"Not even a week. Can't believe it…you must really get your vitamins in your diet."

Bev held Lilah's previously injured hand in hers. She had expected to find the wound mostly healed, the stitches removed. What she hadn't expected, and couldn't quite believe, was that Lilah's hand looked as though it had never been injured in the first place. There was not a mark on her palm. No scar. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

She eyed Lilah with suspicion. What she was suspicious of, she didn't know. But she knew that there was no way in hell for such a cut to heal without a scar in a week or so. She knew that Lilah had been stitched up by Dr. Cullen, and he and his wife were both supposed to be great doctors, but no doctor could do that without some sort of magic powers.

"Lots of orange juice," Lilah said, retracting her hand from Bev's. "Cleared to work, though, right?"

"Yes," Bev said.

She grabbed Lilah's walkie and thrust it into her hand. It squealed immediately as it hit her flesh, causing Lilah to scramble, pressing all of the buttons until it went quiet.

"You picked a good day to make that miraculous recovery," Bev said. Lilah was sure she didn't mean anything by it, but the comment made her skin bristle. "Got a call from Dr. Cullen this morning. Esme Cullen, I mean. She specifically asked for you to come and work on her garden. Said you had talked to one of her daughters about it."

Cheeks flushing, Lilah merely nodded. She was going to have a word with Alice when she saw her. She was supposed to do this out of the goodness of her heart, not for pay, not through her job. This surely went against their promise of friendship somehow.

Bev handed her the purchase order and leaned back on the counter, saying, "I have my new hire, Leah, out back packing the truck. You can go help her and then head over to the Cullen's. They ordered the stuff that'll survive the winter, said they'd put in another order in the spring…it's all yours, though. Go on and help Leah get it in the truck and get going."

"You hired someone new?"

Nodding, Bev said, "Yes. Without you for a few days, I realized that I am an older lady than I thought and I do need help around here…I'll tell you now, too, that I will get the two of you confused…Leah and Lilah, you might as well have the same name. Go introduce yourself now and head to the Cullens. The address is there on the purchase order."

Lilah headed out of the main shop, knowing better than to try to stay and argue with Bev. A wave of cold air met her and kissed her face as she stepped outside. She couldn't help but to think of the cold of a vampire.

In the yard, Lilah saw the new employee, Leah, lifting a baby dogwood tree onto the back of the Sullivan's pickup truck. She stood in awe. She was strong herself, but this woman, who was probably about her age, lifted the tree like it was nothing. No effort whatsoever. It was impressive.

The tree was safely in the truck bed, and Leah stepped back, dusting her hands off against her jeans. She turned to go grab another, but saw Lilah, and gave her a curt nod. She didn't seem interested in a hello, nor any kind of pleasantry.

"You must be Leah," Lilah said. She stepped forward and tried to be kind as she offered a hand for Leah to shake, one that was dismissed. Still, Lilah pressed on and said, "I'm Lilah, it's nice to meet you."

Another curt nod, and Leah went back to work, as if Lilah wasn't there at all. At five foot eight, Lilah was fairly tall for a woman, but she was a good few inches shorter than Leah. Her hair was dark, almost black, and tied into a loose bun at the nape of her neck. With her dark hair and warm brown skin, Lilah could see she wasn't like the very white residents of Forks, and assumed she was Quileute. Their reservation wasn't far, about a half an hour away, in La Push, as she'd been told.

"Can I help you load?"

Lilah went to grab the last shrub. Leah inserted herself in front of Lilah so she couldn't reach, and shot her a strangely nasty glare as she threw it in the truck.

"You know the Cullens?" Leah asked. It was so sudden and so aggressive that it made Lilah flinch.

"Yes," Lilah said. She raised a brow and took a chance, asking, "I take it you're not their biggest fan?"

Leah snorted a laugh through her nose. "I don't think they're the best company to keep."

"Carlisle Cullen is an old friend of my aunt," Lilah said. She'd again decided to use 'aunt' to describe Constance, as it did seem the most apt way to describe her to someone who wasn't in the know. "I think my aunt is a good judge of character."

Leah stared at her, her nose and brows scrunched together. The wheels in her head were turning. This chick's aunt was…Carlisle Cullen's old friend? How old, exactly? This chick wasn't a leech.

Lilah handed Leah her walkie, hoping she'd give it back to Bev, and gingerly accepted the truck key that Leah held halfway out to her. She saw that a hundred and one thoughts were swirling in Leah's head, and though she didn't have a clue what they were, she never would've guess what was actually going on in there.

"Nice to meet you," Lilah said. "I'll see you later."

