A/N: I just want to say right off the bat, I'm not really happy with this chapter. Not by a long shot. But you guys have been such faithful readers and have been asking for an update and I feel so bad about leaving you hanging.

So here's the next chapter. I feel it's kind of forced, but it get's the point of the moment across. I hope that I might be able to put out a better version with Chapter 58.

For now, here it is.

-Wish

Chapter 57: Headlines

DEATH TOLL ON THE RISE, POLICE FEAR GANG ACTIVITY

I sighed as I set the newspaper on the dining room table. This was now the fifth headline in the past few weeks of some sort of unexplained disappearance and murder in Seattle. It was getting out of hand now.

"Another one?" Esme asked, picking up the paper to read the article below the offending headline.

"They're becoming more frequent," Jasper commented, leaning back in his chair down the table from Esme.

"It's definitely a newborn doing this," Alice added from her seat next to Jasper. "I can't get a clear vision of their future. They keep changing their mind too quickly."

"What are we going to do about it?" Rosalie asked, looking past Emmett and Edward to me, at the head of the table.

"Obviously nobody has taken responsibility for the newborn," I said. "Otherwise this wouldn't be happening at the out of control pace it is. But I don't see what we can do about it. Our family can't take on another newborn. Not with Bella and not here. The town is too small.

"But we also can't afford to ignore this problem. If it continues, we may have to step in, merely to keep the Volturi away."

Edward hissed lowly from his seat adjacent to me. "We can't let them come to Forks," he said.

"I wasn't intending to give them any reason to. If the newborn doesn't settle down or move on, then we'll handle it, before it draws their attention. Agreed?"

There were scattered nods and yeses from my family around the dining room table. Emmett looked disappointed that we weren't doing something sooner, but he knew that this was the best course of action. Jasper already looked thoughtful, most likely going over strategies for dealing with the conflict when it arose. Obviously he didn't think the newborn would leave Seattle any time soon.

"Alright, it's time to get ready for school," Esme said, gesturing for the teenagers to go.

Edward and Alice were really the only ones who went to high school anymore. Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper had technically graduated last year and the story around town was that Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper went to college. But mainly they hung around the house, keeping Esme company. I had a fairly long shift today at the hospital, but I would be getting home by seven.

Edward and Alice left to change their clothes for the day. Jasper followed Alice, leaving Rosalie, Emmett, Esme, and I still in the dining room.

Emmett and Rosalie stood up and started to leave, but Emmett paused at the door, turning back towards the table. "You know, Carlisle, Rosie and I could go check it out," he offered. "We could just head over to Seattle, look around, maybe even have a quick talk with him."

I shook my head. "No, Emmett, I don't want to get this family involved if I don't have to."

"But—"

"Just give them time," I counseled. "More than likely, the newborn will move on in a few weeks or so."

"And if he doesn't?" Emmett asked.

"Like I said before, we'll handle it. But we'll handle it together, as a family, not one on one."

Emmett looked like he was about to argue again, but Esme stood up. "Emmett," she said softly. He looked to her, and then sighed before turning back to me.

"Alright, Carlisle," he said. "But when it goes down, count me in the hunting party."

I hoped the situation wouldn't come to need a hunting party. With any luck, the newborn would become disinterested and would move on before their random killings drew any more attention than it already did.

Still, I nodded and Emmett returned my gesture before finally leaving with Rosalie. Esme sat again, tiredness in her expression. Although vampires didn't need sleep and didn't get physically tired, it was still possible to be mentally and emotionally fatigued. At times, I found myself wishing I could sleep, just so I could finally rest my mind.

"Are you alright?" I asked her, concerned.

Esme looked up. She looked distracted. "Do you think it will come down to…that?"

I shook my head, "I couldn't say," I admitted. "I hope it doesn't, though."

Esme nodded in agreement.

I didn't want to have to confront the newborn, not because I was afraid it would hurt my family (though with an unpredictable newborn, that was a slight risk), but because this newborn was quite assuredly, alone. It was obvious by the headlines that this newborn had been abandoned by its creator. The newborn, whoever they were, didn't have anyone to tell them what was right, what was wrong, what was allowed and what was against the Volturi's laws. They most likely didn't even know about the Volturi. I could understand the position they were in. If I hadn't been able to resist, that first night after my change, my fate would've been just as theirs is. Any other time, I would've been more than willing to help them. I would've explained everything, given them the chance to chose our alternate way of life I would've done with them exactly as I would've done with Alice and Jasper. If they wanted to follow our vegetarian lifestyle, I would've been all too happy to assist them, in any way I could.

But it wasn't any other time now. Edward has found Bella and for the moment, she's human. I couldn't risk bringing a newborn into the family, with Bella soon to be a newborn herself. The family couldn't handle two and we couldn't risk having Bella within a mile of the newborn. With her blood, she'd draw the newborn immediately. No, it was too dangerous. We couldn't take on another newborn with Bella.

There were only two other options. Meet the newborn, explain the laws of the Volturi, and make them move on, or confront the newborn, and kill them. If it came to the point where we had to step in, just to keep the Volturi from coming, I would try my hardest for the former. That was the best way of handling it. And at the rate the headlines were coming, a confrontation looked inevitable.