x-x-x

Before anyone could stop him, Seth jumped in front of Jacob, protecting him from Bella as she lunged at him, I didn't even think twice as I jumped in to protect my best friend, Emmett however grabbed me and pushed me back.

Everything seemed to happen so fast, that before we knew it Bella had stopped herself from continuing the onslaught…mainly because she heard Seth whimpering as he limped off.

In the flash of a moment she had lost control and as she lunged at Jacob, she sent Seth flying as he tried to stand between her and Jacob. Not to fight Bella of course, but to try and reason with her. But she was so focused, she didn't understand his motives, until it was too late.

Bella and Seth collided and she sent him flying with a single backhand, we all heard the snapping of bones.

"Seth!" I shouted darting towards him "bloody hell are you okay,"

"Ow," he muttered, I could hear it in his voice, he was basically in shock.

"Oh Seth I am so sorry," Bella cried moving towards him, but she stopped, clearly ashamed by her action. I could see her eyes darting around, debating whether or not to run off. Edward read my profile in my mind and put a gentle hand on Bella's arm

"Love," he whispered "breathe, it's okay," Edward looked at Seth sympathetically "Seth I am very sorry, I should have been closer." he said, completely ignoring Jacob.

Seth was still kind of stunned and unsteady on his feet, he didn't even acknowledge Edward's apologies, either because he didn't think Edward had anything to apologize for, or he was still out of it. That blow definitely knocked the wind out of him so I was going with the latter. He put a hand on my shoulder trying to steady himself as he cradled his other arm close to his body.

I'm not a doctor, but I know I've said this before, my human father was a doctor and I've spent the last seven decades or so as the adopted son of another, given those two factors I know enough to recognize a broken collarbone and shoulder when I see it, and that was exactly what had happened to Seth.

Jacob stood up and moved towards Seth quickly,

"Seth," he started to say, but Seth shook his head at him

"Fo..get it," he managed to say. "I'm…o…okay."

"How can it be okay, Seth I am so sorry I-I-I didn't mean it, it was-"

"It was an accident," I finished for Bella, she looked at me in surprise, then hung her head again in shame.

"Come with me Seth," Carlisle "let me see what is broken before your healing factor sets in."

Seth made a face and looked at me expectantly and I shrugged

"Don't look at me, you're the one who decided to play knight in furry armor to Mr. Big Mouth over there."

Jacob gave me a look, but it was a weak one, he was shaking a little. I'm pretty sure wolfboy saw his life flash before his eyes for a few moments there. I knew I would have to fess up eventually and admit to Bella that I was to blame for the nickname that ultimately pushed her over the edge and not Jacob, but in the mean time I was more concerned with my friend and his injuries, than a spat between Bella and Jacob.

Carlisle got Seth settled in on the couch and had to set his bones quickly to make sure they healed correctly. By the time this was occurring, Bella and Edward had joined us in the family room, Bella was sitting next to Seth, but as far as she could be from him on the couch, as if she was afraid she would hurt him again. Edward however was in full swing, trying to be in the thick of things, apologizing over and over to Seth about what had happened.

Seth kept looking at me and rolling his eyes as I channeled surfed, looking for a channel that met his approval since he was going to be crashing on our couch for a few hours, Carlisle was bandaging and wrapping Seth's arms and body and I could hear Seth taking sharp breaths every once in a while, even though he was clearly trying to hide it.

"I'm so sorry, Seth. I should have been closer." Edward said, starting in again.

"Really-" Seth started to say

"I should have done more Seth," Edward interrupted not even letting Seth get a word in, I snorted back a laugh and Seth looked over at me and mouthed 'help me'. I shrugged, I wasn't getting involved in that one.

It was however Bella who caught my attention, she was sitting next to him but she looked so upset, so ashamed that she might as well have been across the room, and I think she would rather be at that moment.

I could practically see the wheels turning in her mind as she contemplated how to handle what had happened. Finally it seemed like she couldn't take it anymore and looked at Seth.

"Seth, I – " she started to say weakly

Seth looked at her and gave his typical toothy grin

"Don't worry about it, Bella, I'm totally fine," Seth said at the same time that Edward said:

"Bella, love, no one is judging you. You're doing so well." Edward interrupted again and again I rolled my eyes, yes she was, but Edward didn't realize that his attempts to reassure his wife was actually having the opposite effect on her state of mind. Bella's shoulders fell, she was still so ashamed, even with Seth's attempt at reassurance.

