I know I said a week, but this chapter was done... so what the heck. Enjoy!

Chapter 5: Don't know what's real or not

Suddenly, the panic ebbed away as a wave of peace calmed her mind like a drug; she watched in fascination as the blond man suddenly appeared by her side and gently took her by the arm to guide her back to the bed to sit down. Pulling up a chair, he sat down and began.

"Lexie, I'll explain what's going on, but first let me introduce myself. My name is Carlisle Cullen; I'm a Doctor at Forks Regional Hospital and behind me is my lovely wife Esme and one of my sons, Jasper." Lexie followed his gaze and watched as Esme smiled and Jasper just nodded his head in greeting. "You'll meet the rest of my family later." Returning her eyes back to his face she watched as Carlisle struggled to find the right words to explain her new life.

"I know that being a Doctor, your life revolves around science and facts. So I'm going to assume that you don't believe in the supernatural, like ghosts, werewolves and vampires, is that correct?"

"Umm… I guess so… I mean… I've read fictional books and seen movies. I mean tales about vampires started because of a Romanian prince that used to impale his victims and drink their blood as a way to glorify his victories. But everyone knows they're not real" She giggles nervously while looking confused.

"Actually, we are. But we call ourselves Immortals; the name vampire was created by a human. As an Immortal, we are incredibly fast, strong and of course live on blood. " He smiled sadly. "As for werewolves… well I think they are actually shape shifters, but a whole tribe lives about 10 miles away. We're not friends, but we have a truce with them to keep the peace."

Lexie's confused expression, turned into amusement and she began to laugh. "Oh! Come on…. Vampires… Werewolves…. That's just crazy!" The look she was giving Esme and Jasper begged them to start laughing at the joke, but their serious expressions don't change. She abruptly stopped laughing and began to get angry. "Okay.. Okay so you believe that you are vampires. Sorry Immortals, but what does this have to do with me? You are not explaining what happened and how I got here. Just tell me!"

Carlisle gave her a gentle look and began. "My sons and I were on our way home from hunting, a few nights ago when we came upon a plane crash and found you trapped underneath a piece of the wreckage. You were barely alive and we freed you in the hopes of getting you help; but I quickly ascertained that you would not survive the trip to the hospital since the damage to your body was catastrophic. That only left us with two choices; let you die as a human, which would have been a great loss or begin the process to change you into an immortal." He stops and softly touches her leg. "I think you can guess which one I chose."

Lexie stared at Carlisle dumbfounded for a few moments. "Seriously! This is the story you're going with, that you've turned me into a blood sucking vampire! How gullible do you think I am? I want the truth!"

Again he looked at her with sympathy, "Think about it, you're a Doctor. Look at your left hand, it was nearly severed at the wrist, but there is no nerve damage or scarring; it's perfect. And your pelvis and legs were crushed, in fact when we removed the wreckage they were so swollen and black from compartment syndrome that you probably would have been a double amputee." Stopping he pulled out his cell phone and handed it to her. "Look at the date, Doctor Grey; it's only been 3 or 4 days since the plane crashed. So you tell me how it is possible for you to be sitting here talking to me; fully healed instead of in an ICU or a morgue?"

She stared down at the phone in her hands, and then closed her eyes trying to come up with different scenarios to explain how her injuries could have healed so quickly. 'Maybe the phone has been altered and I've been in a coma for months.' She thought hopefully. But then her photographic memory kicked in and replayed every painful detail of the crash including her traumatic injuries. 'He's right,' she realized, 'there was no way I could have survived.' Hearing a crunching sound, she opened her eyes and looked down in shock to the mangled phone in her clenched hand. Embarrassed, she returned Carlisle's mangled phone back to him and mumbled, "Sorry."

"That's okay, we go through a lot of phones" he said smiling. Jasper snickered in the background and piped in, with his soft southern accent, "Yeah, one almost every month. We're keeping the phone manufacturer in business."

Looking to the Cullen's, she shuddered slightly. "So, you're saying I'm a Vampire. No wait, an Immortal?" she said still resistant to the truth.

