In the year 2020, Vampires took control of society and ordered all humans placed in vampire custody. The people who were not captured formed a Resistance movement, headed by the Human Council, which began to plan the Insurgence.

I am, of course, indebted to Stephenie Meyer for this world we all play in, and these characters we all adore. Additionally, I am indebted to hitntr01, who has graciously allowed me to use certain concepts from her wonderful story "In Need of Rescue", which constitute much of the background of my own story. These include: the language Vampiri, the Rules, the machines used to draw blood from humans, Manners Training, and the theme plot of Edward working as a guard at a facility holding humans. Thank you, hitntr01.

Chapter 12 - Life at Carlisle's – Daily Routine, and the Grizzly Bear newborn?

Day 6945, July 6 (5 days after arrival)

(Bella's POV)

Life settled into a daily routine at the Cullens. Every day I woke up with Carlisle in my room. He would walk me to the bathroom and wait outside while I had a human moment. Then he would come back in with clothes and change me out of my pajamas like I was a toddler, wash me, then put the new clothes on me. He favored knee length velvet dresses, with a lace border at the collar, sleeves, and hemline, paired with patterned tights and ballet flats. It was initially galling after being used to taking care of myself for years, and especially after having worn t-shirts, jeans, and either boots or sneakers, but this was my new life for now. I had never lived in a vampire household with a coven master before. The cousins told me that their vampires from the Home coven did the same thing with them each morning. This just seemed to be a male vampire way of taking care of "their" human. I decided to put up with it for a while and then eventually try to negotiate my way to having my morning routines in private. I had learned to pick my battles wisely, and this seemed a small thing while I was learning the new rules of this house.

We would then go downstairs to the kitchen, where Carlisle liked to prepare breakfast. He had placed standing orders for food to be delivered, but he and Esme quickly begin to fix breakfast foods themselves, including bacon with either pancakes or waffles. For lunch, he fixed sandwiches, and for dinner, food was delivered from the store. A lot of rich pastas, or other foods. I've never eaten so well or so often in my life. He was obviously trying to put some weight on me.

After that, the rest of the day was spent with him, either in his office, while he read and worked, or downstairs in front of the fireplace. As soon as I saw the fireplace, I went to lie down in front of it. Esme ordered some long triangular pillows from a catalogue that I could lean on or drape myself over and still stay comfortable while lying in the floor. I loved staring into the fireplace. No one expected you to talk or listen, so I could catch up on my cousins' chatter in my head. Filter through my memories and reconsider the events that lead to my being ordered to stand down by the Human Council.

At the end of the day, Carlisle would generally give me a bath then pull a chair up next to my bed and read to me from a book from his library. Right now he's reading Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. We talked, although mostly I asked him questions. I liked to know how people lived at any given time throughout history. So I asked him what they wore, what they did for a living, what they ate, etc. He described the lifestyles of the people around him over the centuries he had lived among them. He seemed to enjoy talking about his memories. Sometimes when I would wake up in the night, he would be lying on the bed next to me, other times he would be at his desk in his office in the adjoining room.

The rest of his family were quite regular visitors. Carlisle seemed happy with how his family seemed to be spending time together, which hadn't happened much since they moved into their separate houses years earlier. Actually, Jasper, Emmett and Edward were the most frequent visitors, since Rosalie only came because Emmett was here. Alice was more a resident then a visitor, lying on the sofa under a blanket. I decided that she must have been going home when I was asleep, because she had different outfits on every day.

Five days after my arrival, I finally felt rested enough to begin to engage the other members of the coven. I decided to talk to the big guy, Emmett, who was sitting on the sofa with Carlisle and I. I turned to Emmett, and asked, "So, what made you decide to become a vampire? Dig them red eyes?"

Emmett's eyes nearly bugged out at the question, but he started to smile, glancing at Carlisle to see if it was OK to talk to me.

I decided to try humor to draw him out. "Did you believe in vampires, before you became one? Most days I do believe in vampires, but sometimes I think, 'There's got to be a pill for this'. And then I realize, I'm sitting in a room with a doctor! Maybe this is the day room of a sanitarium. He's the doc in charge, so you and I must be patients. What are you in for?"

Emmett looked at Carlisle, and said, "Carlisle..?"

I decided to go for it. "I got it! You think you're a vampire, I believe in vampires, and he thinks he's going to get a paper out of us to present to the AMA (American Medical Association)! I can see Carlisle now at the reception after the yearly AMA convention, standing in a corner with a glass of sherry (which is he is discreetly pouring into the potted plants).

One of his colleagues approaches and asks how did he find two patients with such similar delusional thinking?

'Well, she was walking down the street, carrying a mallet and stakes, which could only mean one thing,' replies Carlisle.

'She was going to get some signboard and a marker to make Lost Puppy signs?' asks the colleague.