Carlisle gestured for me to come over, helping him to secure another piece of the brace to Seth's arm, and Seth winced.

"Oh come on that didn't hurt you wimp," I muttered to him with a grin

"Yeah, let's see you break your collar bone and how happy go lucky you are afterwards"

I grinned even wider and looked at Carlisle

"Not entirely sure, can't really remember but was that on the list of busted bones?" I asked my father. Carlisle didn't answer me at first, he was so focused on his work, he paused when he felt all of us looking at him.

"What's he talking about Dr. Cullen?" Seth asked wincing again. Carlisle sighed and rolled his eyes at us.

"I will let Chris explain that one at some point," Carlisle replied "but no Chris I think your collar bone was one of the few bones that were not broken then. Surprisingly."

Seth still looked confused and I grinned

"I'll explain later," I promised and he nodded,

"Good, 'cause I'm assuming there's a great story to go along with th-." Seth gasped a little as Carlisle tightened the bandage as gently as he could and Bella's face shifted back and forth from concern to shame.

"Sorry, sorry!" she mumbled

"Don't freak, Bella," Seth said, patting her knee with his good hand. "I'll be back to normal in half an hour. I mean anyone would have done the same, what with Jake and Ness – " He stopped and looked at me giving a half grin, I had promised myself and silently promised Jacob that I would admit to Bella in the near future that I was the one responsible for Nessie's nickname, but it was something that could definitely wait, as long as a certain someone didn't spill. "Anyways," Seth continued "at least you didn't bite me or anything. That would've sucked."

"Pun intended?" I asked and he reached his foot out to kick me, missing.

"Shut up," he shot back

"I'm a bad person." Bella moaned

"Of course you aren't. I should have-" Edward started to say, but Bella cut him off.

"Stop that,"

I sighed.

"You're not a bad person Bella," I spoke up and she looked at me carefully, looking for hints of sarcasm or deceptiveness "remember Bella, always trust the profiler, we give it straight." She sighed and nodded

"Lucky thing Ness – Renesmee's not venomous," Seth said after a second of awkward silence. '"Cause she bites Jake all the time."

Even though I had been given the opportunity to observe that hilarious event before, it still cracked me up. This whole Nessie on a massive growth spurt meant she was actually started teething and those suckers were coming in fast, I was just glad I wasn't on the menu, I didn't want to find out it her teeth were strong enough to break our skin.

Bella looked shocked by this though

"She does?"

"Sure. Whenever he and Rose don't get dinner in her mouth fast enough. Rose thinks it's pretty hilarious."

"She's not the only one," I added grinning

"Well, Seth," Carlisle said, finishing up. "I think that's as much as I can do. Try to not move for, oh, a few hours, I guess." Carlisle chuckled. "I wish treating humans were this instantaneously gratifying." He rested his hand for a moment on Seth's black hair. "Stay still, Chris can find something on TV for you if you'd like."

"I can probably manage sitting still for a while," Seth agreed as Carlisle walked away towards the stairs. Seth looked at me "Haven't you found anything yet?" he asked with a grin

"What am I, the help?" I asked and his grin got wider

"If the coffin fits," he muttered as he let out a huge yawn

"Funny," I shot back, going back to flipping channels, I was in the movie channels by now when I spotted something that could annoy Seth and amuse me; Dances With Wolves. It took Seth a few seconds to realize what was on and he groaned

"Hell no!" he hissed

"You asked if I had found something, I found something."

"No way Chris, come on," Seth shot back, even though I could see he was trying not to laugh.

"What, it's a great movie." I replied shrugging Seth yawned again

"Aw leave it on if you want…" he muttered, I exchanged a look with Edward, then Bella as Seth's head went back and seconds later he was snoring.

I stared at my friend, dumbfounded.

"How the hell can he fall asleep so fast?" I mumbled, mainly to myself rhetorically, but Edward felt the need to answer

"It's one of those wolf things we will never understand." he said and I rolled my eyes

"Yeah it was a rhetorical question Ed," I answered grinning at my brother. "I'm going to go check on Chap, let Dances with Werewolves there sleep." That got a grin out of Edward, but Bella for whom the joke was intended just whimpered a little, clearly still upset about the whole incident.

