Edward

June 2007

It had been exactly 9 months since I was last here in Forks. I kept my hood up so no one would recognise me, even though I was keeping to the forested areas of the town. I didn't plan on staying here long, however all it took was someone who recognised me to pass their sighting onto Charlie Swan or… Bella.

I gritted my teeth and kept walking, usually I would run but I needed to think. I had toyed with even returning here, despite promising myself all those months ago I would check in on her. I needed to know she was OK. I had spent the last few months away from my family, I needed a clear headspace. I had travelled around some of South America and planned to go somewhere in Europe once I had finished in Forks. Despite seeing some of the incredible sights of Brazil, the Los Glaciares National Park of Argentina… All I could think about was what Bella was doing. Was she happy? Had she found someone else, or had she started dating Mike Newton or some other guy at Forks High School? Had she chosen a College to attend?

I was now approaching the Swan household, I recognised Charlie's scent. As I got closer I heard voices, lots of hushed voices. I managed to get close enough but out of sight. There was a gathering of people outside of the home all in black, I examined further to realise it was a funeral. At first I thought it may have been a neighbour as I didn't recognise any of Bella's family, but as I saw Billy Black and some of Charlie's friends I felt a wave of worry flow through me. I desperately scanned the faces in hope I'd see Bella, but I didn't find her. Instead, I saw Billy comforting Bella's Mother as she sobbed into her hands.

No. It wasn't true.

I turned away from the gathering. For the first time in my long life I felt like my stomach was twisting. Bella was dead. My head was spinning as I tried to comprehend the thought.

Had she been in an accident? She was always clumsy after all…

Or had she done this intentionally? All I could think of was the Romeo and Juliet assignment we had prior to her birthday. She wouldn't, would she? She would never leave Charlie like that.

I needed to leave. I did this, this was my fault. I deserve the same fate. I don't deserve this so-called life anymore.

As I was about to run from this nightmare of a town, my attention was caught by Charlie's sniffling voice. He said "get them from the car."

For some reason this made me stop and listen. I watched as Charlie reached into his car and lifted out a small bundle and handed it to Bella's Mother, he then took another out. It was then I heard the quiet and tiny breaths coming from each of the bundles. I then heard one of them gurgle before they began to let out a small cry. Their scents were different, but each of them had the subtle smell of Bella.

Florence

The rest of the day was a blur. I didn't really concentrate on any of my afternoon Age Of Empires lecture. All I could think of was my conversation with Edward. Should I even call him that, should I call him Dad? As the lecturer went through a chapter in a book he wanted us to read, I started to think about the stories Charlie had told us in the past and began placing our Father's face into them properly.

The lecture flew by and before I knew it I was heading back to my dorm for the night. I got back to a very quiet dorm, everyone seemed to either be studying, out or asleep. I dumped my stuff in my room and went into the kitchen. I searched through the fridge and pulled out a leftover slice of Pizza from Will's take out and sat down at the communal dining table. As I took the last bite, the door flew open and Will walked in with his pyjamas on.

"So, I've been thinking," He said as he sat down opposite me, "I'm still not happy about seeing the son of a bitch, but I know it means a lot to you so why don't we just inquire at the main office? We'll just say he's a friend or something."

"I saw him again today." I said, making no eye contact with him.

"What? Where?" Will asked quickly as he leant forward.

I looked up, "Library. We spoke at the cafe. He's coming here tomorrow night to talk to us both properly."

Will sank back in his chair, "Here? He's coming here?"

"Yes, I invited him." He shook his head slightly. I sighed. "He said he didn't know Mom was pregnant when he left her, he said he came back to check on her and he found she'd died."

He looked up, eyebrow raised. "And you believe that?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know. All I know is he felt like shit when he was talking about it, I could feel it." Will just sighed again. "Just talk to him, he said he owes us answers so I think we should let him say his piece. After that it's up to us what we do."

Will stood up, "Fine, you can host your little dinner party." We both smirked at each other.

The following evening came around quickly and 7pm was fast approaching. We were lucky that Liv was staying with some friends tonight that were in town for the weekend and Will's roommate Dom was at a party and had just left, so there wasn't any risk of someone interrupting. I heard Will enter the kitchen as I finished getting ready, I picked up the photo of Mom and smiled.

