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, who 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 plot theme of Edward working as a guard at a facility holding humans. Thank you, hitntr01.

Epilogue – Outtake 1 – This chapter would have taken place after Chapter 30, Jasper's birthday party, and before the death of Aro in Chapter 44

Date – early winter, year 2039

Chapter 48 -Carlisle's Birthday, part 1

I had wanted to throw a birthday party for Carlisle for his 399th birthday. The cousins, of course, had been working on making him a cake. They finally settled on a London Bridge cake, using a model they came up with from woodcut illustrations of London shown on a 1682 map of London. They made a little raised platform to hold the main body of a rectangular cake, which was formed in the shape of the bridge. This part had the little buildings rising along each side for the houses and structures that lined the bridge in the 17th century, and then they iced little pieces to form as the bridge's supporting arches. The water below they recreated in blue icing, though I doubt it would have appeared blue at the time.

For my part, I had sent an Ally to Carlisle's church to see if they could find the Bible he had read from in the pulpit as a preacher

I knew the Ally would not have an easy task. The churches had been scenes of massacres during the Event of July, 2020. As word got out about what was happening, people had flocked to the churches, especially the elderly. Since the vampires had no need of the elderly, as their blood was not considered sweet, they were killed wherever they were found. The vampires apparently found the concept of sanctuary not only irrelevant but amusing, and there were scenes of sadism as they asked, "Where is your god now?" while carrying out their massacres of the elderly in the church pews.

Afterwards, of course, anything of value was stripped from the churches. The smaller churches generally didn't have a lot of items of value, so many of those were left mostly intact.

The ally found Carlisle's father's church without much trouble. St. Andrews Undermast was an old church, and had survived the London Fire of 1666, just a few years after Carlisle's human death. Although the bodies had been cleared out in the summer of 2020, the signs of a massacre were still present. There were blood stains in the pews and throughout the church, and the pulpit and other areas of the sanctuary had been ransacked during the search for valuables. The windows were still intact, though. Some of the doors had been kicked open; the shattered wood was still lying on the floor. Birds had been living in the building, and the evidence of their nesting was everywhere.

In the rectory, the Ally found Bibles that had been retired from use, including the Bible Carlisle had used when preaching his last sermon, the night he lead members of the congregation into the streets in search of the undead. He also found Carlisle's family Bible. As the King James edition of the Bible was only released in 1611, his grandfather, who had two sons, had started the family tree in his first personal copy. This was then passed to his father, who only had one child before his wife's death. Carlisle's birth, as well as his mother's death, was duly recorded. Carlisle's death was noted as the date of his disappearance, that fateful night in 1663.

On the day of the party at the Cullen house, the entire family was assembled. The girls were grumbling, but I thought it was because the party hadn't been their idea. Esme loved the idea of this party, as it meant the entire family would be assembled. Emmett was always up for a good time, of course. Jasper was present as always, and Edward made an appearance, leaning elegantly against the wall. I tried hard to distance myself from my revulsion at my visions rolling off of him, showing his last day's work at the living death camp in Seattle. This was supposed to be Carlisle's night, after all, and I worked hard to be at least civil to all members of his family. I was, after all, a guest, and although not all of his family members accepted me, I did my utmost to always appear to be friendly to everyone in his household.

The cake and presents had been delivered by UPS, as usual, but in care of Esme. The cousin's cake made quite the impact, and Carlisle was very appreciative. Little Sweetie had followed the cake, and I was having a hard time keeping her out of the icing. Anything with sugar drew her. I was envious of the little immortal's way of dealing with the vampires she disliked and feared. She was my cousin Celeste's companion, and she managed to be visible only to human eyes. But her attraction to the cake icing might give her away, as if any of them noticed the icing was vanishing off of a plate, they would have reason to be suspicious. I did my best not to stare at her as she waited at the edge of the coffee table, her lilac eyes trained on the cake, with two little feet on the edge of the table, and the other two feet on the carpet.

After being duly admired and fussed over, the cake was eventually cut, and I was passed a piece which I attacked with gusto. The cousins had made a white cake as the base and dyed the icing with the various colors for the bridge and houses. The second I set down the plate, Sweetie finished the icing. I made a point of walking away from the plate, hoping her snacking wouldn't be noticed by the normally sharp-eyed vampires.

Suddenly I began to reconsider the gifts I was planning to give Carlisle. I felt stupid. If he had wanted those Bibles, he'd had four centuries to go back for them. What if he didn't want them? I had them in a bag by the sofa, and I started to pull them out after the rest of his family gave him their gifts, but then slipped them back.

"What is it, Sweetheart?" asked Carlisle.

"I got you something, but I think you already have it. Maybe it was just a stupid idea, that's all," I answered.

"I'm sure whatever it is, I'll treasure it because you thought to give it to me," Carlisle answered gently.

