28. Introductions and Explanations

I stood up, the plate of food that had been in my lap falling to the ground.

"Rosalie." I whispered again.

Emmett was at her side in a second, kissing her and holding her so tightly I thought he'd break her. The rest of the family weren't far behind, hugging her and welcoming her back. I was left standing in the same spot, staring at the aunt I never met but always knew.

I want to hug her, welcome her back, tell her that I missed her even though she'd never been mine to miss. But I don't, partly because it would be weird and confusing for her, and partly because I can't move. I'm rooted to the spot, staring at Rosalie in all her beauty. She's here. She's come back, finally.

You're the reason she left.

She looked at me and smiled, a real, genuine smile. "You must be Alice and Jasper's daughter! I'm sorry, I don't know your name."

I couldn't speak.

"It's Daisy." Alice said, "Daisy May."

Rosalie smiles again, giving her approval of the name, "I'm-"

"Rosalie." I cut in, finally finding my voice, "You're Rosalie."

In a blur, I was in her arms, hugging her tightly. She hugged me back without questioning it.
Then Emmett stole her from me, tugging her back into his arms, "You're never allowed to leave me again."

"You ARE staying, aren't you Rose?" Alice asked, looking up at her sister. I know Alice blames herself for Rosalie leaving, even though it's my fault and not hers.

"Of course I'm staying," Rosalie said, then she looked at Carlisle and Esme, "If there's room for me."

"Don't be ridiculous!" Esme said, "There'll always be room for you here; this is your family."

"How did you even find us, Rosalie?" Edward asked.

"I found the note." She said, holding up a piece of paper. My eyes widened; I'd completely forgotten about the note I'd left Rosalie when we moved house.

"What note?" Emmett asked. My eyes locked with Rosalie's and she smiled.

"YOU wrote the note." She said. I nodded, "You don't even know me."

"Actually, I do." I said, and I step towards her. Touching her arm, I show her a memory - one of my own.

It's Emmett and I, sat behind my princess castle at the bottom of the garden. He's telling me about his beautiful wife, and I'm smiling and showing him one of his memories of her.
Rosalie looked at me with a mix of confusion and shock, so I explained, "I can see people's memories, and then I can project them like holograms. Sometimes, it's like it was real, like you were really there with me and Emmett."

Rosalie looked like she was going to cry, so I shut up. I could see Alice staring at me from across the room. I don't think she'd realised just how close I'd become to Rosalie over the past thirteen years.

The next few hours were spent catching up; telling anecdotes about the school in this town and my growing up and the time Emmett went through a wall. We asked Rosalie what she'd been doing for thirteen years. We asked her where she'd stayed. We asked her if she'd met any new friends. We did not ask her why she'd left and we did not ask her why she'd come back.

I tune out of the conversation after a while. I already know all of our stories, and I can see Rosalie's in her memories, so there's no point in listening. Instead, I concentrate on remembering everything I ever learnt about Rosalie.

She likes cars, a lot. And Classical rock. She always uses shampoo that smells like strawberries - I can smell it now. She likes it when her family call her Rose or Rosie, but only Emmett gets to call her Rosa. And never Ros. Never. She's terrified of wasps. Her favourite animal blood is panther. She pulls of red lipstick like no one else can.

I know all of these facts about Rosalie, but I don't really know her.

I don't know what makes her angry, or how to cheer her up when she's upset. I don't know what she's passionate about, or what could make her laugh no matter what.

I don't know why she left, or why she came back.

Except I'm pretty sure I know the answer to one of those, and I'm pretty sure it's me.

But why did she come back?

After a lot more talking, Emmett and Rosalie disappear. They tried to be discreet about it, but even I knew what they were doing.

"Do you really think she'll stay?" Edward asked.

"She'd better not hurt Emmett again like she did when she left the first time." Alice said, "He'd only just started being truly normal again, he doesn't need to go through it all again."

"Family means a great deal to Rosalie." Esme said gently, "I'm sure she wouldn't leave us."

"Rosalie wouldn't hurt Emmett." I said.

"Honey, I know you idolize Rose a lot, but that doesn't mean she's perfect." Alice told me, "She left once before and she could do it again, and if she does it would hurt Emmett a great deal."

I shook my head. Alice thought I was being childish and naïve, but I wasn't. I might not know Rosalie all that well, but I knew one thing about her; Emmett was her world and she wouldn't do a thing to hurt him if she didn't have to.

Rosalie had to leave before. I don't totally understand why she had to, except that it was somehow my fault, but she definitely had to. Otherwise she wouldn't have done it. I've seen enough of my family's memories to know that Rosalie would do anything for Emmett. But she hadn't. She hadn't stayed, and she hadn't allowed him to come with her. There was a reason why, and I was going to find it out.

~o.O.o~

"Hey." Rosalie said from the doorway. I look up from my book and smile.

"Hey." I replied.

"Emmett's been telling me a lot about you." Rosalie said, "And about how you've helped him whilst I was away."

"Yeah, we spend a lot of time together." I said. I picked at my fingernails. All my life I'd wanted to meet Rosalie but now she was in front of me I just felt awkward. I was the reason she left, and now she was stood in front of me, looking at me with those cold amber eyes.

"Thank you." She said. I didn't know how to respond so I didn't say anything. "I wanted to explain to you why I left. I figured that you picked some of it up from people's memories, and I dunno what your parents told you, but I wanted to explain...so you could hear it from me."

