Charlie was coming over. Perfect, just perfect! What a wonderful way for me to lose control! Jacob had phased in front of him—ew, by the way—and now Charlie had a sort of knowing about the supernatural. Everyone was spazzing because they thought Bella and I were going to attack him. I'd told them that Bella wouldn't attack him, but me? I had no idea. I mean, my control was almost as good as Bella's, but I still sort of lost it for a few seconds a few times over the course of the past week or so; give or take a couple days. I made an amazing discovery, though. My vampire body thought Diet Coke was blood! So I basically could live off of animal blood or Diet Coke; my choice. Carlisle, of course, thought this was fascinating. I thought it was hilarious! I mean seriously; a vampire living off of Diet Coke?

Also, there was a big deal about Renessmee's growth spurts.

~Flashback~

"Time to measure Ness—er, Renessmee," Carlisle was explaining to Bella. I'd just come back from the store with 24 12-packs of Diet Coke; I'd held my breath most of the time.

"Oh." Bella said. "You do this every day?"

"Four times a day," I heard Carlisle correct her from the attic where I was putting my stash. I heard Renessmee sigh faintly.

"Four times? Every day? Why?" Bella asked.

"She's still growing quickly," Edward murmured to her, his voice was quiet and strained.

I rushed down the stairs to Rosalie, who was holding Nessie. "It'll be fine."

They all gave me quizzical looks. Edward asked, "What exactly will be fine?"

"I mean…" I said, rolling my eyes. "That her growth spurts are normal for her kind."

"How do you mean?" Carlisle asked.

"She won't stop growing 'till she's about seven. She'll look about 18 then. By then, when she's done growing, she will be immortal."

"Really?" Carlisle murmured. "Fascinating."

"Yep," I said, grinning. After that, they stopped measuring her.

~End of Flashback~

Since there was no threat from the other pack, Seth had gotten to see me more often, and we'd gotten to know each other more. We'd also discovered that his skin wasn't scorching hot to me, and mine wasn't ice cold. It was absolutely like normal temperature. He was also the one whom had smelled like the beach when I'd taken my first breath as a vampire. Clearwater, beach; so ironic. To him—and presumably the other vampires, since nobody has told me—I smelled like nutmeg, cinnamon, and pine. Like Christmas; again, very ironic, seeing as I'd 'died' then.

Whatever Leah kept saying about their mom dropping Seth on his head when he was a baby a lot is definitely not true; Seth is actually very intelligent.

I'd just come back from hunting when I found out that Charlie was coming in five minutes. It was sort of all of the sudden, and there weren't any grey (A/N: Sorry, even though I'm American, I spell 'grey' the British way) contacts at the drug store in town. I'd offered to go to Seattle, but they said that that city had had too much traumatization already.

"Charlie will be here in five minutes. Keep it simple."

When I'd heard those words, the main thing on my brain was that I was going to kill Jacob later. But as soon as I entered the room, Alice directed me to the corner where Leah, Seth, Jacob, and Renessmee were. Apparently, she needed to see.

"Why me?" I asked her, insulted.

"Because your future is completely blank, and it interferes with my sight!" She complained, her eyes closed.

Alice left, and then came back with Bella, Esme, Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper. She said, "Two minutes. Maybe you should start out already on the couch. You've been sick, after all. That way he won't have to see you move right at first."

Alice pulled her to the sofa, and Bella tried to move slowly and act like her old clumsy self. It sort of worked.

"Jacob, I need Renessmee," Bella said.

Jake frowned and didn't move.

Alice shook her head. "Bella, that doesn't help me see."

"But I need her. She keeps me calm." Bella's voice had a panicky edge to it.

"Fine," Alice groaned. "Hold her as still as you can and I'll try to see around her." She sighed wearily. Jacob sighed too and brought the baby over to her, then retreated back to the corner.

"Hmm, should we have a party?" I asked sarcastically.

While Edward and Bella were conversing with Renessmee, Alice confronted me. "You. Your eye color isn't going to help. Hmm, maybe we can just tell Charlie to ignore it?"

"Whatever, Alice," I said. I quickly raced into the attic, grabbed a can of Coke, and then went back downstairs. That was in all of five seconds.

"You're not helping," Alice fumed. "And make sure you drink that slowly, otherwise Charlie will freak."

"How do you know?" I mocked her.

Alice growled, but ignored that. "Remember, drink that slowly, don't freak Charlie out, and act human. Hopefully you can manage, what with your thirst and all, but that soda might help. Now—"

Knock, knock, knock. I hadn't even heard the cruiser pull up.

I sucked in a big breath, held it, and grasped onto Seth's hand.

