I obliged, watching her face this time while she sent her pictures into my brain. She wore a crooked, mischievous smile as she delivered this message. Curiously, Christopher's face appeared in my mind as if projected on a screen. Alice had hauled him through the house and out the front door. Nessie had observed their interaction outside as she and Bella approached the house. Before I could piece together any context from what the child was showing me, the image abruptly disappeared.

"Let's let that play out on its own," Edward murmured to the child he now held on his hip, standing beside me. Nessie rolled her eyes and huffed, a little strand of hair blowing off her forehead. He tapped her nose with his index finger and set her on her feet. "Go find your Aunt Rosalie? Your mom and I will take you hunting later."

The pacified child waved at me with a smile, scurrying off to another part of the house. Edward glanced at Carlisle. I could plainly see how instinctively the pair communicated without spoken words, even with only one of them being able to read minds. Bella snorted, and when I looked in her direction she jerked her head toward her mate.

"It's amazing, isn't it? They have whole conversations without ever saying a word."

Esme elbowed her husband. "It's also rude."

Carlisle chuckled and ducked his head. "Esme is right, of course. My apologies, Ellie." I started to shake my head and say I didn't mind, but he held up his hand. "Edward and I were wondering if you wouldn't mind humoring some questions about your childhood, your development, that kind of thing. Only if you're comfortable with that, of course."

"I don't mind at all," I answered truthfully. While Nahuel's arrival in the field alleviated many immediate concerns about Nessie's future, I suspected I could provide some additional nuance as to what she might experience as she matured. Before I could speak, however, an all-too-familiar sound echoed across the kitchen. The insistent beep of Carlisle's pager was silenced within a second or two as he plucked the device from his hip. He immediately fetched a cell phone from his pocket, dialed a number, and then walked out of the room. Suddenly, something dawned on me.

I looked down at my watch to confirm the date and swore under my breath. When Demetri appeared at the Boston hospital where I worked, I was just completing a shift late Christmas Eve. By a stroke of luck, I had taken off until after the New Year began, but that meant I was supposed to report in less than twenty-four hours. I looked up to find Edward, Bella, and Esme wearing almost mirrored expressions of curiosity and concern.

"I just realized the date," I explained. "I'm supposed to be at work in the morning." I glanced at Esme. "Is there a phone I could use? Mine was taken when I got to Volterra."

"Of course dear," Esme said, disappearing around a corner into another room. When she reappeared, she held out a cordless phone in her left hand. I smiled gratefully as I took the receiver, dialing the number to the nurses' desk in the ICU. A sigh of relief slipped through my tightly clenched teeth when a familiar voice answered.

"Mario!" I almost shouted the name of my favorite charge nurse. "Thank god it's you."

There was a pause on the other end, and then Mario responded hesitantly. "Dr. Jones? Ellie?"

The confusion in his voice confused me in turn. "Yes, it's Ellie, Mario. I haven't been off for that long."

Silence again; this time for several seconds. "How are you? We thought…"

Three pairs of eyes stared at me, hearing both sides of my conversation as clearly as I could.

"The accident," Mario continued. "Your father said you were…we thought…"

"My father?" Suddenly my cheeks felt ice cold as if someone had shoved me face-first into a snow drift outside. "Accident? Mario…what?"

I could hear voices on the other end of the line, and the sounds of a pen frantically scraping against a piece of paper.

"Mario!"

"Sorry! So you're okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Would you please tell me what you're talking about?"

"Someone called us from your cellphone. He said he was your dad, and that you'd been in some kind of accident overseas. It sounded really serious, but no one has been able to get through on that number or figure out where you were or…"

My hand gripped the counter as the whole room spun around me. I was afraid I might lose my balance and fall off the stool where I sat. My heart pounded in my ears; my stomach turned over. What I was hearing made no sense, but at the same time, I felt like the last piece of a puzzle slid snugly into place.

"Ellie?"

"This wasn't an accident," I whispered. Edward cleared his throat, snapping my focus back. "There wasn't an accident," I said in a louder voice. I had to get through this call now, my panic had to wait. "I got called out of the country for a family emergency, though, and my phone was stolen." The lies were coming naturally now. "I'm sorry, I should have let you know that number was out of commission, but it's been so chaotic I haven't been able to replace it yet."

"Oh, no worries." The relief in Mario's voice was palpable. "Will you be in tomorrow?"

"That's why I called actually. I don't think I will be able to get a flight back for a few days."

Mario agreed to alert everyone who needed to know that I was alive and well but detained. I ended the call quickly after that, but not before I realized I needed one last question answered.

"Mario - when did that call come in? The one about the accident?"

"Um." I could hear him flipping through the message book they kept at the desk. "About a week ago. Right after Christmas."

My hand shook as I handed the phone back to Esme.