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I slid to a stop just over the property line. A wave of unfamiliar scents hit me and it was massively overwhelming. I felt my body instinctively tense up, true I knew those inside the house were all friends and had come to help us, but it was difficult not to be tense. As much as we hate to admit it, we have a lot in common with the wolves, our instincts may not dictate our everyday life like theirs do, but we're not in complete control of them either. It goes against our instincts to be comfortable with this many of our kind in one place, family aside this was a lot of vampires in one place and it not a normal thing.

It had been over a week since leaving to find witnesses, Garrett had gone on ahead of us, because Rose thought it might be worth a chance to find Mary and Randall, two more of Carlisle and Esme's nomadic friends.

I knew they would take the longest to find because despite a kinship and a great similarity, they are not a pair and travel separate, reconvening once in a great while. It had taken a few days to track them down and a few times we almost gave up because the trail had gone cold.

Believe me it was a relief when we finally found Mary who told us exactly where we'd be able to find Randall, they did not take much convincing and headed for Washington. But not before Randall asked about our wolf situation, apparently rumors among Carlisle's friend's travels fast, but we assured Randall, that the wolves were our allies and played a vital part in the whole situation.

I can only imagine everyone's reaction to our canine friends, I figured Seth had probably steered clear for a little while, but I knew for a fact that Jacob was still in the house, protecting Nessie.

Rose and Emmett headed into the house and after a moment of hesitation I started to follow. But not before glancing back through the woods, speaking of wolves, I could only imagine what our wolf friends were going through with all the vampires showing up around here.

I remember Seth telling me that a few of his younger friends had turned when the newborn army was getting close last spring, so I was just assuming that more Quileute's were turning into wolves and it was probably a lot of the younger kids. I wondered for a moment how young they'd start turning, Seth was fourteen, nearly fifteen, but I'm pretty sure one of his friends is thirteen and the other is only twelve.

I took a deep breath and cleared that thought from my mind for a little while, I had other things to focus on right now. There were friends in that house that I had never met and I wasn't sure how I was going to handle them all.

I glanced up onto the porch, Garrett was standing there, a stupid grin on his face, clearly he believed that regardless of my actual participation in the race, he had beaten me. I was definitely going to have to contest that and deal with bloody Yankee Doodle.

The first thing I noticed when I walked through the front door was the packed living room. Not since the wedding had there been this many individuals in the house.

I spotted Peter and Charlotte straight away, they were kind of hanging back from rest of the gathering, but Charlotte's face lit up a little when she saw us walk in. She pulled Peter away from their display like spot and came over to me, we hadn't seen Peter and Charlotte in nearly two years, but for some reason it felt like it had been decades.

"Chris, how are you?" she asked hugging me

"Well," I paused "considering,"

Peter nodded and shook my hand

"Understandable," he said

"She's remarkable," Charlotte added looking over at Nessie who was hugging and kissing Emmett and Rose. I had to do a double take, she'd grown a bit, instead of resembling a toddler Nessie now looked the age of a five or six year old.

"Very remarkable, and never ceases to amaze," I replied with a weak grin. Nessie looked over the crowd and spotted me, she wiggled out of Emmett's arms and made a beeline, flitting around our friends and cousins like a pro.

"Uncle Chris!" She exclaimed, I moved away from Peter and Charlotte as Nessie ran over to me and wrapped her arms around my waist, I could feel dozens of eyes on us, but it was only a brief thought in my mind which was focused on Nessie.

I couldn't believe the growth spurt, she now came up to about my mid drift and it had only been a short amount of time. I wondered for a moment how long it would be before she looked the part of a preteen…then a teen…god how much longer would she be a little kid, how much longer until I was looking up at my niece.

"Hey Nessie girl," I said carefully, trying to keep that thought away from my mind. "Having fun?"

"Yes Uncle Chris, wait till you see what Benjamin can do!" she giggled and I knelt down so she could climb onto my back.

"Who?"

"Grandpa's friend from, E…E" she paused and I could feel her struggling with the word, thought I kind of guessed she was trying to say Egypt.

