While Bev did not allow Lilah back at the greenhouse for another day, Shelley did allow Lilah to come into work at The Lodge. A shift in the kitchen was still out of the question. Shelley was still spooked and concerned that Lilah would cut open her stitches or worse, cut herself again, so Lilah was only permitted to work if she stuck to waiting tables. It was not what Lilah wanted to be doing, but it was so much better than trying to make herself busy at home. At least at work her mind would be a bit more distracted.

"Here you go," Olivia said.

She handed Lilah a pair of food safe disposable gloves, as they were also a part of the conditions Shelley had laid out for Lilah. She didn't want anything catching on her stitches and ripping them open in the kitchen or on the floor.

Lilah thanked the teen and put them on, much to her annoyance. In another day the wound would be completely healed and she'd dissolve the stitches too, by magical means if she had to. She could do it now if she really wanted. But she'd waited too long and now she couldn't. There were too many eyes on her.

"I know you're smart and capable of doing this on your own," Olivia said, handing Lilah a pad of paper and a few pens as well. "But if you do need help, don't be shy about it. I'd be more than happy to help you. Even if it seems silly."

"Thanks."

Olivia smiled and adjusted her apron, retying it around her slim waist. Lilah watched her as she went to put on a fresh pot of coffee. Olivia's blue eyes were uncannily like Morgan's, although that was the only thing the two had in common. Where Olivia was fair skinned and dirty blonde, Morgan had warm brown skin and alternated keeping her lush curls in twisted or braided styles. She was mixed race, and had inherited diverse beauty from both of her birth parents. Birth parents who continued to stay involved in her life after Phoebe took her in.

Lilah gulped. She wanted to call her sister again just to talk like they normally did. She wanted to hear how Morgan was doing with her job as a pathologist. She was not scientifically minded, just as Morgan was not literarily minded, but she listened to Lilah talk about her job as a high school English teacher, which was what she did before coming to Forks. The two always indulged each other, listening to the other's interests and careers. There wasn't a thing Lilah felt she had to hide from her adopted sister, and she was sure that Morgan felt the same.

Having to lie by omission before she disappeared to Forks was the worst thing she'd ever done to Morgan. She had all but convinced herself that her sister—and her mother and other sister, for that matter—would hate her. Yet last night on the phone, they showed her, over and over, that they didn't hate her. They still loved her. Very much.

Lilah couldn't think about that too much. She took a breath, bowed her head, opened her small notebook to a fresh page of paper, and focused her mind. Waiting tables. Smiling. Making small talk. She could do that. She was going to do that.

The lunch rush came quickly. It was Friday, so more people had off than they did other weekdays, and a few of the older high school students came in, having earned off campus lunch privileges. It was easy for Lilah to busy herself. She had no choice.

Just after Lilah delivered a large order to a table of truckers, she found an increasingly familiar pair of people waiting for her at the counter. Alice and Edward Cullen.

She sighed. She supposed she should've expected them. Constance may have told them she didn't want help, but that didn't mean they wouldn't have other questions. This was their home after all. They had a right to know what was going on within it.

"Hello, Lilah," Alice said. Once more, she was perky enough for the both of them. It was necessary, seeing as Edward was her complete opposite, being so stoic and standoffish. "It's nice to see you again."

"Same to you," Lilah said. Her smile strained. "You must've heard from—?"

"Carlisle did, yes," said Alice. "And he told us, so, yes. We all know."

Lilah looked between the two vampires. She was looking to see if there was any negativity she could see in them. She would completely understand if there was. Some random witch running for her life had just shown up on their doorstep with witch hunters on her trail. It may not have posed a life-or-death kind of threat to them, but it was certainly an inconvenience, a massive, unnecessary annoyance in their immortal lives.

They could hate her. She would understand. It was why she hadn't wanted Constance to tell them in the first place. She didn't want anyone to feel they owed her anything. Her burden was hers and hers only to bear.

However, neither of their faces betrayed anything negative. Alice's enthusiastic warmth remained on her face. Edward went a step further. He actually cracked a smile. Lilah was taken aback because she hadn't at all expected it, and because it quite suited him, much more so than the stoney face that seemed to be his signature expression.