As I walked past her I patted her shoulder and gave her a half smile, it took a few seconds, but slowly she returned it

"Chris?" she said softly

"Yeah?"

"You're okay right?"

"Of course, why?" I asked,

"Just making sure"

I sighed and looked at Edward,

Is it okay to tell her? I thought and he gave me a nod with his eyes, my ability reading between the simple blink. Thanks

"Bella," I started and she looked at me "I'm sorry," now she looked completely confused and looked at Edward for a moment trying to get an explanation from him, but he shook his head and nodded at me.

"Chris why in the world would you need to apologize, you didn't do anything."

"Er, I'm not entirely innocent here." I paused and took a deep breath "Jacob isnt completely to blame for Renesmee's, er um…nickname."

Now Bella raised her eyebrow, still confused, but I could see she was piecing the puzzle together.

"What do you mean?"

"To be honest I wanted her to have a nickname. My uncle gave me one when I was little and my father gave my cousins each one. It was kind of I guess an unwritten tradition in my family. And…well, as nice as her full name is, it's pretty lengthy to say. I didn't mean for her to share a name with the Loch Ness Monster, honest, the name just kind of popped into my head and she seemed to respond to it and like it."

Bella hadn't said a word, nor had she moved from that spot, I couldn't profile any outright anger, more like surprise mixed with a bit of contemplation. She glanced over at Edward as if she was looking for confirmation and Edward nodded.

"She does seem to be fond of it love." He said carefully

Bella sighed and smiled a little

"You're forgiven Chris, for now," she finally said and I nodded, returning the smile. "But don't think for a second you're completely off the hook."

"Right," I replied grinning "I'll keep that in mind," I handed the remote to Edward and headed towards the hallway,

"Chris?" Bella called softly and I turned around, she walked over to me slowly

"Yeah?"

"You said that your uncle gave you a nickname when you were young, that it's a tradition in your family." I nodded "what was your nickname, just out of curiosity?"

I took a deep breath and slowly gave Bella a grin, I hadn't thought about my nickname in years and when I say years, we're talking decades here, but now that I had mentioned it all sorts of memories came flooding back.

The first time my uncle ever used his nickname for me I had to be about three or four years old and my memories of the event are pretty vague, but I do remember that I was spending the weekend with my aunt, uncle, and my younger cousin Greg was two or just about. His baby brother and sister, James William Jr. who would always be known as Billy and Livia, the twins, they were only six or seven months old. This was of course long before my parents and I moved to London, so a visit to the family farm for the weekend was a much easier trip back then.

I remember, Greg and I wandered out to the barn, Uncle James had clearly been in the barn, but must have taken some of the sheep out to pasture, he hadn't had a chance to sweep up the hay from the animal's morning feeding.

I wanted to help my uncle and Greg basically followed my every move so together we swept up the hay. Granted I think we made more work for Uncle James by 'helping' but that's beside the point.

When we heard him coming towards the barn, his boots crunching on the rocky pathway we hid in the hayloft, pretending to be spies.

He walked into the barn and we heard him chuckling to himself. I know now he knew we were in the barn and I know he knew that we were responsible for er…helping, but he didn't say a word about our presence. Instead he rubbed his beard, looked around and beamed.

'Well, tisnt this a pleasant surprise. Auch, I thin' I mus' 'ave been visited by a wee pair of Brownies, what a beautiful job cleaning up they've done fer me.' I remember him saying, it didn't click with my four year old brain back then, but looking back he was clearly trying not to laugh. "Wha' tae do now, I cannae let such a wonderful gift go without thanks, but Brownies' cannae accept certain gifts, don' want to offend 'im now. Ooch I know, a wee bit of milk fresh from Dapple might do the trick.' I remember Greg and I exchanged a look and giggled, not only because of his father's silliness, but because we were both milk fiends.

Just as Uncle James was putting out a pitcher of milk, Gage lost complete control of his giggles and ran down the ladder, yelling 'papa, papa,' and I followed close behind him. Uncle James scooped us up in his arms

'Ah these aren't Brownies, tis me own son Greggory an' me own nephew Christian. Did you boys sweep up the barn fer me?'