"Yes, that's correct, dear." Esme said as she walks over to the closet and pulls out a full length mirror. Then in a flash she is standing over Lexie to pull her off the bed toward the mirror.

'Wait, no…..I don't …. I can't…" Lexie stutters as she closes her eyes and turns away from the mirror.

Standing face to face, with the girl, Esme takes her hands. "Lexie, look at me." She softly demands, then smiles as Lexie opens her eyes. "You are very beautiful young woman, there's nothing to be afraid of." Nodding at the reassurance, Lexie slowly turns toward the mirror and is shocked to see the stunning woman looking back at her. Her long dark hair, which she had lately been wearing straight with bangs, was now a deep glossy brown with reddish highlights that curled gently around her shoulders. Her skin, which had always been pale, was now translucent like a porcelain doll. She brought her hand up to touch her face, then lips, which were fuller, just to verify that it was real. She smiled and was surprised at her reflection showing perfectly straight teeth as if she had been to an orthodontist. But it was her eyes that shocked her the most; they were no longer dark brown or even Amber color, like the Cullen's. Hers were dark red like blood and seemed to reflect some kind of primal energy; she looked like a demon….no she realized, like an Immortal. She felt a burning in her throat as a picture of the warm liquid flitted across her mind and realized she was hungry. Stiffening in horror, she suddenly remembered that her sister, Meredith and perhaps a few of the others had open injuries from the crash. She quickly turned around to face Carlisle and Esme.

"Blood…. You drink blood to survive." She said ignoring the burning in her throat as she started to panic. "Vampires kill humans to drink their blood…Oh my God! My sister and the rest of the survivors, did you kill them?!" Feeling a wave of calm hit her, her panic subsided, 'Why does that keep happening', she thought.

Reaching out, Esme put a comforting hand on Lexie's arm. "Many Immortals would have fed and perhaps killed everyone from your group, but we consider ourselves 'vegetarians'. She said never losing her warm smile. "We do drink blood, but we don't need to feed on humans to live, animals work just fine."

"So my friends?" she asks.

"Are alive and in the hospital." Carlisle answers and watches Lexie covers her face with her hands then wilts a little in relief. "We called in an anonymous tip to the State Police; they were rescued a few hours after we brought you here." Looking back up to Carlisle, she gives him a grateful smile and whispers "Thank you. Her relief was short lived as she began to wonder if Meredith had found Derek and if he was okay, the last thing she remembered was hearing her calling for him out in the woods. What about Arizona, how badly was she hurt? She couldn't recall seeing her, while trapped under the wreckage… was she alive? Then her racing thoughts stopped, when she pictured Mark begging her to live; that he loved her… Oh God, he thinks I'm dead!

"I need to leave…. I need to find him. He has to know that I'm okay." She whispered out loud and started to walk toward the door, but stopped short in surprise when she realized Jasper was in her way. "Please, Get out of my way."

"I'm sorry, I can't let you leave, it's too dangerous." He firmly replied, blocking her way. Shocked, she turned around to find another exit only to see that Carlisle and Esme had come up behind her.

"I need to go home… Please, my family… I need to find them…." She begged, realizing they were blocking her escape.

"Lexie, you need to listen to me. You're a newborn Immortal that cannot control the blood lust; it's just too dangerous for you to be around any humans right now, especially your friends and family. Even now I'm sure you can feel your body is craving blood, to complete the transformation." Carlisle said and watched as she brought her hand up to her throat, he knew the urge to feed was getting stronger. "Do you really want risk killing someone you love because you cannot control the bloodlust? Could you live with that guilt?"

Even though, Lexie had seen the changes to her body and knew it was impossible for her body to heal so quickly after being in a plane crash, she was still refusing to believe the Cullen's declaration that she was now a vampire. But she was so hungry and her throat ached with a primal thirst that became almost unbearable every time he spoke of blood.

Sensing that her thoughts had shifted away from her family as the blood lust grew; he reached over and took her hand to pull her over to the French doors that opened onto a second story terrace.

"You need to feed."