Again, Leah said nothing. She stood in confused silence, watching Lilah drive off to the Cullens, intensely wondering what she did or did not know about the 'family' of vampires. Then again, she might've just been paranoid, thinking Leah's reaction had to be about the vampire thing. It could've just been because they were rich.

Either way, she tried to put it out of her head as she drove the Sullivan's truck through Forks. It seemed massive to Lilah. She was really only used to driving her Taurus. She was just glad that it wasn't too far of a drive across town, and it she wasn't going somewhere new to make a fool out of herself in front of strangers, looking all worried about driving a damn truck, backing it in like a fool.

"Hey, Lilah!"

It was Emmett who was the first out of the house, greeting her with a massive grin. He didn't have his apron on, so Lilah didn't feel the need to laugh at him as she hopped out of the truck, though she did return the smile.

She glanced up at the house. Esme, in her lab coat, was coming down the stairs, briefcase in hand. Behind the glass of the front door, Alice, Edward, and Jasper all watched on. Once caught, Alice and Edward smiled and waved. Jasper only did so after Alice shot him a look and Edward jabbed him in the ribs.

"Was everyone just…waiting for me to show up?" she asked.

Esme, landing in the driveway, gave Lilah a warm smile, and told her, "It's not often we get company. Everyone's still excited that we get to have someone new visit…it'll be a decade or so before the excitement wears off, maybe even more for Alice…I'm sorry if it makes you uncomfortable."

A decade. Lilah's heart fell. She hoped she wasn't stuck in Forks for a decade. Not unless she found some way to visit her family.

She kept her smile up, not showing how much the comment had inadvertently bothered her. She looked at Esme, who looked very put together in her lab coat and practical dress flats. Her caramel hair had been twisted into a bun at the back of her head. She imagined that her and Carlisle would make a smart couple, standing together in their doctor's gear, although Esme came off as more approachable in hers. Being a pediatrician, she'd clearly taken measures to appeal to the children, seeing as her stethoscope was covered in stickers of children's cartoon characters, and beneath the ESME A. CARLISLE, MD. on her jacket was a brightly colored name tag that simply read DR. ESME. They were simple gestures, sure, but they made it clear to Lilah that Esme truly cared about her little patients, and took that extra step to make sure they felt comfortable with her.

"Well, I just wanted to say hello before going to work," Esme said. She took a glance at the trees and shrubs in the back of the truck and nodded approvingly. "The garden will already be looking a lot better by the time I get home."

"I hope I don't disappoint."

"You won't," Esme said. Her smile reminded Lilah of Phoebe's, painfully so. "We're all very grateful to have you here, Lilah. Of course, we all wish the circumstances were different, but…we're all grateful for the chance to get to know you."

Lilah choked back the emotions gurgling in the back of her throat. She was glad that her nod sufficed as a response and Esme was wise enough not to ask for more. She hopped into her Mercedes and peeled out of the driveway so fast that Lilah barely saw the car go. Alice had not been lying. The Cullens were all speed demons.

"These trees are going out back, right?"

Lilah turned around to see that Emmett had already taken two of the dogwood trees out of the back of the truck. They were baby trees, sure, but they were still quite the load, and yet Emmett stood there, balancing one in each of the palms of his hands, as if he was about to start juggling them. At first, Lilah was annoyed—this was her job, she was being paid against her will, she surely didn't need help. After a moment, though, the annoyance faded, and she laughed. It wasn't every day she saw such a sight. She had to laugh.

"Yes, but I can do it by myself, thanks."

Her request was useless as soon as it came out of her mouth. The other three Cullens had come out, using their speed to get there fast, and had already taken everything else out of the truck. Jasper had grabbed a few more trees, Edward and Alice split the remaining trees and shrubs. There was nothing left for Lilah to carry.

She set her hands on her hips. Edward was already starting to crack a smile, surely hearing the expletives and annoyance in her mind.

"Wouldn't it be unfair of us to let you do this on your own while we sit inside and watch?" Alice asked.

"If you're asking me if it would be unfair of you to allow me to do the job you paid me to do, the answer would be no."

"We just want to help you execute your vision," Edward said.

Emmett, who had already started toward the back yard while haphazardly flinging the trees about, looked over his shoulder, and said, "We'll get this done so much faster if we help you! Wouldn't you rather get this done fast and then have a few hours to hang out before going back to work?"

Lilah looked to Edward, hoping he could see her thoughts and then relay them to the others in a more polite kind of way.

"She wouldn't," he said.