'Yes Uncle James' I remember exclaiming.

"Chris?" Bella's voice brought me back to the present and I shook my head, trying to focus away from the memories. It's amazing how my uncle's face, even my cousin's face has pretty much faded away. I hate to admit it, but it is seriously getting tougher and tougher for me to recall my family. But this memory, the faces may not have been clear, but the voices were clear and echoed in my mind.

Edward looked at me and gave a sympathetic smile, he had seen all I had seen and knew how I feel about memories regarding my family.

"Yeah, sorry Bella," I replied

"Are you okay?" she asked and I nodded

"Just thinking, it's nothing." I paused "he called me Brùnaidh," I said softly "that was my uncle's nickname for me,"

Bella looked over at Edward, clearly confused as she looked back at me.

"What?" she asked and I gave her a half grin

"It's Gaelic Bella, it means Brownie," I paused "my uncle called me Brownie because when I was little, I would do small chores around the farm and then deny that I did them and between my cousin Greg and I we played some pretty good pranks on my aunt and little cousins." I explained "In Scottish folklore, Brownies' are like elves, they attach themselves to a piece of land or to a family and basically help the family out. They fix things that are broken, care for animals, tend to gardens, things like that. But they do it not for recognition, but because the property they're attached to is so important to them. But to reward them with anything other than milk or produce from the farm is like paying them for their services and they don't like that. They get offended and won't return to the farm." I shrugged "there's a whole story behind a Brownie and what they do, it's one of my favorites." I paused "anyways, I'll be up in my room if anyone needs me."

I headed towards the stairs, but stopped when a sound caught my attention. It was the vibration of a phone. I peeked into the kitchen and saw Esme looking at a cell phone, she looked uneasy and a little saddened as she put it on the counter as the vibrations subsided. She glanced up when she heard the floors creak.

"Chris?" she called

"It's me mum," I answered

"Are you okay sweetie?"

I walked into the kitchen and she reached over to hug me tight

"I'm fine mum, are you okay?" she nodded "who was that?" she winced "it was Chief Swan wasn't it?" she nodded

"He has been calling nonstop. I cannot believe I'm saying this, but I am at the end of my list of excuses. That poor man, when the time comes I do not know how we will break the news to him, however we decide to do so." She sighed and hugged me again "How is Seth doing?"

"He's crashed on the couch. Dad fixed him up, just got to wait for his healing factor to kick in."

"And Bella?"

"She's doing better I guess. I'm pretty sure that Seth fell asleep for the sole purpose of avoiding her apologies." I looked at my mother carefully "are you okay?" I asked, she gave me a gentle smile and nodded

"Better than some at the moment Christian." She explained, "Sweetie, Emmett, Alice, and I were going to go put some finishing touches on the cottage, just for a few hours or so before we bring Bella out there to surprise her. Did you want to come with us? Get out of the house for a little while?" she finished pushing my bangs back gently.

I took a deep breath and thought it over, before shaking my head

"No, I'm okay mum really. I have to spend some time with Chaplin before he thinks I abandoned him or something. Plus his cage is really beginning to stink so that's gotta get cleaned at some point." Now Esme smiled, and even chuckled a little "see you noticed it too."

"I wasn't going to say anything, but yes, your little friend has made quite a odorous situation in the house." She paused "Jasper and Rose are going to need to hunt in the near future, promise me you will go with them when the time comes?" I nodded "good." She leaned forward and kissed my forehead.

"Sounds good to me."

I left the kitchen and headed up to my room. Chaplin of course was thrilled to see me and was even more so when I opened the latch to his cage and let him loose in my room as I dumped the shavings from his cage into a large trash bag. He squeaked a little and ran to my desk, watching me from his perch.

"I'm cleaning, I'm cleaning," I answered his look with a laugh. I rolled the top of the bag to keep it from spilling and put it near the window before grabbing a handful of sunflower seeds and putting them in front of him. His eyes went wide with excitement as he happily picked through the pile and while sitting up, began gnawing on the seed.

I refilled the bottom of the cage with fresh shavings, dumped his food into the trash bag and refreshed that as well. Chaplin finished picking out his sunflower seeds and with his cheeks bulging, wandered to the edge of the desk, carefully climbed down, and headed for the table his cage sits on. He slowly scaled my pant leg and made his way towards his cage.