"Please make this go OK." I say before kissing my finger and placing it on her.

The dorm buzzer went, I listened out for Will and he stayed in the kitchen. Clearly in no rush to meet him, I see. I buzz him in and let him know our dorm number. By the time I'd cleared my makeup away, I got to the door just as he knocked. I opened it for him, a smile creeping onto his face when he saw me.

"Florence." He said. He was dressed quite smart considering he was just coming to some student dorms.

"Hi… Edward." I answered. I was still unsure what to call him. Maybe if things don't go south tonight, I could build up to calling him Dad at some point.

I led him to the kitchen, nerves now radiating my entire body, even Edward felt nervous. As we entered the kitchen, Will was standing at the opposite side of the room. He was watching his every move. I shut the door behind us as Will sat down at the table. Edward sat opposite him and I sat between them both. It was like witnessing two lions watching each other before a fight.

"Will, this is Edward," I gestured. I didn't expect a handshake from either of them, in fact I was surprised Will was even giving him eye contact. "Edward, this is Will."

"Will," Edward repeated, the smallest smile appearing on his lips, "it's a pleasure."

"Hm." Will huffed.

"I promised Florence I would give you both an explanation, but as I said to her yesterday I would answer any questions you both have for me." He looked at me, "No lies." He repeated.

Will sighed, crossing his arms and looking at Edward. "Anything?" Edward nodded. "OK… Why now? You've had 18 years to come and see us, get to know us… and don't give me that crap about 'we deserved a happy life'."

"Now felt right," He said. I looked at Will, so far I couldn't feel any sort of anger coming from him. So far, so good, I guess. "Although I'm technically 127, physically we're now similar ages… and now you're in College, you're starting your own lives, you're away from Forks."

"It's still our home." Will said.

"Yes, and it always will be. However you're now adults and you're able to make your own decisions, as I said now it just felt right for me to meet you properly." Edward relaxed slight, "I knew coming to you now would mean I didn't influence or hinder your early years as children. You grew up with relatively normal lives and that's how it should've been."

Will tilted his head slightly, I could see the cogs turning in his head as he processed Edward's answer. Will was starting to feel tense, but he was still physically calm, his arms were resting on the table. I looked at Edward who was still looking at Will. That was a good move from Edward, he was showing Will he wasn't intimidated.

"The birthday party." Will stated, looking up at Edward.

"What about it?"

"Well I'm guessing it wasn't a case of too much alcohol and a bad vibe at that party that caused you all to jump town?" Will said sarcastically. "What actually happened?"

I looked at Edward as well, "It was Alice's - your Aunt's - idea to throw the party. Bella wasn't a huge birthday or party person, in fact she hated birthdays all together, but she was convinced to come by Alice… and it was all going well, Alice was jumping about, passing her presents and taking photos with this camera someone had bought Bella." Will and I exchanged a quick glance at the mention of the camera. "But then as she was opening the last present, she gave herself a paper cut from the wrapping paper… it bled quite a lot… Jasper - your Uncle - wasn't quite used to being around human blood and didn't have the control most of us did and…" He looked down.

"Jasper attacked her?" Will asked.

Edward shook his head, "Jasper tried to lunge at her, but I pushed her out of the way as Emmett and Carlisle managed to hold him back."

Will looked confused, "So… this is all over a paper cut?" He laughed.

"It made me realise I was dangerous and Bella needed a normal life."

"But a paper cut?" Will asked again, still laughing. "You've got to be joking. So what then? You just fucked off there and then? Left her to die?"

Edward was feeling guilty. Will was radiating with anger now. Will and I locked eyes. "Stop it." I said. He looked at Edward again, the two of them stared at each other like two alpha males. Will eventually sighed and sat back, Edward was still sat up in the chair. It was like he was a statue. The room was quiet for what seemed like more than a few minutes. Will was still staring at Edward. I sat forward, placing my hands together on the table. "Did you ever come and check on us… like you did Mom?"

Edward looked down, "I wanted to. I often thought of the two of you, a lot actually." He looked back up and the both of us. "I always wondered what you both looked like, what you were doing."