I glanced up at her and she pointed to a couple I had never seen before huddled close, the man acting as if he needed to protect the woman from the gathering, his eyes darting around taking in everyone, assessing each possible threat

Not far from them stood a younger pair, a girl physically about Edward's age and a boy a year maybe two years older than me physically. They seemed more at ease than the older pair and when they felt Nessie and I looking, both smiled at us and waved.

"Benjamin?" I guessed whispering to Nessie who nodded "I think they're from Egypt, Nessie girl, that's the Egyptian coven."

"Oh, okay…that's Tia," she nodded "they've known each other a very, very, very long time."

"And the other two?" I asked

"That's Amun and Kebi, Amun is scared and isn't happy with grandpa for convincing them to come,"

In the back of my mind I wondered why they did come if they were so scared, but looking at Benjamin I kind of got the idea of the situation. Amun may be the leader of the coven, but Benjamin is in no way bound to obey him, if I didn't get a sense of how old Amun is, I would have put the creator as Benjamin, he's not timid at all. I could see that he respects Amun in the same manner I respect Carlisle, as a father figure, but I got the feeling based on my profile that their relationship was not so easy going as my own with Carlisle.

"So you've been making friends I see," I said with a grin and I felt Nessie nod, but before she could reply Benjamin and Tia walked over to us, Amun cleared his throat and started to move as well, but Benjamin just rolled his eyes at his creator and walked over to us.

"You must be Christian, we've heard a lot about you," he said holding out his hand "Benjamin, and this is Tia,"

"Chris please," I replied shaking Benjamin's hand then Tia's "and it's nice to meet you guys, welcome to Washington."

"It is a nice change of scenery, to be quite honest I'm hoping for a snow storm." Benjamin said with a grin "we do not get many chances for snowball fights where we come from."

"I can imagine," I replied politely, but in the back of my mind, probably for the first time in my entire existence, I was praying that the snow would never come, because with the snow the Volturi were that much closer to arriving.

"Benjamin and I always assumed we were the youngest," Tia spoke up "but it's so amazing to see so many our age here, you were turned young too? Fifteen?" she guessed and I shook my head

"Close thirteen, a month short of fourteen." I paused and grinned "and if I may say, I already owe you a debt of gratitude,"

Tia and Benjamin exchanged a confused look

"How so?" Tia asked

"You have got to be the first person to ever assume at first glance that I'm older than I really am. Most people assume that I'm younger. We are a rare commodity though," I admitted "there's really only a handful of us under the legal age to drive. And of course you have the-" I paused again and glanced at Nessie who was looking around for her mother, as soon as she spotted Bella she tugged to get down which I obliged, letting her carefully slid off my back and scamper off to her mother. "The twins from hell are our age as well," I finished now that the little ears had escaped "Jane and her brother Alec, they can't be more than thirteen either."

"Yes," Benjamin said softly, glancing at Amun "believe me we've heard of them,"

"But there's also Maggie and Fiona as well," Tia interrupted, changing the discussion away from the coming Volturi. "The Irish coven came right before we arrived, it's been nice having other girls to talk to."

"So trust me friend you're saving me here, for nearly a week I have been subjected to all this girl chatter."

I looked over to where Benjamin was nodding, near the fireplace, stood a coven that screamed Irish. From Carlisle's description I recognized Siobhan and Liam. Liam reminded me of Samuel the way he stood, imposing and still, tufts of his brown hair stuck out from under his cap. Siobhan was not much different than her mate, with long black hair, her face was stern, but I could see a gentleness in her eyes.

Nearby sat two girls, both physically my age give or take, both were about my height and seemed to be polar opposites. The first had bright red hair bouncy from the curls and maintained a knowing almost giddy smile as she observed the room taking it all in.

The second girl had a reddish almost copper coloured hair, she seemed shyer than the other girl and just as quiet as Liam appeared to be, while the other girl resembled Siobhan in body language. It was an amazing family, if they ever tried passing for human like us Cullens they'd succeed with no problem.