"We would all like to talk to you," he said. He surprised her again. His voice was much more casual, almost more gentle, than she'd anticipated. "I'm sure you can understand that we have questions. Constance explained as much as she could to Carlisle, but it would be better hearing your own story from yourself, of course. If you feel comfortable, we'd like to have you over to our home. Just to get to know you…think of it as a 'welcome to Forks' sort of get together."

Lilah barely opened her mouth when Edward spoke again, responding to her thoughts that had not yet manifested in words.

"You wouldn't be putting us out," he said. "Alice loves hosting guests. This'll be the highlight of her year, entertaining someone new."

"If tonight works for you, it works for us," Alice added eagerly. Seeing Lilah's eyes widen, she quickly added, "But if not, that's okay. Whatever you're comfortable with."

She took a moment to think about it. She'd have to do it at some point, she supposed. It would be better to get it over with sooner rather than later.

"Tonight would be okay, as long as you don't mind me coming over later," Lilah said. "I get out at seven, so…would eight be alright?"

"Eight would be lovely!"

Alice looked so genuinely, sincerely happy that it was contagious. Lilah couldn't help but to smile some herself.

"Sorry if that was too enthusiastic," Alice said, after a bit of a 'look' from Edward.

"No, no, it was nice," Lilah said. She cleared her throat and adjusted her hands in the pockets of her aprons, and, somewhat sarcastically, asked, "Is there something I can get for you two?"

They both laughed. Both of them.

"Actually, yes," Edward said. "We're picking up a cake that our mother, Esme, ordered yesterday. It should be under her name, prepaid."

Lilah disappeared momentarily. Shelley did do custom cakes and desserts, and they were in a small fridge behind the counter. Indeed, there was a white cake with buttercream in a box with Esme Cullen's name on it.

"Whose birthday?" she asked, referring to the words Shelley had written atop of the cake in soft pink icing.

She was amused at the idea of vampires celebrating birthdays. She was surprised they could even keep track of them. She was only twenty four, and the idea of celebrating her next birthday seemed funny to her. If it seemed trivial to her at her age, surely it seemed silly and frivolous to vampires, didn't it?

Edward relieved her of the cake, chuckling, and told her, "It's for one of the nurses at our mother's office. She runs a pediatric clinic in the next town over. She sent us to pick it up and drop it of, because, as you can imagine, she doesn't have much free time during her work day."

Two vampire doctors. Lilah wanted to laugh. Even coming from her magical world full of witchcraft, and a witch who had been turned into a vampire, it seemed funny.

"Here's our address," Alice said. She'd taken the liberty of writing it down for Lilah, and placing it into her hand for her, allowing Lilah to feel how cold and lifeless she was, much in contrast to her demeanor. "We really do look forward to seeing you and getting to know you."

"Thanks," said Lilah. She took a look, tucked it into her apron pocket. "I guess I'll see you two later, then?"

"We look forward to it!" Alice said.

Edward, sensing his sister was once again becoming a bit too enthusiastic for Lilah, set a light hand on her shoulder and begin to guider her away, throwing an almost apologetic grin at Lilah as he nudged her toward the door. And though she, perhaps, should've been used to Edward cracking his cold exterior, it still surprised her. So much so that she didn't notice Olivia sneak up behind her until she was practically on top of her.

"I didn't think you knew anyone in town!" she said, causing Lilah to jump. "I definitely didn't think you knew the Cullens."

Olivia was on her tiptoes, peering out into the dreary, drizzling parking lot, watching Alice and Edward as long as she could. She was entranced by them. Like she was watching celebrities. Beautiful, immortal, blood drinking celebrities.

Lilah looked at Olivia, her nose scrunched, and then out at the parking lot, at the butt end of the Volvo the Cullens drove. She couldn't quite understand Olivia's reverence, her infatuation. She didn't know if it was because she was a witch and therefore more naturally immune to vampiric charm, or because she already knew and loved a vampire, Constance, that she wasn't so in awe of them. Or, it simply could've been that Olivia was accustomed to Forks, where, as lovely as everyone was, they were lovely in a nice down-home kind of way that was so opposite to the Cullens. Whatever it was, it was foreign to Lilah.