"But you never came to see us?" Will asked. He was calmer now.

Edward shook his head. "It wouldn't have been fair on you both. I asked Alice to see if she could see you in her visions but because she'd never met you she couldn't." I looked at Will again, he was listening this time. "If I came to see you, I knew I wouldn't be able to stay away and it wouldn't be right interrupting your lives like that."

I could feel his guilt again, I could even feel some sadness coming from Will. He seemed to be telling the truth. I knew I wanted to get to know him more, despite being absent for 18 years there was still time for him to get to know us.

The conversation was cut short as the kitchen door flew open and Dom appeared, a beer bottle in one hand and his phone in the other. "Wiiilliaaaam!" He exclaimed, slurring the name.

Will stands up quickly as Dom stumbles forward. "Dom, what are you doing here? You're meant to be at the football party."

"I tried calling you!" Dom wiggled his phone in Will's face. "You're missing out man, you gotta come, bring Flo and whoever your friend is."

Will looked at me, "Right uh… give me a sec, okay buddy?" He pushes Dom out of the door and shuts it. "Sorry about that, he's a dick when he's drunk."

"A party?" Edward questions. "Do you want to go?"

Will shrugs, "Yeah, but it's not a big deal."

Edward stands up. "I've never been to a College party before, my other siblings have never been interested in them apart from Alice."

Will and I look at each other. Is it weird to take your Dad to a College party even though he's your age sort of. "I mean you can come if you want? There's no harm I guess?" I suggest. Edward smiles at my response.

The party wasn't too far from our dorms, however Edward had his car so we drove to the party. As we got out Will didn't say a word and went straight in. I was concerned for him, he never took well 'big news' and often needed some time to process things, but maybe a party with some friends would be a good distraction. When we got inside he was gone in an instant.

I took Edward to the kitchen where the drinks were. I poured myself some wine and took out a cup for him. "What do you want? There's… Bourbon, Whiskey, Wine…"

"Uh, red wine for me." Edward nods towards the unopened bottle.

"So what's the deal with full vampires," I ask as I pour Edward's drink. "I mean me and Will can eat and drink regular food and we've never had the urge to drink from a human."

I pick my drink up and we walk outside where it's quiet. We walked to the deck and stood against the fencing.

"To answer your question, I haven't touched regular human food or drink since before I was turned. Movies and TV Shows portray vampires in different ways, the reality is we can't digest any of it." I look at his drink and raise my eyebrow. Edward just smiles. "For show." He says, gesturing to the cup.

"So what do you eat?"

"Not human blood." He states. "My family consider ourselves the vegetarians of vampires, we drink animal blood."

I take a drink of my wine, "Wow, okay."

He chuckles. "Sounds silly doesn't it."

"No, not at all." I answered, taking another drink of my wine. "Do you miss it?"

"Human blood?" He asks, I nod. "Sometimes, but killing innocent people for my own selfish reason… It was Carlisle who supported me with the animal blood diet."

As he says this, we hear a crash coming from the kitchen. Edward's face becomes concerned. "What's wrong?"

He stays quiet for a moment. "There's a fight." He states.

As he says this I feel some rushes of anger. We run inside to find a crowd of people in the living room cheering and wooping. I push through to find Will fighting with someone in the centre of the crowd. The rushes of anger were becoming overwhelming. As I stand there, someone grabs Will from behind and restrains his arms and someone else attempts to do the same with whoever he was fighting with. It was Edward who had Will.

He pulled him outside onto the deck out front. "Fuck off, I had it, the stupid son of a bitch!" He sits down on the bench.

"Will what the fuck were you fighting for?" I shout. I noticed he had a bleeding wound on his head. I look at Edward who seemed like he was doing his best to ignore the blood, but I could feel him struggling. "Who even was that?"

I grab some tissue from my bag and hold it on his wound. "Some dick from my course. I dunno, he started it."

Edward sits next to him and looks into his eyes. "He's taken something." He says, he looks down at Will's hands and back at his face. "I can smell it. He needs a hospital."

"Alcohol doesn't affect us." Will slurs slightly. "You need other shit with it."