The shyer girl had at some point discovered the vast Cullen library and was nose deep in a book. I had to look carefully to see what she was reading and I was pleasantly surprised to see it wasn't one of the hundreds of classics we have stacked around it was actually one of my collections of haunted house stories; a thick mass market book full of ghost stories from around the fifty states.

She was so engrossed in the book she hadn't noticed the changing atmosphere as Rose, Emmett, and I returned home and our close friends and family shuffled to greet us, but her the red head noticed us, she began nudging the bookworm trying to get her to look up.

"Fiona," she hissed "trus' me on this, look up from that ruddy book, something far more interesting has walked in."

It seemed like Fiona was reluctant to do so as she shrugged Maggie away several times, before she finally just took the book away from Fiona.

"Maggie I was nearly done with that chapter, what for goodness sake could be so urgent that you'd inte-" she started to complain but then looked where Maggie was nodding and our eyes met.

Bloody hell she was beautiful, not just her physical features, but internally beautiful as well, she was kind…I could see the empathy for others written all over her body language. My god it was like looking at a vampire version of Marie, she had the same care, the same love for others that Marie had and it was written all over her body language.

Suddenly there was no one else in the room, I was pulled into a depth I'd never known. It was the strangest feeling I'd ever experienced, it was beyond a level of the protectiveness I had felt for Bree, it was even past the level of protectiveness and care I had for Marie. I actually felt warm for the first time in decades, a warmth that blanketed my whole body, but I couldn't explain it. What the hell was this?

Our stare down lasted literally two seconds as shyness kicked in for both of us and we looked away in a hurry.

I took a deep breath and slowly glanced up again, she was doing the same exact thing and again the moment our eyes met we averted them. I felt someone staring at me hard and at first I thought it might be Fiona, but when I looked towards the hard stare I was met with the disapproving glare of Liam, I knew that look all too well.

When I was human, there was this girl who lived on our lane named Helen, she was a sweet and kind hearted girl who was a year younger than me and my mates, but she was what would be called a tomboy nowadays, she was the only girl I knew who was a bloody good bowler, having played some simple games of catch with the cricket ball in the park.

Her father didn't like her playing with us, especially me, he made it perfectly clear that he did not like Scots. So most times when I knocked on the door he wouldn't even answer it, but when he did answer it, we'd be met with the stern disapproving look from him and in my case actual hatred, usually Helen would simply skirt by her father reassuring him that all was well and that he'd be able to see us the entire time as their flat was just across from the park.

Then one day even Helen's persuasive reassurance didn't work on her father as he wouldn't let her even come to the door. The very next day we heard that she had been sent to boarding school in France.

When the war came we all assumed that she'd be coming home, but never heard from or saw her again, though many of us who lived on the lane heard our mothers talking about poor little Helen's boarding school had been shut down by the Germans, but no one knew where the students had gone to when the Nazis invaded.

Up until the day I "died" no one ever heard anything else about her or what had happened. Her parents boarded up their house after the invasion of France and left without a word. Even my mother's best friend, the lead gossiper of the street couldn't give my mother an answer.

But that look Helen's father always gave me, the look of disapproval and even sometimes hatred was the same look I was met with when I looked at Liam.

Before the stared down could go any further, I felt arms around my shoulders as Esme swallowed me up in a tight hug.

"Christian, welcome home sweet heart!" she exclaimed "you three did wonderful," she added gesturing to the groups of nomads that Rose, Emmett, and I had hunted down, I however didn't see Samuel and Julianna, my shoulders sank.

"Not entirely," I replied, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice,

"What do you mean?" Carlisle asked coming up behind us, he hugged my shoulders gently

"Samuel and Julianna," I explained "they promised they'd come, they were reluctant, but said they'd come, I just thought…they seemed so sure that they'd be here."

Carlisle smiled and nodded towards the front room where Edward's piano sat, there sat Julianna, Samuel's hand on her shoulder standing behind her as they chatted with Randall and Mary.

"What were you saying?" Carlisle asked a knowing smile on my father's face and I shrugged

"It's been a long few days apparently" I replied, "and if I have to listen to one more tea and crumpets joke from Garrett I may reenact the Boston Tea Party for him and throw him overboard." I grumbled good natured and Carlisle chuckled

"Garret has always had that off putting humour," Carlisle explained "believe me I had to endure it for many years when we first met, he's actually matured a bit regarding that."