Chap is pretty easy going for a rat, in fact between him and his brother Charlie, he was always the calm, low key, go with the flow kind of rat, while Charlie I swear liked chaos and it was always a tough call between causing chaos or sleeping through it.

It's been more than a few months now since he Charlie died, but Chaplin and I still miss him and his personality. Even my siblings miss him, even (though she'll never admit it aloud) Rosalie misses him.

Once the cage was clean and Chap was checking out the fresh dish of food, I latched his cage and headed towards the window. I didn't want to drag the trash bag full of dirty shavings through the house, adding more of a stink so I figured it would just be easier to go out the window.

I threw the bag out the window and then jumped down after it. Since trash pick up this far out of town is non-existent, Carlisle purchased a dumpster for us, we keep everything in there then drive it on the flatbed to the town dump on the other side of town. So that was where I threw the bag of shavings.

Now that, that task was completed, I headed back towards the house, walking in as quietly as I could. Esme, Emmett, and Alice were nowhere to be seen, so I knew they had gone to the cottage we've been working on for Edward and Bella.

We actually started it before the wedding and then worked on it piece by piece while they were on their honeymoon. But of course work on it was put on hold when they came home, but now that things were slowly and somewhat back to a normal situation, Esme had insisted we start working on it again and in all fairness it was nearly done.

Just a few more finishing touches that were all up to Alice; Emmett had gone along just to lift things and Esme went to keep Alice on a short leash regarding the decorating.

I looked into the family room, Seth was still asleep, and snoring to boot. Edward was watching TV and Bella was as well, but her attention really didn't seem like it was on the programme. Movement caught my attention and I sighed, Jasper was keeping a close eye on Bella and hadn't faltered in that duty since the whole Jacob incident, I had a feeling it wouldn't be stopping for quite some time.

I didn't see Rose, Jacob, or Nessie anywhere, but I just assumed Jacob and Rose were fighting over Nessie somewhere in the house.

I headed towards the stairs and was just heading up them when I felt someone coming towards me, at first I assumed it was Jasper coming to get a profile from me, but quickly I realized it wasn't…not even close. I held my breath as a new scent entered my nostrils, speaking of smelly. I turned to face Jacob, who to my surprise had Nessie in his arms, not only that, but she was reaching for me.

I looked at Jacob with a confused look and he rolled his eyes, shrugging.

"She wouldn't go Blondie, she won't stay with me, every time we try she whines and pouts. She has to take a nap and won't go down for either of us. When I mentioned that maybe the Flea might have to tell her a story or something she quieted right down." Jacob explained, my eyes went wide as I stared at Nessie, who cooed and reached for me.

Oh brother, I thought

"You've got to be kidding," I said aloud and Jacob shrugged again

"Hey, with what happened earlier I'm running out of vamps I truly trust with her. For now Bella is definitely out and I don't trust Edward to be clear headed with this. Esme, the Hulk, and the Pixie are going out, she won't stay with Blondie for whatever reason, Dracula is watching Bella like a hawk, so that leaves my favorite little Flea."

I couldn't help it, I growled a little

"I really wish you would stop referring to me as a flea."

To my surprise and certainly to Jacob we both looked down at Nessie who was giving Jacob an actual expectant look, like she wasn't pleased with him calling me a flea either. I grinned and tried not to laugh, it took a few seconds, but Jacob began chuckling too.

"All right I'll try to knock off the flea comments," he said "I can't make no promises though."

"Any," I corrected

"What?" he asked

"You can't make any promises, not you can't make no promises, that a double negative sentence."

Jacob stared at me confused

"What are you the grammar police?"

"Perhaps," I replied as he gently handed Nessie to me.

I held Nessie up so we were eye level. I mean in just a few short days she was strong enough to hold her head up a s it would only be a matter of time before she could sit up, hell she's be walking before we knew it.

"Just out of curiosity," I said as Jacob reluctantly turned to go. "Where is Rosalie?"

Now Jacob began laughing a little

"You really are freaked out by little kids aren't you?"

I groaned

"Little kids no, babies yes. I'm not sure why Nessie liked me but past experience has taught me that babies do not enjoy my company. My own little cousins threw a fit when I tried to hold them. Well, two of them did, I honestly don't really remember when the other three were babies. One was only two years younger than me and the others were four years younger than me."