When we arrived at the hospital Edward seemed to be at Will's side of the car in a flash. He opened the door and tried to help him out, but Will shoved him off. "Get off, I'm fine." He grunted, dabbing his bloody head with the towel. I watched Edward as he seemed to take a deep breath and back away as Will got out. He was clearly struggling with the blood.

"Sit here." Edward instructed, gesturing to the seats by the reception desk. He was gone in seconds and returned shortly after, he was followed by a taller, blonde man. When they approached us, the man looked confused as he saw us.

"Edward?" He questioned.

"Carlisle can you see to him?" Edward said deeply, looking at Will with concern. I guess this was our 'Grandfather', even though he looked just as young as Edward. "Please." Edward pressed.

"I don't need any fucking help." Will slurred. Carlisle looked at Will with concern.

"Has he been drinking?" He asked.

"Yes, and he's taken something." I answer. I look at Will, he seems more out of it than usual but is responsive at least. "He then got into a fight at a party and whacked his head on a table, too."

Carlisle looked around, "This way." We followed Carlisle towards an empty cubicle in the busy ER. He shut the curtains and put on a pair of gloves. "What's his name?" He asked as we helped Will onto the bed.

"Will." He answers as Carlisle shines the torch into his eyes.

"Will, I'm Dr Cullen, you've got some head wound there, but I need to know what you've taken first." He puts the small torch away. "Will?"

"Codeine." Will says. "Look I'm fine, it's just my head."

Carlisle frowns, "Will, a mixture of alcohol and strong painkillers can be dangerous, I need to know how much you've taken so I know what treatment to proceed with."

Will sighs, "A few pills I guess, but it never does anything."

"You've done this before?" Edward asks angrily.

"What's it to you, Father of the year." Will scoffs as he crosses his arms. He was starting to sober up now.

Carlisle looks at Edward in confusion. "What do you mean it never does anything?" Carlisle asks Will.

Will shrugs, "Dunno, never has, perks of being half one of you guys I guess."

Carlisle and Edward look at each other. If he didn't know who we were before, he certainly does now. Carlisle patches Will's head up quickly before taking Edward out of the cubicle.

Will was right about him trying this before, he would often test the boundaries when he discovered alcohol had no effect on us. I remember we were once at a house party in High School, Will was with his friends who were doing shots and sharing a bottle of Vodka one of them had stolen from their parents. His friends were wasted, but Will was basically sober. His friends would often call him the heavy weight of the group but Will just wanted to feel it, it pissed him off. Eventually one of the group got hold of some weed and they all tried that, Will of course felt nothing. He wanted to try something stronger to see if it did anything, but Forks was such a small town and Port Angeles wasn't exactly known for its drug scene so he never got to try anything else other than taking a few painkillers with any form of alcohol he could find.

"You need to stop doing this." I say quietly to Will. "One day you might…"

Will laughs, "What? It's not gonna kill me."

"How do you know? We don't know how much vampire to human we each are, you could be more human than vampire."

He smirks, "Sure, you get to be the strong one." We both start to laugh.

The curtains opened, Carlisle and Edward enter and Carlisle was holding what looked like a box of pills and some bandages. He then shut the curtains again. "Okay Will, I have no reason to keep you here, it seems you have some strong uh… immortal genes in you which means it burnt up the Codeine and alcohol quickly." I looked at Edward, his eyebrows furrowed together. "These are for your head, I'm going to put these in the safe hands of your sister to ensure this doesn't happen again."

Carlisle handed the painkillers and the bandages to me, "Wait you're not supposed to give drugs to drug addicts, are you?"

"I'm not an addict!" Will exclaimed, sitting up.

"No one says you are, however I feel that because they do no damage to your system and burn off quickly, with your sister in charge of your dosages just whilst your head wound heels, I see no harm." Carlisle said. Will sat back again. Carlisle sat on the edge of the bed, "Saying all this, I would like to know more about you both." He said, looking at Edward after he said this.

"Well a hospital isn't exactly the place to talk about supernatural shit." Will said.

Carlisle chuckled. "Right. I was going to invite you to our home, we live just outside of town not far from the University." He stood up from the bed, "there's no pressure, of course, but I think it would be nice for us all to get to know one another."