"Clearly he still needs to speak to someone about holding such a ridiculous grudge," I looked around and spotted Garrett, chatting it up with the Denali clan, more specifically Kate and I chuckled "looks like he did just that,"

Carlisle followed my gaze and nodded

"So it would seem,"

I scanned the room again, but for some reason my eyes drifted back towards the Irish Coven, mainly at Fiona, I half expected her to be back to her book, but she was staring at me, quickly looking back down at the book when I looked at her.

"Christian, is there something you'd like to tell us?" Esme asked with a smile and I shook my head

"No, 'course not," I said quickly, though I didn't miss the exchange between my parents. "Who else came?" I asked changing the subject looking around "Garrett said the Amazons were on their way?"

"Yes, I suspect they will be arriving soon as well," Carlisle replied "Alastair came, I hoped he would come with Esme and I, it took some convincing."

I had heard stories about Carlisle's most elusive friend and to be honest I was actually surprised he had come, since based on all of Carlisle's stories he's the most like Count Dracula than any of us.

He had apparently refused to touch Nessie. Like Amun and Kebi he took Carlisle at his word about her. He had been spending most of his time in our attic and the moment I had heard about that I instantly pictured him hanging from our rafters upside down wearing a cape like Count Dracula, but I maturely kept that to myself. I was curious by the fact that he had crept down to see who had arrived and stared at me suspiciously.

Carlisle waved at him, gesturing for him to join us and when he didn't move, Carlisle put a hand on my shoulder and guided me over to the stairs where Alistair stood, I didn't miss the awkward glances and even suspicious glances from many of our guests towards him.

"Clearly the apple didn't fall from the tree," Alistair commented sizing me up. I read between the lines, even though he believed Nessie was not an immortal child, he apparently saw why the Volturi would make that assumption and I rolled my eyes at that. He saw my eye roll and seemed to study me.

"This is Chris," Carlisle introduced

"The profiler." Alistair said, it was more of a statement than a question and Carlisle nodded

"And you're a tracker," I replied, not appreciating the tone in his voice when he pointed out my ability, labeling me like my ability defined who I was, I won't deny it's part of who I am, but it will never be my entire existence, it is one of my major and original reasons I dislike and distrust the Volturi.

Alistair seemed surprised for a brief moment, but he glanced at Carlisle

"I see you've kept your coven informed," he pointed out "especially on so called friends."

Carlisle shook his head

"With the basics only, friend."

I frowned at Alistair's words, knowing I really shouldn't take it personal what he was saying, but I felt I had to defend my father and myself.

"I wouldn't need Carlisle to tell me that you're a tracker, it's in your eyes, your body language, the way you carry yourself and move. It's like you're always looking for something, in this case a way out of this whole thing. You're an open book and I can read you just as easy as if I was reading a simple comic book." I tried not to wince, wondering for a moment if I had gone too far, but I actually saw the corner of Alistair's mouth twitch a little, the slight mark of a smile, before it disappeared just as quickly.

"Interesting talent you have here Carlisle," he said before vanishing back upstairs. Carlisle sighed and shook his head

"Sorry," I spoke up

"For what?" Carlisle asked confused

"I instigated,"

"I would expect nothing less from you Chris and believe me, for Alistair that was impressive, he was curious about you and came down to quell his curiosity. I also think you impressed him a little there, he is skeptical about talents and abilities, he believes many of them are just exaggerated and the works of the imagination." Carlisle paused and smiled at me "in some ways you two are similar, up until a few moments ago, he did not believe your ability to profile was anything but over observance, much like you often insist."

I rolled my eyes, that was certainly true, I've lost count on how many times I've insisted my profiling ability is something others can achieve if they just use the senses that we're all born with. It was a little bizarre to hear that Count Alistair and I were on the same wave length.

"He didn't believe I could profile him?"

"No he didn't and you just proved him wrong." I took a deep breath "Chris, what's on your mind?"

