A/N: Hey everyone…it's me again…finally. I'm going to start off by saying this is going to be a fairly long authors note so I would understand if you skipped past it but appreciate if you didn't. Before I kittyxab for leaving me a review today…it's why I'm updating. As well as anyone who has reviewed ever. I would like to give a very very very very special thank you to kiwijoeelle for the PM—I have now read it about a gazillion times. I also realized that fanfiction blocks out websites so no one can see my blog address (at least it wasn't showing up when I looked) so I am now going to attempt to trick the system! This may or may not work but it's .com. We'll see soon I guess. I do apologize for being gone so long with such huge breaks in between but I hope you can find it in your hearts to keep reading…fanfiction is kind of going to become a safety net in my life and I'd like it to be a very safe safety net Anyways without any further ado: THE STORY!

Chapter 22

Carlisle's Point of View

Within five hours I was nearing the bakery my beautiful Natalie had told me to meet her at. I was still extremely worried and I repeated a silent prayer that she was not having a complete melt down while alone. While she tried to cover it up, everyone knew Natalie wore her heart on her sleeve which is partially why everyone loved her so much. Yes, she could trick you into thinking she was happy when she wasn't for a while but eventually her true feelings were revealed. She was an emotional girl and the whole family had come to know that if she kept those emotions back it was only going to build. I had no idea how long she had been keeping things back or exactly how close she was to reenacting hurricane Katrina. And that made me so extraordinarily worried.

I finally entered the small boulangerie-patisserie and frantically looked around for my daughter until I spotted her. Huddled in a corner wearing an extremely oversized crème sweater sipping at some coffee. She looked a mess but the storm still hadn't hit. It was obvious she had been crying to me but to most people it would probably just like she had allergies. Her hair was messy and twisted into a bun that had started to fall out. Not to mention that sweater! While I didn't really dislike the fact that she wasn't the kind of girl to show off her body, I knew she wore things like that more because she was ashamed than the fact she wanted to be modest.

"Daddy!" She smiled and visibly relaxed just slightly. Natalie stood up and gave me a hug that neither of us wanted to end to soon but because we were in the middle of a bakery, did end after half of a second.

"Hi, baby girl"

She was just finishing her coffee when the waitress brought her another cup.

"Thanks Danni!" She smiled a true, genuine smile.

More questions arose and I had a feeling that was going to be a reoccurring theme today.

"How many cups have you had?" I knew she liked coffee and I knew she tended to go overboard, especially on a bad day. Because, at least according to Natalie, a good cup of coffee could cure anything. It was like how some girls responded to chocolate or ice cream.

"What answer would make you the least upset?"

"The one that was true."

"I know you don't mean that but I'll go with it. Actually, I'll let you guess, it's a number between 1 and 10" She giggled her beautiful little giggle that reminded me so much of her mother and for the moment I didn't care about everything that had happened in the last few days. That my heart had felt broken and I felt helpless, or that we had been so mad at each other before that. I was overjoyed that for a few seconds my daughter was displaying signs of bliss.

"I'll aim high and go with seven"

"Ooooh, so close but not close enough I'm afraid. Off by one, six. I was going more for taste today."

I still wasn't happy with the idea of her drinking that much in one sitting but I wasn't about to start a fight about something so trivial now.

"How did you know that girl?" I asked. Honestly curious, seriously could the girl make friends any faster?

"Well, first off, any waitress is bound to get on a first name basis with you if you sit at a table and order a cup of coffee over and over and over again but Danni's special."

"You think everyone's special but special how?"

"She's in on it-everything about me. We met in my last life and we became best friends almost instantaneously. I had ended up in New Orleans again and I was so happy about that to begin with. It was sort of like a home, the only home I'd ever had. We went to school together and when we graduated we went to London together, just to get that London feel. Well, that's why she did it. I was more interested in the lighting differences since my thing then was photography. Those were some really good times" She smiled at the memory, clearly somewhere other than the bakery.

"This was one of our favorite places in high school. Fed the artistic soul. It made both of us happy to be here and it just became our spot."

I could see what she meant about the artistic thing. It was almost as if there were two different bakeries melted into one with the way it was set up. On one side, the side we were sitting on, it looked like a café straight out of Paris. Or how most people would imagine as a café straight out of Paris. The white metal backs of the chairs were swirled into a near heart. The windows were placed so there was no direct sunlight, but the sun shone through in a soft glow, casting a golden light around. The tables had a glass top with a support system that mirrored the backs of the chairs. The centerpieces held a single pink rose and you could clearly smell the freshly baked pastries.

The other side did not have any windows, rather multiple shaded lanterns in an array of colors in different sizes hanging at varying lengths from the ceiling. The bookshelf held tattered and worn paperbacks that had a selection that varied from Bukowski and Robert Frost to Philip K Dick. Tons of art and photographs hung on the walls, some of which I recognized as Natalie's. The walls were painted a color somewhere between sky blue and teal. Yet even though it was clearly two separate styles they flowed together seamlessly and gave the bakery an almost serene feel.

"So what happened in New Orleans the first time that made you so happy to come back again?"

"Oh, Daddy," she smiled as she slipped back into her drawl, "like any good story it began with love."

A/N: Sorry if this seems a bit rusty, still getting back in Carlisle and Natalie mode. Hope you enjoyed it. Please, please, please, please, PLEASE review to let me know y'all are still out there!