I could feel Jasper trying to push some relaxation my way, so I let a little in. I usually blocked him completely, but this time I didn't. What the hell was I thinking? There had been problems between Carlisle and his father. Who was I to give him something from the human past he had so clearly not wanted to dwell on?

"It's something you already have it in your library. I remember seeing it now. I'll send it back and get you something else…" I realized I was babbling.

We all waited for a few minutes, and then I decided to just do it. I hauled the larger Bible, the one used in the pulpit, out of the bag. The Ally had found souvenir gift wrap paper in the church's fund-raising booth, which had been made in the pattern of the stained glass windows. I had wrapped both volumes in this paper.

Carlisle reached for the package.

"It's a book, in case you couldn't guess," I threw in nervously.

Carlisle smiled and paused before unwrapping it, examining the giftwrap closely. A fleeting look of recognition passed across his face, looking at the images of the stained glass windows from his church on the paper. He looked up at me and asked, "Is it all right to open this now?"

I nodded.

He took an unnecessary breath and pulled off the wrapping. He looked in amazement at the huge Bible that had been used for readings to the congregation from the pulpit, turning it over easily in his hands.

I held my breath.

He opened it slowly, looking at the passage marked by the leather bookmark.

"It's marked at your father's last sermon," I said quietly. "They retired the Bible when he retired, as the new pastor brought his own from seminary. The sermons of his last three months were reflections on 1 Corinthians, 13:12-13."

Carlisle nodded. "I haven't seen this for a long time. Actually, I never thought to see it again…" he began. Jasper and Edward both came to stand behind him, looking in wonder at the huge volume he was holding in one hand.

Jasper looked over at me. "It's amazing, but how…?"

I reached for the Bible. "I'll ask the ally to return it. It should be in the church, as it is part of the church's history. I should never have sent someone to get it for you."

"Sweetheart, I love it," Carlisle answered. "Thank you for bringing it here. But…how did you find the church? I don't remember ever mentioning its name."

"Oh, the Ally was very resourceful," I lied. "There was only one Cullen shown on the church registries which survived from the period. So he went there." The truth was that in working with the mind-reader to figure out the identity of Carlisle's creator, I had traveled the streets of London from Carlisle's memories so many times that I was able to pick out the church from his recollections.

Carlisle's father had been the parish priest at St. Andrews Undershaft in London, and had planned to retire as Carlisle assumed his role. The Church of England kept thorough records, so the Reverend Cullen's parish had not been hard to find. After Carlisle's death, his father resumed his position as parish priest. He continued in that role until shortly before his death. His last three sermons had been on the famous lines from 1 Corinthians, 13:12-13, "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

"Faith, hope and love (charity), the greatest of these is love (charity)." It seemed in his final days, the Reverend had found peace from the burning anger of his younger days. The elder Cullen had written notes for these sermons, which had been kept in the main office among his papers. The man who had tried to break his son, Carlisle, after the death of his wife during childbirth, had, at the end of his life, appeared to have made peace and found the loving god.

I watched while Carlisle's hand rested on the lines of the page.

Then, of course, it was time for the second present. He looked at the bag holding the second present with both interest and exhaustion, as the emotions from seeing the Bible from his past had clearly awakened old emotions. He examined the smaller package while waiting for me to hand it to him. I wondered if he could guess the contents from its size.

I passed it to him with an even greater feeling of trepidation than the first Bible. This was, after all, the family's personal Bible. Why hadn't he retrieved it, if he had wanted it?

As he opened the giftwrap, I told him that wrapping had been from the church also. He nodded, absently, as he removed it to reveal the book it covered. Carlisle opened his grandfather's Bible slowly, looking at the dates shown on the family tree in the front. I watched as he traced the tree, letting his fingers pause first over his mother's entry, then his own entry. "You found this, too?" he finally asked.

"It was all in the church office. The Ally was very thorough," I replied.

"I would like to thank him," replied Carlisle.

"Well, he's still there, doing a bit of work on the church. It had not been kept up for the past 20 years, so there were a lot of maintenance and repairs to be done."

Carlisle nodded slowly. "Apparently I will have a lot to thank him for then," he replied softly, looking down at his presents. He was silent, lost in his thoughts and memories, and we let him sit in peace. Pulling me over next to him on the sofa, he began to absent-mindedly stroke my hair, while he reread the familiar passages from 1 Corinthians, and the faint writing of his father's notes from nearly four hundred years ago.

Eventually I went to get another piece of cake, trying to decide whether to go forward with his other present. My mind-reading friend had figured out who had changed Carlisle that fateful night in 1663. That vampire, whose identity Carlisle had never known, still resided in London.

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**I am not familiar with the 17th century Anglican titles for the ministry. I researched on-line (of course), but I'm still not sure what title the priest in a church the size of St. Andrews Undershaft would have had. I used parish priest and Reverend for simplicity and clarity's sake in the chapter. If anyone knows more about Anglican Church protocol in the 17th century, and would like to send me information, I will update the chapter with it.