"He's not going to admit it aloud, but there's something you should now dad. When I said he's looking for a way out of this whole thing?"

"Yes?"

"He was looking for a way out so he doesn't have to watch the Volturi destroy a man he sees as more than a friend, but as a brother. He's scared, not for his own safety, but yours, he's afraid you won't see the danger the Volturi can bring until it's too late and he doesn't want to stick around to watch that." I said softly,

Carlisle seemed stunned for a second, then glanced up the stairs towards the attic where again I believe Alistair was probably hanging from the rafters. He rubbed his chin, then reached over and hugged my shoulders

"What is the Scottish word for proud?"

"Ardanach." I replied and sighed reading my father and where he was going with that question. "And you don't have to say it," I added "I know you are,"

"Good, glad we're on that same page," Carlisle said and hugged my shoulders again as we walked back over to Esme

"Have you had a chance to meet everyone?" She asked and Carlisle and I exchanged a goofy look with each other before looking at Esme knowingly. She should know me better than that and the minute we exchanged a look she caught on.

"I started to introduce myself," I admitted, I nodded towards Benjamin and Tia, "not my fault I didn't get very far,"

Carlisle chuckled and Esme sighed

"Oh what am I going to do with you both?"

"What? What we do?" I asked

"You sweetie. You seem to think that you're some kind of recluse in this family. The moment a new situation arises or someone new walks into our lives you disappear into this shell you've built around yourself to avoid facing it."

"I do not," I argued gently even though I knew she was kind of right

"So does that mean I'm innocent in this?" Carlisle asked giving me a wink

"Oh no Mr. Cullen you are just as guilty as Christian, because you let him get away with it," Carlisle and I exchanged a look again and he shrugged, telling me I was on my own for this. "And sometimes I need to step in. So Christians lets go," Esme added grabbing hold of my hand and dragging me off.

Of course I as I had just informed my mother, I had already introduced myself to Benjamin and Tia and I had said hi to Peter and Charlotte of course, but apparently my mother wasn't letting me slide with just them, there was many new faces in our house. She walked me over to Amun and Kebi.

Amun did not look amused, he really was not happy he was here. If Alistair was against this whole thing, Amun was practically standing with one foot out the door, I just couldn't figure out what was keeping him here, I couldn't tell if it was a friendship with Carlisle or if it was something else. Esme however being Esme looked past that and continued as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Esme," Amun replied curtly

"Amun, kebi this is Christian, our youngest son,"

"Pleased to meet you," I said politely holding out my hand.

It took Amun a few seconds before he reacted and reluctantly shook my out stretched hand Kebi didn't say a word nor did she shake my hand. But she did nod a 'hello' type response and I think she smiled.

Satisfied with that, Esme pulled me over to the Irish clan and I started to put on the brakes here. For one thing Liam's death glares had not stopped, in fact they had only gotten worse when he heard me speaking.

Clearly the guy had an issue with me though I couldn't tell if it was my English accent that was offending him or if my Scottish accent that makes an appearances quite often was doing the damage, I'm well aware of the Irish are not big fans of either. I know my own human father had a patient walk out on him because he refused to be treated by a Scottish physician, so I'm seriously used to it.

But more importantly than the accent issue with Liam, I couldn't help looking over at Fiona who in turn was trying not to be obvious that she was staring at me too. I didn't want Esme to notice because she would blow it out of proportions unintentionally of course and besides every look I sent over to Fiona, I could feel the daggers from Liam.

"Liam Siobhan this Christian," Esme introduced and like with Amun, I politely extended my hand to Liam first. He acknowledged my hand with a grunt and kept his arms crossed, Siobhan however shook her head at her mate and took my hand in hers smiling,

"Good to meet you Christian, Carlisle and Esme have told us so much about you." her voice sang as she shook my hand.

I chuckled a little, if there was any doubt about where she was from it was completely eradicated when she spoke. Though the accents were different, the way she spoke and her warm smile reminded me so much of my aunt Wendy a woman who has faded the most from my memory, it's only bits and pieces of her being I remember and her similarities to Siobhan were definitely the strongest ones I was experiencing.

