Edward pulled his silver Volvo into the garage of their home and shut off the engine. Leaning back onto the head rest of his seat, he ran over in his mind everything Carlisle had told him that afternoon.

For two years the Cullens had lived in Forks with absolutely no threat to their secret. True the Quileutes were nearby down at the reservation, but they had generally kept to themselves since no one was breaking the treaty. Now all of a sudden in the space of a few hours they were being faced with something both unknown and dangerous to their secret. No matter how sure Carlisle was, Edward still didn't trust Harry.

Why should he? How could Carlisle expect him to put his faith in someone like Harry? The boy had appeared out of nowhere, refused to say anything about himself at all and then turned out to be some ridiculously powerful being with special abilities. And now this same person quite possibly knew of the Cullens' true identity and could reveal them at any moment.

Edward wanted to believe in his father's judgement. Ever since his days of rebellion, he had learned to trust Carlisle and his decisions for the family, but Edward wasn't sure he could muster that level of trust this time. If he couldn't trust his own father's judgement, whose could he?

A light tapping on the driver's window startled Edward out of his thoughts. He turned to look into the small, angry face of his sister, Alice. Her darkened eyes bore into his as she relayed her silent message. 'Oi! You can't just sit in your car all day. Some of us want to know what's going on!'

Edward sighed and opened his door. "Alright keep your hair on. I'm coming inside." Climbing gracefully out of his seat, Edward felt the rush of wind as Alice darted back into the house to wait for him. He pushed the door shut, pressed the lock button on his key, and slowly made his way out of the garage.

'Take your time, dear brother. No one's waiting for you or anything.' He heard the annoyed thoughts of his sister once more as he opened the front door and made his way through to the living room where the rest of his family were already waiting. Alice had obviously insisted that everyone be there to hear what Edward was going to say, and typically some of them looked like they would rather not be there at all.

Alice was fixing him with her best irritated glare from where she perched on the lap of her husband, who was eyeing Emmett uncomfortably. Following Jasper's gaze, Edward looked at his other brother to see him watching Rosalie hungrily. Arm slung casually over his wife's waist to play with the hem of her blouse, Emmett's mind was filled with images of what Edward's arrival had clearly interrupted. Grimacing at his brother's thoughts, Edward turned to look at the only person in the room who seemed genuinely pleased to see him.

Esme was sitting on the sofa looking at her first son with worry written on her face. Edward hated to see her in such a state, especially when Carlisle wasn't there to wrap his arms around her and tell her everything would be okay. Sometimes Edward would do that in his father's place, but he knew that as her son he could never calm her as her husband could.

'What's happened, Edward? What did Carlisle tell you?' When he replied, Edward spoke to her.

"Carlisle found a new patient this morning on his way in to work."

'Found?' the one word reverberated around in Edward's head from the five other vampires sitting in the room. He expanded.

"Just before he came to the main road into town, Carlisle found a boy lying by the side of the road unconscious and badly injured. He put him in the car to drive him to the hospital and has been looking after him ever since."

Esme's thoughts suddenly burst with pride at her husband. 'That man. What would Forks do without him?' Edward smiled at his mother's reaction. There was no doubt in the love that she and Carlisle held for each other. His compassion and her gentle, maternal nature complemented perfectly, and Edward paused briefly to appreciate the couple he was lucky to call his parents.

Alice however did not appreciate the pause and was desperate for him to continue.

"Is that the patient Carlisle was telling me about? The one who got hurt with the scaffolding? What happened to him?" She was rattling off questions so fast Edward put his hands up to stop her, but before he could answer any of her questions, Emmett broke in.

"Ok that's the third time today you've mentioned this damn scaffold. What are you talking about?" Looking around at his family, Edward could see that Emmett wasn't the only one who didn't know the story; Jasper looked equally confused, Esme was beginning to look worried again, and Rosalie still looked like she'd much rather be anywhere than listening to her brother raving on about one of Carlisle's patients. Edward turned to Alice and frowned.

"You didn't bother to tell them?" He asked, harsher than he intended. He had been certain that Alice would have told them every bit of the limited story she knew, or at least told Jasper, but his facial expression and thoughts clearly showed he hadn't been told a thing.

Alice wasn't perturbed by her brother's tone and simply stated, "I didn't want to say anything until you got home with the whole story. It makes much more sense to hear about what happened in order." Relaxing back into Jasper's arms, she gestured for Edward to continue his tale, but Esme cut in before he could open his mouth. Her thoughts were now focused on Harry and what sort of a condition he was in.

