**Fault Lines**

Damian closed his journal and decided to do something he hoped he wouldn't regret.

He found himself standing at Jake and Nessie's door when his hand seemed to knock, against his better judgment.

"Come in," he heard Nessie reply.

"I beg your pardon milady," said he, "I know this is very untoward, but I would like to speak with your husband for a moment, if he would be so kind to grant me an audience."

Jacob looked at Damian like he had just spoken French.

"I'm sorry," Damian said with a weary smile, "I have something to talk to you about, and when I get nervous I tend to be overly formal," he said explaining himself, something he was unaccustomed to doing.

"Well sure, what's up?" Jake said chuckling.

"If you would be so kind as to follow me," Damian said inviting him to leave the room.

Jake followed Damian from the west wing corridor up a staircase that led to a flat section of the roof.

There the moon glowed brightly in the heavens, lighting up the colored forest like a stage.

"First, I must beg your pardon, I have made it a point never to interfere, however for reasons I cannot grasp, I must say this to you…"

"Okay, okay, but you're gonna have to come back to this century." Jake laughed hitting Damian on the shoulder, "Sometimes Edward does the same thing; talks like he's in the eighteen hundreds. You guys are a trip."

"As you know sometimes our gifts can be burdens. I've used my powers to manipulate untold thousands of people, and for some reason, I feel I would like to do some good for a change… don't ask me why," Damian said running his hand through his hair and down along his neck, as if to pull the tension out. "It's your children…" Damian began.

Jake's brow immediately lost their humor, knitting together.

"They feel wholly disconnected from you, your son especially. I wanted to tell you this now before things get more complicated, because if your relationship begins on a bad foundation, it may take decades if not centuries to undo the damage…"

Jake couldn't find any words to say, so Damian continued. "I know it's nothing that you are doing on purpose, but take it from one who knows, a relationship between a father and son can't be replaced by anyone, and disappointments last longer than almost anything else. EJ is really conflicted and he's only seven months. His mental capacity is beyond anything I've ever really seen… a lot of it has to do with the fact that he doesn't speak much. He internalizes everything, but he misses nothing. I just wanted to give you a heads up… even though you have a whole village of people, as it were, to help you raise your children, if you don't become more active in their unique lives, I fear their foundations may set without you, and that's time you can't get back…even with an eternity."

"I, uh… I don't know what to say, Damian." Jake said.

"To me? You don't need to say anything… you need to figure out what to say to your children, they are the ones who need your guidance. If you leave them to walk alone, without paternal leadership, they will do what comes naturally to them, whether or not it's correct or accepted in society. If you leave others to raise your children, the responsibility still lays with you. My father didn't care about us as children, and beyond that he never saw us as children until much later in our sick, demented lives. We were experiments. His own personal revelations caused him to view us differently, but by then it was much too late and the damage was already done."

"My children know that they aren't experiments," Jake defended.

"You miss my meaning completely Jacob. I'm not blaming you for anything. I'm simply trying to warn you. If the fissure that is presently in your relationships with your children remain, they will fill it with something… something you may not be so happy with, and along with the substitution, it will cement with resentment. All I'm saying is put forth some effort man. Forever is a long time for your children to regard you with contempt."

Damian left Jake standing there, since he was still unable to say anything.

At length Jake found his legs and began to wander through the house. The words of a man who was very much a stranger to him pained him like a branding iron of guilt. He knew he was being lazy about his children, but never really realized the effects…

Strolling through the house, Jacob found himself standing at the entrance of the room where his children slept, watching them peacefully dream, when Edward happened upon him there.

"What's the matter?" he asked Jake.

"Nothing," Jake shrugged.

"Come now, you know there's no use hiding from me…" Edward said placing a hand on his shoulder.

Jake scoffed a sigh, knowing he was right. "I'm a father and I don't hardly know how to be one… and now Nessie is about to have another baby," he whispered.

"It just takes some time to adjust," Edward said kindly.

Jake looked over at Edward's loving gaze incredulously, how would you know? You're the perfect father to Renesmee…and, I… I don't even know these strangers that are my children…

"Where is all of this coming from?" Edward asked.

Jake could only meet Edward's glance for a fraction of a second, but Edward already knew the answer.

The conversation played back in Jake's mind involuntarily as Edward picked it out. Jake grimaced at the memory of the reproaches, the honesty of the words and how extremely unexpected it all was.