"You'll be fine," he murmured in my ear.

Carlisle answered the door. His stressed expression changed into a welcoming one. "Hello, Charlie," he said, feigning surprise.

"Carlisle," Charlie greeted him stiffly. "Where's Bella?"

"Right here, Dad."

Charlie saw her and his eyes widened. "Bella?"

She tried to make her voice normal. "It's really me."

Charlie's jaw locked.

"I'm sorry, Dad."

"Are you okay?" he demanded.

"Really and truly great," she promised. "Healthy as a horse."

"Jake told me this was…necessary. That you were dying." You could tell in his voice that he didn't believe it.

Bella took a deep breath, and tensed up. It wasn't something a human would notice; I could barely see it for myself.

"Jacob was telling the truth," she said. This part of the book had never made sense to me, so maybe actually seeing it would help.

"That makes one of you," Charlie growled. And then he noticed Nessie. "Oh." Instantly, the anger fell away from his face and morphed into shock. "This is her. The orphan Jacob said you're adopting."

"My niece," Edward lied smoothly.

"I thought you'd lost your family," Charlie said, accusation returning to his voice.

"I lost my parents. My older brother was adopted, like me. I never saw him after that. But the courts located me when he and his wife died in a car accident, leaving their only child without any other family."

Holy crap, even I was convinced. I took a small sip of my soda, watching eagerly.

"I take it you never knew about this?" Seth asked me softly, too soft for Charlie to hear.

Let's converse through the mind, I thought to him. Then we don't have to disrupt the moment for Bella.

So, you never knew about this? He asked again.

Mentally, I shook my head. No, I have. It's just never made sense to me before, though it doesn't really matter to me anyway. Nothing happens.

"And who is she?" Charlie's question brought us out of the mental conversation. Luckily, he hadn't noticed my eyes yet.

"Erin Baker," I told him. I took another sip. "I recently moved in with the Cullens."

Charlie looked at my face, and then started to hyperventilate. He'd noticed my eyes. "Why are your eyes red?"

"Let's just say it's not a 'need to know' thing," I told him, and he stopped hyperventilating. I'd used up most of my air supply.

"More of that wacko mumbo-jumbo," he muttered, then louder. "I'm the Chief of Police here, and if you—"

Everything around me went dark and silent. I could still feel Seth's hand in mine, but I wasn't really there anymore. I was back to the blizzard. The crash. As if numbly in another world, I felt myself being guided to something, and then a felt something that resembled a cushion, a chair probably. But in the blizzard, I was standing up by the freeway again. I saw me and Seth in my truck again, and the drunk driver driving the wrong direction towards my car. The two vehicles collided, and the whole driver's side of my truck was demolished, crushed. Everything sped up, and suddenly paramedics were out there, in the blizzard, trying to revive some bloody, mangled body while Seth stood near it, completely fine, though sobbing his eyes out. The body was me, and I was dying. Finally, I saw one of the paramedics shake his head, and place a blanket over my head. I was dead. I was dead. And something told me there was no way to change it.

As if being pulled by a bungee cord, I was yanked back into reality. I was in Carlisle's study, sitting in a cushiony chair. Seth was sitting on the floor at my feet, snoozing lightly. The sun was just setting, which meant Charlie would still be here for another hour or two.

I blinked, and nudged Seth lightly. He grunted and looked up. "Oh, good, you've snapped out of it."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Well, Charlie was just saying to you that you'd better obey the law, and then your face suddenly went blank and lifeless." He shivered, as if the memory was unpleasant. "You dropped your can of pop, apparently involuntarily. You stood there for about thirty seconds without doing anything, just staring blankly ahead and as still as a statue, not even blinking. I guided you up here; surprisingly, your body functioned enough to walk. You've just been in some sort of trance for the past couple hours. We told Charlie that it was some sort of medical spell you had once in a while, but I don't think he believed us."

I sighed. "I think I can see the future. Not like Alice's subjective visions, but definite futures that can't be changed no matter how hard you try. I saw—I saw you and me. We were in my truck in my world, driving down the freeway where my car had gotten run into. There was a blizzard. Well, the cars collided, and you were perfectly fine, but me…I-I didn't...I d-didn't m-make it…"

We stood up at the same time, and hugged each other. I sobbed tearlessly onto his shoulder while he soothed me.

"It's all right, Erin," Seth said as he rubbed my back. "We'll find a way to stop this from happening."

"N-no!" I almost shouted. "If we try to stop it, then it'll end up happening anyway."

"And if we ignore it…?"

I groaned. "Like I said. There's no way to change it, no matter what we do!" And then I sobbed even harder.