Well, here's the next chapter. Sorry it took so long to get posted, but life happened. As always, let me know what you think and I don't own Twilight...

Kira POV

I sat on a folding chair on the stage with the overhead lights blaring in my eyes. All I could do was wait for my upcoming doom, but it was for my minions, so I didn't mind too much.

It had been almost 5 years since I rushed back to Vegas. My return signaled the beginning of one of the worse weeks of my life.

Tank had survived the surgery, barely. He was in a coma afterward and the doctors weren't very optimistic that he would ever wake up, something about lack of oxygen to the brain. Sharee and I spent the next week taking turns at his bedside. We continued to talk to him and pray to him until the faithful day when he finally opened his eyes. I was in the cafeteria getting coffee when I felt Sharee's excitement. I had been keeping close watch of my friend's emotions, just to make sure she didn't break. I had almost invited my father out to help steady her emotions, but thought better of it. Sharee needed to feel what she was feeling in order to cope. I rushed back to Tank's room at a flat run to find him awake. It took almost 6 months for him to recover, but recover he did. He's 100 percent again, the only evidence of his near death experience being the scars on his chest from the bullet and the surgery.

The biggest change from Tank's incident was that most of my security force was now armed. Our boss made all of us take training classes on firearms and those of us who passed now carried a gun when on duty. Not everyone passed, so I was forced to rearrange schedules to place the unarmed minions with armed minions, so every team had at least one gun. It seemed overkill to me, but I went along with it. Not everyone could be a super healing shapeshifter like I was. The shoulder rig took some getting use to, but if it helped protect my people, then I was willing to endure it. To be honest, I was willing to do almost anything for my minions.

Hence the reason I was sitting on a Karaoke stage with most of my minions sitting in the empty theater, watching me eagerly.

It had become a tradition almost 9 years ago that I would sing a song to each of my minions on his or her birthday. I'm not entirely sure how the tradition started, but they never let me forget it. It wasn't that I didn't like to sing or that I couldn't. Rosalie and Edward had made sure I was talented in the musical arena. They had taken my musical appreciation lessons as personal challenges. The fact was I could sing very well. I just didn't like stages. Or bright lights. Or being singled out. I was alot like my Aunt Bella when it came to having a deep desire to fade into the background. I was however, unlike Bella, very good at pretending that these things didn't bother me. She would be too, after a few decades of being one of the beautiful vampires living around ordinary humans. Anyone could fake not being shy with enough time and practice.

"It'll only be a couple more minutes, Kira." The stage manager, Fred, yelled from behind the stage. He was having technical difficulties at the moment. I could only hope the difficulties were permanent.

This birthday gift to my minion, though a common enough occurrence, did hold a mournful sentiment to me now. I wouldn't be able to do this much longer. When I started this job I had been 22 years old on my identification. Now I was suppose to be 32 and I just didn't look it. My time in Vegas was quickly coming to an end. I couldn't keep this life much longer. Soon, I'd have to move on with a new identity. It made me sad to think I would have to leave everything here that I knew and loved, but it was an unfortunate reality to the eternally unageing.

Over the last few months I had begun the process of trying to decide what I wanted to do with my next life. I had almost decided to rejoin my family for awhile. There were several new members I yearned to get to know better. Another possible life, however, kept me from finalizing my plans. I was tossing around the idea of moving into my families house in Forks. I hadn't been around there enough for anyone to recognize me and I would be close to the second family I had made in La Push. It was going to be a tough decision. I longed to be with my vampire family again, but something invisible was pulling me in the other direction.

Ironically, it was then that I smelled them. I placed a hand above my eyes, shielding them so I could see the back of the theater. Standing behind the very last row were 3 very tall, very big figures. I smiled to myself, but had time to do very little else, since the technical difficulties decided to clear up.

"OK, you're on." Fred said, climbing onto the stage to hand me a mic. I took it and stood at the front of the stage. Time to break a leg. Too bad it wasn't someone else who was breaking a leg.

"As we all know, today is Darren's birthday." I motioned to a tall, lanky man in his middle 30s. "So this song is for you." The music queued up and I began to sing 'I will survive.' I liked this song and it was easy to sing.

After the last note, I was welcomed by a serious of cheers and applause. Tank was in the front row grinning like a idiot with Sharee sitting next to him. She wasn't a member of my security force, but she never missed one of my performances. She was the one doing the cat calls.

"Happy Birthday, Darren." I said sincerely. I then looked out to address all of my minions. "Now all you slackers get back to work!" I joked. The crowd laughed, but began to disperse. As Fred dimmed the lights on the stage and raised the house lights, I could see the three people standing in the back, smiling almost like Tank had been. I rolled my eyes, grabbing the should rig with my gun and my jacket from the chair on stage. I put my rig back on as I walked to the back of the room. In front of me stood Sam, Jared and Paul.

I hadn't seen them since the day I left Forks.