Olivia stared at her. She was waiting for an answer. An answer that, by her estimation, should've come out yesterday and contained some sort of juicy, salacious story.

"We have a mutual friend," Lilah said. It wasn't at all a lie. It wasn't anywhere near the full truth. It was a good enough of an explanation for Olivia. "That's all."

Olivia's eyes narrowed and then widened. She was hot on Lilah's heels as she went and poured a few fountain drinks for table ten. Lilah felt bad—she'd almost forgotten their drink order.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Olivia asked. "You have some sort of friend who's also a mega-hot mystery babe?"

Lilah wanted to laugh. It was a delightfully teenage way of describing a vampire, she thought. Mega-hot mystery babe. Constance would've gotten a good laugh out of that.

But, as she turned around and saw the desperation in Olivia's eyes, she knew she had to come up with an answer. So she thought on the fly and gave her the best kind of answer she could.

"My…aunt is friends with their father," Lilah said. 'Aunt' was a good analogy for what Constance was to her. 'Grandmother' would've also worked, except no one had a grandmother who looked physically younger than them, so aunt seemed a better cover, in the odd, impossible chance Olivia ever got a peek at Constance. "They knew each other a long time ago. I called my aunt, mentioned I'd moved to Forks, she called them and told them, and they invited me over."

Olivia's eyes had gone wide before. Now they were about to burst out of her face.

"You're going to their house?" Olivia said.

Her voice went so high that it threatened to crack the plastic cups of soda Lilah balanced in one hand. It also reminded Lilah just how much older she was than Olivia, and that, if they'd met when she was back home in her usual job teaching English, Olivia would've been her student, not her coworker.

Lilah merely nodded, ferrying the sodas to table ten. She apologized to them sincerely. She was glad that they were kind. She was the new girl, after all. They seemed to be more forgiving because of that.

As soon as Lilah was near the counter again, Olivia grabbed her arm, not unlike how Morgan had when they were teenagers.

"You'll have to tell me everything," Olivia said. "Everything, Lilah. Everyone in town has been desperate to get a look inside of their huge magazine house!"

The rest of Lilah's shift passed in the same way. She tried to work, Olivia was up her ass with questions about the Cullens. She got so annoyed that she considered telling Olivia the truth. Of course, she didn't. But in the months she'd been away from teens, she'd lost her tolerance for them.

Nonetheless, she was grateful to climb into her Taurus at the end of the night, with her hands unencumbered by those stupid gloves. Once she was home in the driveway she turned the cab lights on and stared at the almost closed wound, cursing it internally. If she healed it herself, would those around her notice? Well, of course they would notice…but would they notice in a way that marked her as other, or would she be able to write it off with some excuse about being able to heal fast? Could she say something like, yeah, I eat a lot of vitamin A and vitamin C, I heal fast?

After a moment, she decided she'd tell stories if she had to. She couldn't live with the damn gloves for another day.

She stared at her palm, muttered a spell that sounded like a prayer, and watched as the wound healed itself. The remaining bits of flesh that hadn't come together drew into a line in an instant, like a zipper being zipped. The remaining deep scar faded gradually until only the faintest of lines was left. Lilah finished the job by using a set of nail clippers from her bag to cut away the knotted parts of the stitches, pulling out the bits of string. The spell, too, took care of that, and any marks left behind by the stitches disappeared before her eyes.

She sighed. She felt better. No one could deny her ability to work now. No one could see her weak or defected, not even in the smallest of ways.

Now onto the bigger issue of the evening. Preparing to go to a meet'n'greet at a house full of vampires.

so, you can see i've taken some liberties with esme. i always thought it was kinda BS that she didn't have any interests or hobbies outside of the home in the original series. also, knowing how much esme loves kids, i thought she'd want a career where she can interact with kids. i figured that, being married to carlisle, she could've gotten his help with medical training/going to med school, so dr. esme was born. i think it suits her!