"I know the reason you left." I told her, "It was me."

"Yes and no." Rosalie said, "It's not that I didn't want to be around you, or Alice, or anyone else, because I did. I was so excited about having another niece, and I knew that I was going to love you so much. It's just that all my life I've longed to have a child, and it hurt so bad that Alice got to have one and I didn't. I knew that being around her - and being around you - every day was just going to remind me of what I couldn't have. So even though I wanted to be around you, I also didn't, if that makes sense."

"At first I was angry and jealous and I thought if Alice can have a baby then why can't I? I said some horrible things to your Mom, things that I really didn't mean." Rosalie said. I remember from Alice's memories that she told her she'd be a bad Mom. "Then I thought that maybe I'd get to have a baby of my own, but Dana kept visiting and never said a word to me. This made me angry. I was the one who wanted a baby. I was the one who'd helped Bella when she wanted to keep Renesmee, the one who'd helped bring her up. I was the one who hated what we were for being the very reason that I couldn't have a baby. And yet Alice got a baby and I was somehow deemed unworthy?"

"So yeah, I was angry. But I got over it. Even so, I knew that if I stayed around here I'd be living with the constant thoughts and hopes that Dana might make me pregnant, and those thoughts could only lead to disappointment." Rose continued, "I didn't want to live with that, so I knew I had to leave, at least for a little while."

"So yes," She said, "You were the reason I left, but I don't want you ever thinking that it was your fault. I always thought of you whilst I was away, wanting to meet you, but I was too sad. I hope you can understand what I'm telling you, Daisy."

I nodded, "I can understand."

Rosalie smiled at me, "Good." She frowned at my nails, which I was still picking, "You're polish is all chipped. You want me to paint them for you?"

I shrugged, "I guess."

We raided Alice's nail polish stash, which took up three drawers in her dresser. I couldn't choose a colour, so Rosalie said she'd surprise me. We sat in the kitchen and Rosalie started talking again as she painted a base coat.

"So you go to school?" She asked. I nodded, "You're in...what? Eighth grade?"

I nodded again, "They wanted to move me up a grade but I didn't want to leave my friends, so they just put me in all these Advanced Placement classes."

"You'll be a high schooler next year." Rosalie commented, "Won't it be weird to be in the same school as your parents?"

I shrugged, "I've been pretending that they're my siblings for years now, I'm used to it."

"Yeah but what about when you start dating and stuff? Jazz is gunna be there watching your every move." She pointed out. I hadn't even thought about that. "Speaking of dating..."

"What?" I asked when she didn't continue.

"Any boys in your life?" Rosalie asked.

"With Jazz and Emmett around?" I asked with a laugh, "Jasper said I can't date until I'm 100 and Emmett told me to, quote, "Stay away from boys"!"

"Pshht, they're no fun." Rosalie said, "Seen any boys you like, though?"

I considered, "There was a cute boy at the party last night. He was called Max."

"Oooh." Rosalie sang, "You think it'll go anywhere?"

"He's in the grade above me." I said with a shrug, "Jazz would never allow it."

"He doesn't have to know." Rosalie said with a nudge.

I laughed, "It's hard to keep secrets from a family of vampires."

"Tell me about it." Rosalie said. Then she asked me about my gifts and I explained to her about my seeing memories and projecting them. Then I told her about my weather gift and demonstrated by making it rain on Emmett, who was sat in the yard and screamed like a girl. I didn't mention my gift that I'd inherited from Dana, though, because something was bothering me.

Rosalie finished my nails. They were light purple with tiny white and yellow daisies painted on them, and delicate green stems and leaves. They were beautiful.

"Your name is so pretty." Rosalie commented.

"So's yours." I said.

"Daisy and Rose." Rosalie murmured, then she smiled, "I think we're going to be good friends, Daisy."

Later, when it was just me and Alice, I figured out what it was that had been bothering me. "No body told Rosalie that you're pregnant."

She shook her head, "No, not yet. We only just got her back."

And I agreed, because I was the reason Rosalie left last time and I don't want to be the reason she leaves again.

A/N: Hey! So this was kind of a filler get-to-know Rosalie chapter, so not a lot happened...but things are gunna pick up again soon :) I meant to explain last time about Daisy saying Alice and Jasper instead of Mom and Dad...there's 3 main reasons.

First, she always calls Jasper by his real name instead of Dad, because that's what she learnt when she was a baby (if you remember, it was like her 3rd word). She still calls Alice Mom or Mama when she speaks though.

Second, a lot of the time Daisy has to pretend her parents are actually her siblings because of their frozen ages. This means she gets used to calling them Alice and Jasper when she's around other people.

The third reason is that it just kinda sounded better as I was writing it. Maybe because we're all so used to seeing them as Alice and Jasper and it felt weird writing them as Mom and Dad.

So basically, when Daisy thinks/narrates she calls them Alice and Jasper. When she actually talks to them she calls them Mom/Mama and Jazz. Hope that doesn't get confusing! But yeah, I was asked by a few people so thought I better explain!

ANYWAY, I got an AMAZING review response to the last chapter so thanks for that! The story got to way past 250 reviews :D :D (Shoutout to Skylair Hernadez, who was the 250th reviewer!). As always, anyone who reviews will get a sneak peak of the next chapter before I update! :)