"And it's a pleasure to meet you ma'am sir." I replied and I swear to god I heard Liam snort back his displeasure the moment he heard my accent.

"Girls," Siobhan called and the two girls came over quickly "girls this is Carlisle and Esme's youngest son Christian,"

"Chris pleased," I interrupted politely and Esme smiled

"This is Maggie and Fiona." Siobhan introduced.

I gently shook each of the girls' hands; Maggie first, then Fiona, the minute I took Fiona's hand we both looked into each other's eyes and I felt that warmth envelope me again. Her eyes were as red as could be but I couldn't stop staring into them until I literally had to pull myself away and we both looked away shyly.

"It's nice to meet you both," I replied and looked at Liam carefully he disapproving frown was not among the situation any less uncomfortable.

"Hi Chris!" Maggie bubbled

I was right in my earlier profile she's a lot like Siobhan outgoing going to tell it like it is and not quiet.

"Hi," Fiona added smiling a little, she was timidly standing as close to Maggie as possible and I gently returned the smile, but before the conversation could go any further I heard my name being called, no not called bellowed as Nessie came running through the crowds hunting me down.

"Uncle Chris Uncle Chris!" She exclaimed jumping into my arms she smiled shyly at Fiona and Maggie and both girls waved at her and she waved back.

I think at this point she just wanted to make sure she was near me as much as possible, she didn't like the family being away like that and with Alice and Jasper still missing she was strategically checking on each member of the family, being in their arms and being comforted by their presence. Nessie put her head on my shoulder for a moment then put her hand to my throat

'Do you like Fiona?' She asked in her own way and I sighed at my niece, wondering if it was just obvious to Nessie or if I was an open book for the entire room to read. I also knew there was a possibility of Nessie repeating her question only out loud, time to get away from this entirely.

"Chris?" Esme said softly "are you okay?"

I smiled at my mother and at the Irish clan

"Please excuse me," I said politely "apparently my brother needs to talk to me," I didn't miss the look Maggie had on her face, she knew I wasn't being truthful and I was starting to get a good idea about what Maggie's ability was, she was a lie detector,

Esme rolled her eyes at me because she knew I was full of it, but she didn't say anything and let me go, I knew I'd get it later.

When I glanced back at the Irish clan Maggie gave me a sympathetic smile. Clearly the Irish lie detector was amused at my apparent shyness around her sister. Esme stayed to chat with the Irish clan as I carried Nessie away from the group.

"Uncle Chris," Nessie declared very confused "daddy did not send me over to get you and Uncle Emmett didn't either. Did you tell a lie?" She asked in shock

I groaned and nodded

"Yes Nessie. It's what is called a white lie. It's a lie that is still a lie but no one gets hurt when you say it, but it's something you need use only when it's really super important."

"But I thought lying was bad, like with Pinocchio."

I thought this over, its so hard to remember that Nessie is in all reality a baby albeit a super smart baby who looks more like a five year old, but she is still only a few months old. And if I remember anything about little kids based on my experience with my own cousins and my human friends' siblings they tend to be brutally honest no matter what. Lying isn't even on their radar till they're like six or at least that's my understanding.

"Sometimes a white lie is told so you're not being rude. I was feeling uncomfortable because I had to meet new people and I really don't like to. So I told a white lie to politely excuse myself and do it in a way that wouldn't seem rude. Do you think it would have been nicer if I had said 'I don't want to talk to you anymore? And walked away?'

Nessie shook her quickly

"That would be very, very rude to say," she concluded and I nodded

"See, I told a white lie so I could be polite and not hurt anyone's feelings. Lying isn't good thing, but sometimes a white lie every once in a while is okay."

Nessie nodded but she still seemed confused about the whole thing, especially one particular something

"But Uncle Chris, why didn't you want to keep talking to them? Everyone is very, very, very nice, especially Fiona and Maggie, Maggie told me a story about Ireland and a fairy. I like the way they talk, they were talking in another language and it sounded like how you talk sometimes, but I think the words were different. How come?"