"What happened to the boy? Had he been hit by a car?" Her motherly instincts were kicking in and she was quickly becoming anxious. Jasper began shifting restlessly underneath Alice, and Edward could hear the panic in his brother's mind as he absorbed Esme's fear.

Edward quickly shook his head. "No, Carlisle doesn't think so, and seeing him for myself I would probably agree." His thoughts clouded over as he remembered all the cuts and bruises marring Harry's entire body. "He was covered in scars and grazes, some of which looked days or weeks old. Some of them were so… unusual that Carlisle couldn't properly treat them." Esme gasped in despair.

"Oh you don't think the poor dear was neglected, do you? How old is he?"

Edward was unsure how to answer. Carlisle hadn't mentioned anything about the chance of Harry being abused, nor had the idea appeared in his thoughts, but could they really rule out the possibility? After all, Harry had avoided any questions asked about his parents.

"I'm sure it's not that, Esme," he reassured her in a quiet voice. "Harry is in perfectly safe hands at the hospital, and will be better in no time." Edward didn't need to be able to read minds to see that his words had done little to ease his mother's worry. Trying to move on from the depressing – yet potentially realistic – topic, he answered the second part of her question. "At a guess I would think he is about 17."

'17. Far too young to be on his own.' If his mother still had a beating heart, Edward knew it would be breaking out of despair. He looked at Esme in wonder; how one person could hold so much love and concern for someone she had never met astounded him. She truly was Carlisle's wife.

"Uh, hello? Did anyone hear me say that none of us know about this scaffolding thing? Now would be a good time to explain." Emmett was looking around at the faces of his family, searching for agreement that they wanted to know too. He was disappointed with the response; Alice was fixing Edward with a scrutinising stare while Jasper was still looking pained from Esme's emotions. Rosalie just looked bored. Dissatisfied with the lack of reactions, he fixed his eyes back on Edward.

And so Edward began the story. He told them how Carlisle had tried but failed to get Harry to explain how he had ended up by the side of the road; how they had both watched the structure at the construction site begin to topple with seven people hanging on for dear life. He told them about Harry's escape out of the hospital and onto the street to get closer to the danger, but he stopped when he got up to what Harry did next, finding he couldn't go on.

"Well don't stop there! You can't stop at the climax!" Jasper cried, exasperated. Emmett of course had to ruin the moment.

"That's some solid relationship advice there, Jasper. You hear that, Rose? Never sto–"

"Emmett!" Esme chastised, to which Emmett looked appropriately guilty. Far too used to his brother's antics, Edward continued as though he had never been interrupted.

"It's just… difficult to explain." He grimaced at his own understatement. Difficult to explain. He'd never had anything more ridiculous to explain to his family: a boy that could make solid objects float? Ludicrous.

'Get on with it, Edward. Or do I have to show you what I'd rather be doing right now?' Rosalie fixed a smirk on her beautiful face as an elaborate performance began in her mind. Keen to cut her off before she could get too far into her mental act, Edward spoke.

"Harry stopped the scaffolding from killing those people," he blurted, hoping that if he said everything at once he wouldn't be required to explain it all again. "He pulled something out of his pocket, pointed it at the construction site and suddenly it stopped falling. Harry saved those people's lives," he finished rather lamely.

If Edward thought he was getting disapproving looks from his siblings before, they were nothing compared to the expressions surrounding him now. He was faced with a mixture of confusion and exasperation, as none of them knew quite whether to take him seriously or not. No one spoke until Rosalie summed up everyone's thoughts in four words.

"He's finally lost it," she muttered. Thoughts of agreement spiralled around in Edward's mind from his three other siblings. Of course Esme was the only one not to jump to conclusions about Edward's sanity… at least not yet anyway. She looked at him with confusion etched upon her gentle features.

"Edward…I don't understand. What do you mean he saved them? How could a human boy possibly do that?" Edward couldn't help the chuckle that escaped past his lips.

"Well that's just it, Esme. Human is the operative word here. Carlisle believes – and I agree – that there is something distinctly 'not-human' about Harry." Looking around once more, he was starting to tire of the confused faces and so decided to just keep talking until he had no more to say.

"When Carlisle took me into Harry's room, the first thing I noticed was this aura surrounding him," he began as he paced around the room to work off his pent-up energy. "It reminded me of what it feels like when there's another vampire around, but at the same time was completely different. He's clearly for the most part human because he has a heart-beat and blood flowing through his veins, but I could feel he is immensely powerful.