Jacob whistled

"Big family," he said and I shrugged

"Would've been bigger, but my aunt lost her first baby. It would've been the older kid in the family, beat me by six months."

Nessie reached up to my throat and gently out her tiny hand against it, she was asking in her own way if I could tell her the story again and she wanted it soon. I could see how tired she was getting. She was fighting it, but it was pretty obvious.

"Yeah she's going to need a nap soon," Jacob replied as if he was reading my mind. Yeah not liking that idea.

"I'll come get one of you when she crashes," I said softly.

"Won't be too far kid. I think I may crash in your loft for a while."

I nodded and carried Nessie up to my room, still unsure why she was fascinated with me so much. I walked into my room and immediately Chap went nuts. This of course caught Nessie's attention as she looked around trying to figure out what was making the racket. Chap's nose was going a mile a minute as he took in this strange new scent.

"Sorry Chap," I called "you've already been out. You can come out again in a little while."

Nessie looked at me then looked around again. I wasn't entirely sure how to explain a rat to a baby so I figured I'd cross that when she was a little…er…bigger.

I sat down in my rolling chair and carefully held her at arm's length looking at her right in the eye, trying to understand this very happy, but still very tired baby.

She cooed and giggled at me and I sighed.

"What is it about me huh?" I asked, not expecting an answer of course, it really was a rhetorical question "don't you know babies aren't supposed to like me?" She giggled again which quickly turned into a yawn. I rolled my eyes. "You're crashing aren't you?" I shook my head "why am I asking you all these questions like I'm expecting an answer, see I'm no good at being around babies, you're picking the wrong person in this family to be attached to." Now Nessie gave me a look that (and I'm not kidding) said 'give me a break'. "I suppose you want to finish the story huh?" she smiled at me and I nodded "okay."

I sat her in my lap and she leaned against my chest, snuggling close. I started gently spinning my chair back and forth, I remembered my aunt rocking my cousins like that and I know I saw Rosalie doing it to Nessie so maybe it would get her to fall asleep faster.

"Okay, where was I…oh yeah.

'And the old couple knew what they had to do, the imp had tried to trick them into leaving gifts and stock from the harvest for the Brownie as a thank you, but the one thing you need to remember about Brownies, they do their good deeds for the sake of making people happy, they ask nothing in return, if you leave them gifts and trinkets they will leave and never come back. If the old couple wanted to reward and thank their Brownie friend, they had to leave something else out for him. Do you remember what it is? What's the one thing you can leave a Brownie?" Nessie slowly reached up to my neck and rested her hand there for a moment, I grinned as the images her mind had concocted for the story flooded my mind; she had remembered what I had told her about the rules for Brownies. "Hey you remembered! Right milk or other is the only gift you can give a Brownie. So the old couple did just that, one bottle of milk was left out. And though they never saw the Brownie again, chores around the farm seemed to get done overnight mysteriously and every so often a bottle of milk left outside on the step would be empty the next morning. And so it continued for many years, a unbreakable friendship between the three, the imp was never see again."

I heard the steps creak and I winced as I realized that not only Bella, but Edward too had come upstairs and were basically spying on me.

"She's so calm with him." Bella whispered, why she was bothering to whisper I have no idea, it's not like I can't hear them.

I sighed, I wanted to try something to get Nessie to fall asleep, something that always helped me fall asleep when I was a little kid, but I wasn't sure I wanted to try it with an audience. "Chris and Renesemee have bonded pretty tightly. She has apparently decided she doesn't want to go to sleep until he tells her, her story." Edward explained

I looked down at Nessie, she was looking at me expectantly,

"I guess I can't avoid it huh?" I sighed "Okay, you win Nessie girl." Even knowing I had an audience, I figured I couldn't avoid this. She clearly knew I had something on my mind for her and wanted to know what it was. "Okay you need to go to sleep for a little while. I know your tired come on stop fighting it."

She gave a little pout and I couldn't help but smile at it.

"Wait for it." I heard Edward say and I groaned a little, wishing he would get out of my head.