After I left, my family had moved to their house in Wyoming. They really had very little choice but to leave. Bella looked too different to be able to mingle with people who knew her before her change. The most surprising thing was that Jacob moved with them. He stayed in La Push long enough to finish High School, then he packed up and moved. Billy was incredibly supportive, as was the rest of the pack. Over the last couple of years Jake had managed to make friends with most of my family. Particularly with Emmett and Jasper. Apparently, he fit right in with their antics. He even told me he really didn't mind the smell anymore. Rose wasn't very happy about it, at first, but they were able to hash out a livable truce.

My weekly phone calls with Alice continued, but I also talked with Emily at least once every two weeks or so. We had become very good friends. I even talked with Sam a couple of times a month, usually when I called Emily and he answered.

As for Seth, he and I had become best friends, even though I hadn't seen him since that day in the clearing. We talked almost daily, along with a steady stream of instant messages and texts. He was currently in college, working towards a degree in natural resource management. I could see him being a forest ranger or a naturalist of some type. He loved nature.

I had been meaning to go see everyone down in La Push for months, but a trip just never seemed to fit into my schedule.

I approached the three men. I couldn't help the huge smile that spread across my face. I had missed them.

"Well, well. Look what the cat dragged in." I was instantly pulled into a tight embrace by Sam. "Or should I say, look what the wolf dragged in?"

My bad joke made all of them chuckle. I exchange hugs with the Jared and Paul as well, then threw my jacket back on.

"It's good to see you, Kira." Sam said warmly.

"It's good to see you guys, too. It's been too long. What ya doin' in my neck of the woods?"

Paul had a big smile on his face and Sam wrapped his arm around his shoulders. "We're here for Paul's bachelor party. Him and Rachel are finally making it official."

"Congratulations, Paul. That's great." Emily had told me about their engagement a few weeks ago. It had been the hot gossip on the Res. "How long are you staying? Have you checked in yet?"

"We're staying for 3 nights. We wanted the trip to be long enough to enjoy it, but not so long that it became a full vacation. We don't want our wives and girlfriends to think we're getting into trouble." Sam joked. "We were on our way to check in when we saw you come in here. Loved the performance, by the way."

I felt a blush creep onto my face. "Yeah, it's just something I do for the people who work for me. I offer to take them to dinner, but they always choose to have me sing karaoke for them instead. It's silly, but lots of fun. At least for them." I grabbed Sam by the arm and turned the group towards the door. "Let go get your guys checked in, huh?"

"I see you carry a gun." Sam said, glancing in the direction of my concealed weapon.

"Yeah. We never use to, but when Tank got shot on the job, our boss decided that we needed to be trained in firearms. Tank's injury was the reason I had to run out of Forks so fast 5 years ago. Fortunately, as you know, he recovered just fine, but the big boss doesn't want to take any chances." I lowered my voice. "It feels a little silly, considering what I am and what I can do without a weapon, but you know how it is. Gotta be normal."

"Very true." Sam agreed.

We made it to the check in counter, which was being maned by a small, mousy woman name Clair. She was a bit too bubbly for my liking, but she was friendly enough. I supposed you'd want that kind of a person to be greeting guests.

"Hey Kira!" She said in her happy voice, her eyes looking to the three men with me. She seemed to like what she saw. Too bad the poor girl didn't have a chance.

"Hi, Clair. These fine young men need to check in. Go ahead and give them the full upgrade package. Make sure they get whatever they want for their entire stay. It's on me."

Sam looked like he was about to protest, but I held up my hand.

"No arguments. I'll be insulted if you refuse. You're family. Besides, if it makes you feel better, think of this as a wedding gift, birthday gift and Christmas gift for everyone who shows up." It just occurred to me that I failed to ask a very important question. "Who's coming, by the way?"

"Almost the whole group." Paul replied. "Probably about 12 of us or so. Jake will be here with everyone else in a few hours. Even Billy is coming."

Sam chuckled. "I think Billy agreed to come along for the women back home. How much trouble can we get into with him here?"

I laughed full out on that one. It was funny, but true. I looked down as my work radio began to chime. I pulled it off of my belt.

"Yeah?" I answered.

"Hey, Kira." It was Tank. "Sabian is over in the west wing being his usual drunken self. You mind giving us a hand?"

"Not a problem. I'll be there in a few." I replaced my radio back on my belt, then turned to the guys. "I gotta get back to work. Sabian is one of our regulars here. He only leaves peacefully if I'm the one throwing him out. It's a bit of a pain, but worth it if we can get him to a cab without force."

The guys all nodded.

"I'll pop in on you later and say hi." I reassured.

We agreed and I started off towards the west wing. Sabian was a harmless old man. He had lost his wife a few years back and he frequently came to our casino to drown his sorrows. He had been forcibly removed many times until we noticed we went quietly when I was there. I much preferred the quiet method.

As I made my way across the building, the only thing I could think about was how excited I was to see the guys. I really had miss the whole stinky lot of them. I found myself hoping Seth was amongst the one's coming to the party...

To be continued...

Well, the next chapter will have Seth and Kira seeing each other for the first time in five years...what will happen? You'll just have to wait and see.

Thanks to everyone who is reading.

The reviews don't hurt, either.