"There was something else too. I didn't notice it myself because I was trying not to breathe," at this comment a tirade of sympathetic thoughts came to him from his mother. He gave her a brief smile to show her he was fine, and carried on. "But Carlisle mentioned that Harry smelt different to him. Not like a regular human would. Whatever it is that's different about him runs in his blood." He stopped pacing and looked at his feet, waiting for the next set of arguments. "I don't blame you for not believing me. I wouldn't have thought it were possible myself without seeing it in Carlisle's mind."

An uncomfortable silence filled the room as each of the Cullen's thought about everything Edward had said. Sure he was known to overreact to things, and he certainly had a not-so-subtle love of winding his family up, especially if it involved his brothers, but this was different. As they watched their brother stand there with his head lowered and shoulders slumped, they couldn't help but believe what he was saying, no matter how impossible it sounded.

Hearing this, Edward added, "Trust me, impossible doesn't even begin to describe it."

"What does Carlisle think?" Edward couldn't help the rush of affection that he felt towards Emmett as he asked that question (which made Jasper raise a confused eyebrow). If Emmett was asking a serious question, Edward knew his family would pay attention now.

"He has no idea either. Harry's given him very little information to work with."

Edward turned to look at his sister, whose thoughts were questioning. 'But...'

"I don't understand, Edward. Didn't Carlisle want your help to get information from Harry's mind? Shouldn't you have been able to tell him everything he needed?" Edward had been wondering when his gift's failure would come up.

"I would have if I had anything to tell him." He looked down at his feet once more as the embarrassment returned. "I– I can't read Harry's mind," he murmured to the floorboards. Even though he couldn't see their reactions, he heard the small gasps of surprise from his family. None of them had expected that.

"Hold on a second," Emmett said slowly. "Are you telling me that none of your powers work on this kid? How the hell does he do that?"

Edward just shook his head in response. The only person that could possibly explain was lying on a hospital bed in Carlisle's care and not saying a word.

Jasper began idly playing with Alice's hand as his thoughts strayed to his own powers. 'I wonder if I could manipulate his emotions…' Hearing his brother's thought made Edward wonder the same thing.

"I don't know, Jasper. It would be good to try."

Jasper drew his attention away from his and Alice's entwined hands to nod once at Edward. Alice however eyed her brother suspiciously.

"Is that it? End of the story? Nothing else you want to share?" Edward narrowed his eyes at her. She couldn't possibly have seen his slip in Carlisle's office, right? He had decided to stay well away from that topic. Carlisle had already promised a chat about that later and he didn't feel he needed another one from the rest of his family.

"That's most of it. When the scaffolding fell after everyone was safely off, a piece of metal hit Harry in the head and he needed stitches. He's fine now though," he added quickly at the look on Esme's face. Alice still wasn't going to give in.

"You sure that's everything?"

Edward hesitated. Should he bother mentioning his earlier suspicions about Harry knowing of vampires? Carlisle didn't seem overly concerned, but Edward wasn't convinced of the boy's ignorance.

He looked over at Esme and when he saw the same worry and concern in her eyes, he knew he couldn't say anything. The last thing he wanted to do was to put more worry on her shoulders. He squared his shoulders and looked back at Alice.

"Positive."

"OK!" Whether Alice believed him or not was unclear, as she hopped out of Jasper's lap and pulled him upstairs after her. She obviously deemed the conversation to be over.

Emmett stood up as well but didn't race out of the room like his siblings. Instead, he turned to Edward and asked, "We're still going hunting tonight, aren't we? All of us?" He looked between the other three faces searching for a confirmation. Emmett loved hunting as a family and always made a competition out of who could get the biggest catch. They usually had to stray a bit further north into grizzly territory for it to be any sort of entertainment.

"I don't know, Emmett. Carlisle said he wanted to research tonight to see if he could figure out anything about Harry." Edward told him, already hearing the disappointment in his brother's mind accompanied by an overly dramatic pout on his face.

"Aw. Fine." Looking down at Rosalie, his pout was quickly replaced by a seductive grin as he lifted her up bridal style and flew up the stairs. Their laughter was ineffectively shut off by the slam of a door. It was a shame the door couldn't block their thoughts too.

Esme sighed and stood up from her sofa, moving over to the window. Edward watched her closely.

'I hope Carlisle can get Harry to talk. He needs someone looking out for him.'

Edward's silent heart suddenly burst with emotion at his mother's thoughts. She was picturing how she imagined Harry: scared and alone in the world, with no one but his doctor trying to care for him. Edward was relieved she didn't know just how accurate that picture was.

Stepping up behind his mother, Edward wrapped his arms around her small frame and held her close.

"Don't worry, Esme. Everything will be okay."