"That's just the way things work sometimes, not everyone speaks the same language even if the languages sound a little alike," I said hoping that explained enough "does that make sense?"

"A little," she paused and I winced "Uncle Chris, can I ask you another question?"

"Always Nes,"

"why did you feel uncomfortable? Maggie and Fiona, and Siobhan and even Liam are very, very nice,"

I sighed, this kid was killing me, absolutely killing me, but before I could respond, I felt my brother's footsteps on the carpet and turned to meet him.

"Because Uncle Chris is shy." Edward replied coming up behind us

I am not shy, I thought, hoping my grumbling could translate in my thoughts, it must have, because the look I got from my brother was one of 'you are so.'

"Uncle Chris you're shy?" Nessie asked and I shook my head

"No Nessie, your dad is being silly," I replied for once in his life I added in my thoughts and he rolled his eyes at me

"so what are you teaching my daughter now"

"Uncle Chris told me when it's okay to lie and when it's not,"

Edward groaned and Bella joined us, she reached over and hugged me tight Nessie used the exchange to climb from my arms to her mother's like a little monkey.

"What's this about you teaching our daughter to lie?" Bella asked

"I…er…um," bloody hell I couldn't even defend myself on this one,

Bella and Edward exchanged a look and Bella kissed Nessie on the top of her head and gently set her down

"Go see Aunt Rose okay?" she whispered and Nessie skipped off through the gathering. "Now what are you up to?" Bella asked, her voice still forceful, but with a hint of gentleness to it.

"Esme wanted to make sure I met everyone so she brought me around on a meet and greet and there is only so much social interaction I can take. So I told Esme and the Irish clan that you wanted to speak to me, I explained to Nessie that it was a white lie so I wouldn't appear rude."

"And you didn't want to be rude because a certain bookworm was making you uncomfortable?" Edward asked not as gentle as his wife.

"I beg your pardon?" I asked even though it came out more as a squeak.

"I said-" he started to repeat and I shook my head

"No I heard you the first time, what makes you think Fiona is making me uncomfortable?" I asked and Edward grinned a little

"I never said Fiona," he replied "so you really do like her huh?" he added knowingly.

Bella however wasn't going to give into the teasing and gave Edward a stern look before turning to me

"Chris is that true?" she asked

"What? No, 'course not!" I deflected "look I…I've got to check on Chap, he's probably going out of his bloody mind with all these new smells."

Before the two of them could argue with me I bolted towards the stairs, following the same path that Alistair had taken, I wondered for a brief moment if he needed company to hang out with up there.

As I turned onto the landing and headed towards my room I sighed. I've always tried to make sure that I'm impossible to profile, I don't wear my emotions and I think I've done a pretty damn good job making sure that no one can profile me, granted certain family members it's nearly impossible, Esme and Carlisle for instance and Edward of course, but was I losing my touch so much that even Bella could zero in when something was different?

My thoughts were interrupted by movement down the hall towards the attic doorway, standing there was Alistair, arms crossed and looking at me once again with suspicion.

"So the profiler becomes the profiled?" he asked and I looked at him confused, but before I could respond he disappeared back into the attic, just as I heard the stairs from down below creak a little. Friend of Carlisle's or not, he is definitely bloody bonkers.

Shaking my head on that thought, I turned to look who was coming up the stairs since I'm the only one who really has any reason to be up here besides Count Dracula in the attic. So I was a little surprised to see Maggie, with Fiona in tow. Maggie smiled warmly at me and gently pushed Fiona forward.

"Fi was wondering if she could borrow another one of your books, she finished this one."

"Maggie, I can speak for myself, thank you though" Fiona said gently stepping forward timidly "I hope you didn't mind, your brother showed us the library downstairs and your collection of books up here and said it would be okay if I borrowed as many as I'd like. You have a lot of wonderful books, it's been tough deciding which ones to take."

I almost didn't respond to her, I was still in shock that they were here, up on the landing, and actually speaking to me after how, let's face it rude and pretty moronic I had been downstairs.