Still, he and Alice marched off after Emmett, their way of telling her they weren't giving up. She knew they had a point. This would be easier. She might not have minded so much had they not hired her. She was already plotting ways to make sure she wouldn't get paid. If they thought she wouldn't calculate the exact amount of money she made from this job, take it out of the bank, and find a way to sneak it back into their pockets, they were nuts. If that didn't work, she'd hide it in Bev's cash register in small increments until it was all gone.

Up ahead, Lilah heard Edward laugh. She looked to Jasper, who was a few steps behind her, and asked him, "Is Edward constantly in everyone's head?"

He stopped for a moment before lifting his head, his golden eyes meeting hers. He seemed surprised that she'd spoken to him and unsure of what to do.

"Yes," he said finally.

She thought about that. What it would be like to live with Morgan if Morgan was privy to each and every one of her thoughts. She felt her face sour as she realized just how horrendous that would be.

"My god, I'm sorry," she said. "If my sister read my mind all the time I'd want to kill her after, like, twenty minutes. I can't imagine living with that for decades…or centuries…"

Her voice trailed off. She realized she had no clue how old any of the Cullens were aside from Carlisle. It had never really crossed her mind before. She felt so comfortable with them. They'd been so kind, and, well, normal, that she hadn't much thought about them being decades or centuries older than her.

"I've gotten over it," Jasper said. He'd taken a bit longer to reply. Like he wasn't used to the ebb and flow of conversation. "Once I learned not to play games with him, that is. He and Alice wipe the floor with the rest of us, with their gifts."

Lilah Porter smiled at Jasper, at the exact moment he looked up to meet her eyes. Her eyes, a bright, sharp shade of hazel. When he did, he felt her emotions—she was projecting affection, but the kind projected towards something familiar. It was a warm, soft sensation. One that made him feel all sorts of funny. No one had really smiled at him like that, just because, just out of kindness, in who knows how long. It poked at a part of himself he'd forgotten, a part that hadn't been poked in a long, long time. Maybe since he met Alice, or first came to the Cullens.

He suddenly wished he could trade gifts with Edward. What he wouldn't give to get inside of her head at that moment. He wanted to know everything behind that smile.

"Where are you from?" Lilah asked. "Or were, I guess I should say."

"Texas," he said. "I take it you noticed the accent."

She nodded, and her smile changed ever so slightly.

"Yeah, I did. It just, uh…reminded me of people I grew up with, that's all. I know Arkansas and Texas aren't the same, and I figured you weren't from Arkansas, but any kind of a southern drawl reminds me of home."

Home. As she said the word, a wave of bittersweetness poured out of her. Love and affection and longing were in it, as were fear, hate, and an overwhelming sadness. Immediately, Jasper used his gift to push back against the bad feelings that came out of her. There was something about her that made it hard not to use his gift to make her feel better. Maybe because like her thoughts, her emotions were loud.

Like the night she'd first been in their house. He was too terrified of himself to go meet her with the rest of his family. Being that close to humans wasn't something he did as often as the rest of his family because, unlike them, he didn't have reliable self control. It hadn't mattered that Carlisle and Alice assured him that he wouldn't want her blood. He didn't trust himself. So he stayed out of the house, in the woods, where he couldn't get to her. Rosalie volunteered to be with him in case he did get a whiff and try to go after her, but he knew that was just because she didn't care to meet Lilah and would take any excuse to get it out of it.

She had her break down, though, that atomic explosion of emotions. Her feelings had reached Jasper out there in the woods. So profoundly that they may as well have been his own. They practically knocked him to his knees. Rosalie thought he was about to break when he sprinted back toward the house, but really, he just wanted to be close to Lilah, to make sure that his gift worked on her, because there was such a potency and pureness to her good emotions that, for whatever reason, he didn't want her to feel any of the bad.

Maybe Alice was right. Maybe Lilah was just that likable. He wasn't sure. He was only sure that, whatever the reason, he didn't want her to feel anything bad. He wanted to keep that smile on her face.

The smile on her face that shrank as she looked at him now.

"I can tell you're doing that," she said. "I appreciate it, but I'd like to just keep my emotions, thank you."

Jasper stopped. Bothering her was his absolute last intention.

"My apologies, ma'am."

He kicked himself. Perhaps that'd been too formal a response, too dated of a response.

Lilah grinned again. She didn't seem to mind. She laughed and turned, going to catch up the others, leaving Jasper behind.

In that moment, he was grateful for whatever witch power it was that made her blood not appealing to him. He'd felt guilty about drinking from the humans he had since joining the Cullen family, sure, but if he drank from Lilah, he surely wouldn't have been able to live with himself.