"My mother would sing it to me every night before I fell asleep. To remind me of Scotland and where I came from, it was to remind me of warriors I descended from and the great chieftains. It's the beauty of Scotland and the strength of it. And now you're a part of it, you are a part of Scotland little Nessie" I paused and took a deep breath

'Sleep little one and peace attend thee, All through the night Guardians the Gods will send thee, All through the night Soft the drowsy hours are creeping Hill and vale in slumber sleeping, a loving vigil keeping All through the night. While the moon her watch is keeping All through the night While the weary world is sleeping All through the night O'er they spirit gently stealing… The ol' man's been stealin', she's 'oldin' 'er grievance fer a 'undred odd years. We all keep believing, tha' 'istory repeats itself year after year. All I fear's tha' the future is worse, we 'ave to give in to this 'undred year curse. Sweat in the sun like we're diggin' a grave. Dig deep enough an' our fortune we'll save. If only if only the woodpecker sighs, the bark on the wood was as sof' as the skies. As the wolf waits below, 'ungry and lonely, 'e cries to the moon, "if only, if only. I'm a sword but I find myself blunt And that is no use when I'm fighting my history, I have no blade, I'm more like a feather. That is no use when I'm fighting my history. But I can't fly away when I'm fighting myself "If only, if only," the woodpecker sighs, "The bark on the trees was as soft as the skies," As the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely He cries to the moon, "If only, if only." "If only, if only," the woodpecker sighs, "The bark on the trees was as soft as the skies," As the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely He cries to the moon, "If only, if only."

My voice trailed off as the lullaby ended and I looked down at the baby in my arms. I couldn't believe it, she was sleeping. I had actually found a way to get her to sleep. She was cuddling against my neck and was giving little sighs as she breathed.

I looked up and saw the look of surprise on Bella's face, she had apparently heard from Edward of my chorus days as a kid, but hadn't really known what to expect nor did she ever expect to ever hear me sing. Which is fair enough, I try to avoid putting myself out there like that. Granted I liked being part of the chorus when I was a kid, but it was literally a different life. But for Nessie I was willing to make an exception.

I stood up and carefully moved towards the door. Bella and Edward stepped aside to let me pass, and I ducked my head, embarrassed as I headed towards the stairs.

"She loves her uncle Chris." Edward explained with a grin "and he loves her, even if he doesn't admit it."

I groaned softly and made my way down the stairs. Seth was still sacked out on the couch, but Jacob had infiltrated the living room as well and was watching a college football game. He glanced over and his eyes went wide as he spotted the sleeping baby in my arms.

"Holy hell how did-" he started to exclaim and I shot him a glare

"Shut up!" I hissed "it took a story and a lullaby to get her to fall asleep. Do not wake her up!"

"Blondie was right you do have the magical touch."

"Magical touch?" I repeated

"Yeah, she said Nessie really likes you and seems pretty calm by you."

I have no idea why, I thought as Rose came into the room smiling

"Aw Chris she did fall asleep for you," she said softly "here I'll take her if you want," I nodded and gently handed Nessie to Rosalie, she didn't wake up which was a plus. "You did a nice job with her," Rosalie whispered "told you that you are a wonderful uncle." I rolled my eyes and backed out of the room as quickly as I could.

I could see Bella and Edward coming down the stairs and I made a beeline for the kitchen and therefore the garage. I didn't want to explain anything or have Bella gushing over me, I needed some alone time working in the garage.

x-x-x-x-x

A/N: I swear I am not trying to stay on a once a month update thing here, it's just kind of happening like that. I was able to get writing done during the day while at school, but that has changed where it's kind of tough to do so. But believe me I am working as fast and as hard as I can to update this fic regularly, it's just going to take some time. So thank you guys for putting up with me on that.

Second order of business, the song that Chris sings to Nessie has been pestering in my head since Chris first came around. I kind of combined two separate songs, the first is a real Scottish lullaby that my grandmother used to sing to me when I was little. I added the latter half to it however. It is off the soundtrack from the movie Holes it's called 'If Only If Only' and when I first heard that song I seriously saw the scene you read with Chris singing Nessie to sleep. I have been anxiously waiting to write that scene into this fic since then.

Anyways, I'm going to try and have this updated in two weeks I swear I will try. I should have ample time this coming week to write so hopefully I can keep this promise. You guys are awesome for putting up with the limited updating on this fic and I hope each of you know how important you are to me and how much I appreciate each and everyone of you.