'No, she was looking for vampires to stake. And you know that just doesn't work'…(catches himself)…'I mean, stabbing humans, er, people, in the heart will kill them,' replies Carlisle. As for the male, er, young man, he was just too large. Most people that large have some weird ideas, er develop unusual ideation which no one corrects, so I just checked him to be sure, and discovered he thought he was a vampire."

'Oh', remarks the colleague.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking, wait, he's cold, and…he's one of them! He's a vampire! So I try to alert the room, "Help, he's a vampire", but Carlisle puts his hand over my mouth and begins to lead me out. I try to make the others in the room aware of the danger, making fang signs over my now covered mouth and pointing to him. He just sighs.

As we get outside, Carlisle sighs again, thinking, Inconvenient time to have used valet parking, maybe I should just carry her over the rooftops and return for the car, but oh look who's standing next to us. . "Why, hello Director, lovely evening…"

Emmett started to laugh, and Carlisle smiled widely.

I turned back to Emmett. "But really, I interrupted your story. Please tell me what happened? Were you attacked in a dark alley or shady bar…?"

Emmett replied, "One day I was out hunting in the Appalachians near my cabin in Tennessee. I saw a grizzly bear and tried to shoot him, but my gun jammed…"

"Wait," I interrupt. "A grizzly bear did this to you? I thought Carlisle changed you. Was it Halloween, and Carlisle was in a bear costume, or on his way home from a lodge meeting perhaps? No – hold everything. Was there a grizzly bear vampire? Oh my gosh – a Grizzly Bear Vampire would make one bad ass newborn…"

Emmett turned to Carlisle and said softly, "Carlisle?"

Carlisle replied, "Get your own little human, this one is mine."

I kept my story going, as I was on a roll. "Now a grizzly bear newborn, that would get you dragged in front of Aro. I can see it now. 'Really,' Aro would say, steepling his fingers, 'a grizzly bear newborn. Jane?' And Jane would reply, 'Yes, Master?'

'Oh man,' you think, 'I'm in trouble now!'"

"But," I continue, "I can see how this could happen. You're out one night with your brothers in the forest, shoving each other, just having fun. And one of you comes up with a double-dog dare. 'Emmett, I double-dog dare you to change the next animal that comes along.'

Now, you aren't about to turn down a double-dog dare, but you want to make it dignified. 'OK,' you reply to your brother. 'But I want to keep some dignity; I'm not changing a worm or rat. It has to be a predator, larger than a rabbit.'

'Emmett's changing a fox,' yell your brothers.

And that is the most likely outcome, after all. So you guys keep walking, unitl you hear a rustling sound, and up pops grizzly bear, looking for some blueberries. So, you gotta bite the bear.

And then the three of you sit and wait. Naturally you ask them, 'You guys are going to help me with this, when the bear wakes up, right?' Oh, of course they say.

But when grizzly bear wakes up all newborn and vampire, growling, where are your brothers? Swoosh, up the nearest tree. Oh well, you've had limbs torn off before, wrestling with those guys, you'll patch yourself together. So you turn to face the newborn with a sigh.

And now, you're standing in front of Mr.-I-know-everything-when-I-touch-your-hand Aro himself! And he doesn't want to hear about a double- dog dare! So what are you going to do? Fill the space with words, of course! 'Oh, your glorious majesty, author of the true vampire world order, dispenser of justice, true defender of our vampire existence, he who can peer into the depths of souls to glimpse the truth, he whose depths of wisdom are unparralled, lord of…'

And Aro holds up his hand for you to stop. He turns to his brothers, and says, 'Seems our young friend is good with a title. New title, Caius?'

Caius replies, 'I've always liked Death Eater.'

'Suits you,' replies Aro. 'And you, Marcus, would you like a new title?'

Marcus just holds up his hand, and says, 'Nope, I'm good over here.'

Meanwhile the rest of the guard is shuffling their feet, thinking, These meetings are going to take forever if everyone starts calling him by that long title.

But Aro knows he needs to continue. He may have let the incident where the Cape buffalo got changed slide, way back when, after all that was an incident during a bachelor party, but he's going to have to come down hard this time…"

By now, Emmett was cracking up, and even Jasper was trying to hide a smile.

So I continued. "But I interrupted you again. What happened, how did you get changed?"

So Emmett related how he was attacked by the bear and thought he was dying, but then heard what he thought was a second bear fighting the first bear. But the second party wasn't a bear; it was a woman who appeared to be an angel, who carried him to God.

"You met God?" I asked.

"The angel was Rosalie, and God turned out to be Carlisle. They changed me in order to save me from dying, and I've been here ever since."

"And the angel gets more beautiful by the day?" I asked.

"Yes, she does," sighed Emmett.

And I smiled; I was making headway in this household. Maybe this would work out, somehow.

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