that Carlisle and Brooke would kind of get into a semi-intense fight at her grandfather's viewing, and Brooke would walk home. Carlisle obviously would not approve of this, knowing the danger in Seattle.

I was thinking that would Brooke would be walking home that she would be attacked by the same vampire that killed her grandfather (but he'd just be a random vamp), and Carlisle and the boys would come and save her. I then figured they'd make up after that, and move on.

Then I planned for Viviene to stop by the hospital a few weeks later and simply question Carlisle about Brooke, and eventually bring about the truth about their relationship. Viviene and Carlisle were originally going to fight in Carlisle's private office, Brooke was going to be hurt again, and Carlisle would save the day once more.

This was all before Adam and the trip to Alaska had ever been created. Once that all did come about...I changed the plot a little, eventually cutting out the attack by the random vampire all together, and just planning on having Brooke go to Alaska, eventually come back and make up with Carlisle, and then have the same hospital scenario with Viviene and Carlisle.

But that did not sit right with me, and I tried to think of so many directions I could take the situation.

Then I thought of the idea of Viviene catching Carlisle with Brooke at his house, which eventually developed into the idea of her catching them in his car on their way home from the airport. It was a good idea, but it didn't have solid background to it.

So that's when I started throwing in Brooke's fear of thunderstorms. I decided that a massive thunderstorm should be going on during this fight to add dramatic effect. But I still needed something else.

In all of my previous plans...I had made Carlisle the hero. But what if I made Brooke...the human...the weak fragile one...the hero? I toyed with so many different ways that she could save Carlisle in my mind until my head hurt. And then the Mercedes idea hit me..and it all flowed and pieced together from there.

Now remember a few chapters ago how I said that I had never originally planned for Brooke to have been in the car with her parents when they were killed? Well after I came up with the solid idea for this chapter...I thought maybe that would add a bit of dramatic effect...her being in the car. And then I thought...hey...since she has semi-physic dreams and all, why not foreshadow what is going to happen in the fight chapter? (If you refer back to chapter 26 at the very end, that is where it is mentioned)

So that is how everything changed and finally came together to make the chapter you just finished reading. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it!

Thank you for reading, and please shoot me a review with what you think so far!

~Hazl~