The girls exchanged a look, giggling a little to themselves

"Uh, Chris?" Maggie called, louder than Fi could ever hope

"Uh, right sorry," I stuttered and they giggled again, there was more footsteps coming the stairs as Benjamin and Tia somehow snuck away from Amun and joined us up on the landing.

"Well, this certainly looks like the party place," Benjamin commented looking around, Fi seemed to shrink back in her shyness and moved closer to Maggie. "it's a good thing Fi," he added smiling gently at her "you have to admit, things were getting pretty dull downstairs all everyone is doing is standing around talking."

Fi nodded

"That's why I was reading," she said softly holding up the book she'd been reading downstairs.

"So Chris what do you do for fun?" Tia asked, I glanced towards my room, I really wasn't sure how Chap would react to so many new faces and smells so I was hesitant to let everyone into my room.

"Read mostly, video games sometimes," I replied with a shrug "movies. That's of course when we're not in school, homework and projects sometimes kill some time." I glanced at my door again and Benjamin grinned

"Oh if you're worried about Chaplin don't be, we've become best buds, Nessie introduced us when we arrived," he explained and I looked at him in surprise before looking at Maggie and Fi who nodded in agreement.

"Well in that case, come on in to my room, there's a lot more to do in the loft over the garage, but you guys are welcome in here too." I replied opening my door as the four of them walked inside, this was something I had never experienced before. I mean thanks to Marie and Sarah I had friends here in Forks which was a real first and of course I have Seth as a best friend and we hang out, but I have never had vampire friends physically my own age who I could be friends with.

Even though all of these friends and family were here for the purpose of bearing witness for us to the Volturi, I couldn't help but feel a little comfortable with the fact that I was actually surrounded by friends whom I could relate to in every sense of that word.

x-x-x-x-x-x

A/N: Okay folks there you have it, you have now met Fiona, my addition to the Irish Coven. I'm sorry this took so long to get through I had the scene playing perfectly in my mind, but for some reason it was harder than I expected to translate it onto the computer screen from my imagination so hopefully everyone enjoyed this chapter even though it was a long time coming. I did want to add something regarding the Irish Coven and even the Egyptian coven, I'm going to be taking a lot of liberties with both of them to better fit the storyline and how Chris interacts with them. I've been using the Twilight Saga guide and Breaking Dawn Part 2 to get a feel for the different covens and in the story of Liam for the guide it says that he reluctantly accepted Maggie into the coven and she basically grew on him and he sees her as a sister. That wasn't the impression I originally got when I read Breaking Dawn for the first time and it certainly wasn't the impression I got from the movie, I saw the Irish coven as a smaller human blood drinking version of the Cullens with Siobhan in the leadership role of course but also in a mothering role to Maggie with Liam a fathering role, I never go the 'brother sister' vibe from the story so this is where I tweaked it a little to the point that the Irish coven is like a family and Siobhan and Liam see the girls as their daughters. This will really become necessary later on in the story. I also had a little trouble determining how long Carlisle and Esme and Emmett and Rose were gone gathering witnesses, the original sentence from Breaking Dawn makes it sound like Carlisle and Esme were gone a week and then Rose and Emmett returned a few days AFTER Carlisle and Esme got home, which in my mind didn't really make sense because Emmett and Rose have less ground to travel, but I left it how I originally read into it.

Whew, anyways this was long winded to say the least. I'll try to have the next update soon it's coming along I promise I'm working on it as hard as I can. Thanks as always for your continued patience and understanding that I am not going to just let this fic go unfinished that it is still being written I haven't and will never abandoned it, Breaking Dawn is just a tough book to get through because there is so much occurring in it. Also please keep in mind my earlier question if anyone has any ideas for how the "battle" that never occurs should go down in this fic, I really am struggling with that scenario because as we all know it doesnt happen in the book it's all just Alice's vision that she shares with Aro, but I want to incorporate it somehow with the story like it did in the movie, but I'm just not sure how to go about it and I trust you all as my readers to come up with some really helpful ideas so feel free to message me if you have any ideas. If it ends up not working I do have plans for the lead up to the battle that I can go with, they're just not as much fun.

Till next time everyone!