A/N: While cleaning my hard drive I found this chapter of CYH2 and realised I hadn't posted it yet. I must have finished it months ago. CHY2 is on the top of my list of stories to finish after I'm done with Lifelines and I hope I won't have to keep you waiting for too long. Thanks to everyone who added me or my story to their favourite lists. I appreciate it!

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: The Twilight Saga is property of Stephenie Meyer. I'm only burrowing.

5

"Jesus Christ!" I came to full awareness instantly, waking so suddenly that I'd jerked upright. If Edward hadn't leapt out of the way in time, I'd have smacked my head against his shoulder. "What time is it?" I asked, rubbing my eyes and glaring at him simultaneously for scaring me like that.

Edward, who'd settled onto the thick branch just beside the one I slept on, had at least the decency to look abashed. I didn't think he'd meant for me to catch him doing whatever he'd been doing and his sheepish smile told me I was right. "I'm sorry," he said, "I didn't mean to wake you. I thought you were asleep."

"Yeah, well, I was up until a minute ago," I replied, yawning even though I didn't feel tired anymore, an illusion due to the equivalent of adrenalin working its way through my system. I sat up, pulling the blanket closer around me as I did. I drew a deep breath, tasting the air; it was cold and fresh, smelling of pine and humus. The sky was still dark and the stars had vanished again, the clouds having taken over once more.

"I'm sorry," Edward repeated. "Just go back to sleep." He gently brushed his fingers through my tangled hair, then sat back against the trunk so he was facing away from me, sighing almost inaudibly.

"I miss her, too, you know," I said after a moment, knowing that sleep wouldn't come until the adrenalin had worn off. I knew he sometimes came here when I was gone to read that article of my mother's death. While that little grainy picture was no longer the only photograph I had of her, it seemed to have a special meaning for him which I hadn't yet been able to figure out. I just hoped that reading the article over and over again wasn't his way of punishing himself for leaving her because I knew he hadn't forgiven himself for that and probably never would.

He sighed again. "You're just as perceptive as your mother," he said quietly. He didn't speak of her very often but I guessed that not a second went by where she wasn't on his mind. Sometimes I'd catch him looking at me, his face full of pain and loss, and know he was thinking of her. But if I was keeping my secrets to myself, he was hiding what he truly felt though there was a certain degree of difficulty in that because of Jasper's gift to sense other people's emotions. He didn't want his family to worry.

Maybe that was the reason he was out here almost every night. Because that way he didn't have to come up with an excuse they might not believe, because that way he didn't have to hide his feelings.

"Very perceptive, indeed," Edward said. Right again. He turned his head a little, his eyes fixed on something over my head. I smiled, a sad smile, the kind of smile I didn't allow myself very often because I'd sworn to myself that I wouldn't mourn my mother anymore and instead be grateful for her sacrifice. That didn't keep me from feeling a sense of regret whenever I smelled at the ribbon I'd torn off her shirt before social services had taken me away though. For Edward it had to be even worse, because he had nothing left of my mother and I so much, memories at the very least, memories I wouldn't share with him, for they were private, almost intimate.

"If only I could see her one last time," he whispered sadly, "but I can't. I wish I could have gone to her funeral, but I didn't even know that she was dead. I thought I'd feel it somehow, but I didn't." He drew a ragged breath. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be bothering you. You need to sleep."

"I'm not tired just yet," I replied. "In fact, I'm hungry again so I might as well make the most of it. Do you want to join me?" I'd never asked him to accompany me; they'd always done so anyway whether I liked it or not, so this was a first.

Edward was well aware of that. "I'd love to," he said, his lips curving into a crooked smile as he rose to his feet.

"Alright." I grinned as I got up as well, stretched once which made the joints of my shoulders crack with a sound like a gunshot, then stepped off the branch. Edward followed, landing much more gracefully than I. That was another reason I didn't enjoy hunting when one of them was with me. I'd once thought that I was the world's most graceful, lethal predator, but one hunting trip with Alice had taught me better and left my ego rattled. Edward laughed as he picked that thought out of my mind, and I glanced over my shoulder to glare at him even as we ran swiftly through the night. Edward grinned and sped past me. I barrelled after him, cool air whipping into my face. I wanted to reach the herd first, but my chances were slim. Edward was faster than any of my other family members, including me, and I wasn't as fast as a vampire to begin with. Edward was waiting for me at the edge of the small, overgrown clearing the deer had picked for the night, a smirk on his face that made me want to slap him. I stalked past him, which seemed to amuse him anymore, and crouched down, as low to the dry ground as possible. Edward followed suit, but I didn't pay much attention to what he was doing, my eyes sweeping over the sleeping deer. It was only a small group, one male and three females. I'd killed at least two dozens of them over the past three and a half weeks and there couldn't be many left, so it probably wasn't a good idea to kill even more. Not if I wanted to have something to eat next spring.

"Elk?" Edward whispered into my ear, having crept closer without me noticing.

"Yes," I replied and we both retreated as silently as we'd come, the deer completely unaware of the danger they'd just been in. It took us a while to track the herd down and this time Edward followed my lead because I had a vague idea where they might be; I'd come across their scent a few days ago. Generally I preferred hunting with Edward over hunting with Alice because the latter never shut up, babbling on about whatever was on her mind that day. It wasn't distracting, it was just getting on my nerves like you wouldn't believe because I actually liked the quiet. Edward was a silent and swift as a ghost and he made me feel less like a child on the playground that was supervised by her parents in case she did anything stupid even though he was my parent.

"Alice doesn't think that you're … incapable of hunting," Edward said, clearly appalled by the idea. "That's not why we accompany you."

"I know," I said, "but that's what it feels like. You treat me like a child that doesn't know squat."

"Esme said as much when you got home."

"And?" Privately I didn't expect anything to come out of the conversation Esme had promised to have with them. After all I'd tried to get it into their heads what exactly my problem with being ridden herd on was so many times I'd lost count. I hadn't told her that because I was grateful that she'd offered, but nothing short of a miracle would make them see reason.

"And maybe she—and you—have a point," Edward admitted with evident reluctance. He sighed and stopped, running his hand through his hair. I did too, folding my hands loosely behind my back, trying not to get my hopes up. "We want to protect you, but I see now that we've been going about it wrong."

"I've been telling you that for weeks now," I replied, lifting an eyebrow. "What did Esme say to make you change your mind?"

"Well," Edward said with an almost sheepish smile, "pretty much the same you said to me this afternoon at school, that you're not a child and shouldn't be treated like one."

Wow. I thought I'd never hear him say that.

"I suppose it's natural, having difficulty accepting that your child is not a child anymore even though, in our case, I didn't even know you when you were younger." He sighed, then said, "I'll try, I promise. We all will, but you have to give us time."

"I think I can do that," I said slowly. "In that case I think I'll go back to school tomorrow, well, later I guess. Just one more thing."

Edward laughed and reached out to ruffle my hair, detaching a few golden leaves that had gotten caught in my curls. "Why I listened to Esme but not to you? Let's just say that Esme reminded me of all the times I complained about unsolicited parenting."

I snorted. I had no difficulty at all imagining how little my father would have liked that kind of thing. Laughing again at that, he moved past me because at that moment the wind, which had obviously decided to take the night off, picked up again, blowing the scent of that herd we'd been looking for directly towards us.