"I'm going to tell you something…" Edward began, closing the door to the room and pulling Jake by the arm. He led the way to an adjoining drawing room and sat down motioning for Jake to sit beside him. "You know all of the things that were facing us around the birth of Renesmee. How fast she grew and how much we had to deal with when Irina did what she did."

Jake's muscles tensed with the memory.

"I was a new husband and a new father as well. I had no idea what to do… and thanks to you and Rosalie, the spotlight wasn't much on me as a father. However, because of my gift, I was able to still bond with Renesmee with hardly no effort on my part. I had it easy. All I'm saying is that for us, since having children is so unnatural and seems to happen so fast in our case, your confusion is to be expected. There is a lot going on, that's all. You'll have to work harder at building your relationships with your children, and Damian has a point. You need to work on it quickly, seeing as how they do grow up so fast…"

"But who is he to tell me off?"

"I'm certain he meant no disrespect, Jake."

"Just because he can read everyone's minds doesn't give him the right to butt in." Jake pouted.

"His mind is very complicated and complex. He has a lot of wisdom that is from experience and I'm sure he only wanted to spare you the greater pain of enduring what he and his father have endured. Maybe you should understand him a little bit better…" Edward said, looking like he was deciding whether or not to do something…

"I'm going to tell you something about him that isn't my place to tell you, but maybe it will help you to understand your own children. So in the hopes of that, I will break my own rules and do as you say, 'butt in', with my gift." Edward said with a ghostly smile.

"Damian, as you know was the first in a series of children. But as he himself told you, they weren't children to his father, they were experiments. Sasha, the sister we have met, her purpose was bearing children until she begged to be released from the duty. She endured four to six pregnancies a year for thirty years. Her 'father' kept her in a room that might as well have been a hospital room, or a cell, but was supremely more comfortable. She rarely left the confines of her room and she was impregnated by many different vampires, including her father, her brothers, vampires unknown to her as well as that of her offspring in order to try mixing and crossing lines in attempts of making stronger, gifted vampires."

Jake's face crumpled in a grimace at the horror of the story Edward told him.

"The phrase 'family' meant nothing to them until later, but the damage was already done. The connection of father, brothers, sisters, it all means very little in our world, which is why our family is truly so unique. Anyway, Sasha grew up not knowing any differently. Surprisingly enough she doesn't hate her father the way some, I guess you could say, people, hate their fathers, and he has done so much worse. Damian on the other hand, though choosing to stay with his father, has a lot of resentment and anger toward him. In the end, he's chosen to remain close to him… I'm not exactly sure why, but in truth, their relationship will never be like that of a father and son. You and I are closer to father and son than he will ever be with his father."

"So what do I do about my children?" Jake asked in mortification.

"Don't worry Jake, this situation is nowhere near as bad as all that, just be aware now. Take time. Talk with them. Play games or go hunting; read with them. Educate them."

"They are smarter than I am," Jake laughed.

"That's not what I meant," Edward smiled, "Josiah doesn't know how to be a man, and you will have to teach him. He's confused about a lot of things."

"So am I…" Jake sighed running his hand through his hair.

"Well maybe you can draw from what you do know and help him. Or at the very least let him know he's not alone. Looking into his mind now, he holds a lot of confusion over his sister. Their bond is very unique… But I fear he may have some issues with Xenia's imprinting on Damian. He's very jealous you see."

"Why should he be?" Jake asked obliviously.

"Oh c'mon Jake," Edward said unable to believe he was this dense. "EJ and Xeni spend all of their time together. Only on that basis understandably he could be jealous… but I think he's falling in love with his sister…it's hard for me to even see the lines of their relationship, because of their connection."

"What!" Jake exclaimed.

"Shhhhh," Edward chided, "their relationship isn't…'inappropriate'… yet. But it could be in the future… it seems like a natural evolution." He declared in hushed tones.

"What's natural about that?"

Edward smiled a weak smile for Jake and sighed, "My poor, innocent boy. Incest is as old as time… brothers and sisters have found comfort in each other since the creation of families. In vampires…according to Edmond's research, the genetic connection between brother and sister vampires is as ordinary as between two mates who aren't related, but the mental connection your children share is very deep, they almost share the same mind. It's very complex."

"What do I do about that?" Jake asked, horror stricken for the third time.

"Help them through it together," Edward said with a smile. "Don't worry, we will all get through this together."