A/N: The floodgates are opened. I wrote three chapters after my last update, thought about spacing them out but then decided that I'm impatient and I'm not even reading it. I mean, I probably owe you anyway, right? :) Thanks for sticking around, even after the break.
The sound of pots clanging in the kitchen was something Lexi had never really associated with home. Growing up in the Agency, meals were measured, routine, and silent. Nutritional value trumped taste every single time, and holidays…those just exist in a place built on precision and routine.
So, when she overheard Emmett talking about "Thanksgiving," Lexi couldn't help but tilt her head like a confused puppy. She stepped into the kitchen and leaned against the counter, staring at her brother as he scrolled through his phone.
"Thanks-what?" She asked, her brows knitting together.
Emmett blinked, glanced up, then smirked. "Thanksgiving. You know, the holiday?"
Lexi looked to her father, no less in the know than before Emmett had started speaking. "No, I don't know. Thanks for giving what? Thanks for giving me a headache?"
Cooper and Jasper both laughed at Emmett's expense. Jasper rubbed her arm, trying to be comforting as he explained. "It's not literal. It's just a holiday where people are thankful for what they have."
She tilted her head up in slight understanding. It seemed odd, having a special holiday to be thankful. Shouldn't people be thankful every day? Not that she had been good at taking her own advice…. Kaufmann and Red's faces popped into her head for the umpteenth time that week. Thankful. She needed to be thankful more. Thankful that she was out.
"And we're celebrating?" She shook her thoughts away, her voice sounding far more present than she felt as she peeked up at Jasper.
"Esme insists." He shrugged.
Emmett lifted his hand up in the weakest cheer Lexi had ever seen. "Woo…human food."
Human food? She looked back to Jasper for clarification.
"It's tradition that humans prepare a lot of food. Turkey, mashed potatoes, pie, stuffing-"
"Stuffing?" Hensley scrunched up her face. She had never heard of that. She certainly didn't think that was anything they served in the Agency. "Like…stuffing a Turkey? Like filling a Turkey with something and then taking it out of the turkey and eating it?" It sounded disgusting.
"Well," Esme pulled out a box from the cupboard that read 'stuffing' on the side, "That's not how some people make it." She smiled sheepishly, as if she was cheating Hensley out of some big experience or spilling a secret.
Lexi wasn't sure what Esme was so worried about. Her boxed stuffing sounded way better than eating out of a Turkey's-
"Ya better show up hungry. Esme's got a whole big meal planned." Cooper warned Lexi. "S'only gonna be you and Bella so you gotta plow through as much as you can the first day. Otherwise, you'll be eating the leftovers for a month."
"Is food even good that long?" Who was she kidding? Sometimes she swore the Agency served them things that had been made last year.
Cooper shrugged, "What am I? A doctor?"
"Only if you freeze it." Carlisle chimed in from his study. Lexi giggled.
"Alright. Bunch of food. Thankfulness. When do we celebrate?" She looked around at her family expectantly.
"In three weeks." Jasper rubbed her shoulder again as he chuckled. She understood why. It was three weeks away and Esme already had it all planned out? And she thought people in the Agency were planners….
Not most of the people she roomed with, of course. Red was the only real responsible one. Anderson was agreeable and worked hard, but he couldn't keep a calendar to save his life. He planned his schedule out one day at a time. And Kaufmann…she wasn't going to start on that disaster of a human.
Ugh. She had to stop thinking about them. Red and Kaufmann wanted to stay in the Agency. They enjoyed the work, mostly, and had both planned to renew their contracts until…who knew when. They were happy, she was happy. She just needed to leave it be.
Yet, with everything going on with Davidson, and vampires, and the morally gray area there, Hensley constantly felt the tug in her heart for her brothers.
Even Anderson, who was out and safe, popped into her thoughts now and then. Was he ok? Had he found friends? His family?
Maybe she worried about him because she knew Davidson. There was no guarantee Davidson would leave them alone, especially not Anderson. If Anderson knew anything about what Davidson was up too…maybe Davidson would decide he knew too much. If Davidson went down, would he out Anderson too? Could they bring Anderson back and force him to work or stay with them because he had too much knowledge of what had really been going on?
You should talk to Carlisle. Jasper rubbed the back of her hand. She wasn't sure he could hear any of her worry loop, but she knew he could feel it. He's already suspicious that something is going on with you. You might as well let him know what's been going on.
Lexi took a breath and let it heavily hang in the air. Adjusting her head on his shoulder, she took his hand fully and squeezed it. What is Carlisle going to do? He's just as out as I am. And it's not like we could do anything about Davidson making hybrids. What would Carlisle do? Go to the Volturi?
Jasper's mind flashed to the Italian leaders, their faces popping up in Lexi's mind. They were scheme-ing, untrustworthy…maybe even a little…odd. Similar to the oddness of people in the Agency, perhaps. No. We can't get the Volturi involved. The Volturi would surely question them on how they learned of vampires, and you know they'd throw Carlisle and you right to them. This is something we'd have to handle alone.
How? She asked. We just go over there and tell them to stop? They won't listen to that.
Davidson won't. But maybe the other guy, the more reasonable one, Rooney, will? Jasper suggested. He shrugged at her softly, so he didn't tip off the other's. Though Lexi was pretty sure vampires didn't miss anything.
He's gotta be in on it. She closed her eyes. Maybe if she pinched herself hard enough, she'd wake up from a bad dream. No projects like that occur unless Rooney knows about it.
At the very least, this isn't something we have to figure out on our own. Carlisle could help us, give us direction, perhaps, on what to do next – if anything.
Jasper had a point. One that she wasn't keen to acknowledge, but one, nonetheless. Besides, wasn't it cruel to keep danger from the family; to let them walk in blind? They should be prepared. They should know what was coming for them. Even if it did make Lexi sick.
She stood up, carefully untangling herself out of Jasper's arms, to take his advice.
Though the last thing she wanted to do was worry him, she met her father out in the yard when he returned from his hunt, asking to go for a walk before he could get back to the house. The emotions were clear on Carlisle's face – exactly the ones Lexi had hoped to avoid – but he agreed without a moment's hesitation. Not that she had expected anything different. If there was one thing Carlisle was, it was reliable.
Once they were far enough away from the house, Hensley spilled her guts. She apologized for not telling him sooner, hinging on not wanting him to worry, not sure what he could do, not sure they even needed to do something because people were agreeing to it under their own free will.
"Nothing is ever simple with them, is it?" Carlisle said good-naturedly. He put his arm around Lexi's shoulder and pulled her closer to give her a hug. "I don't think we should worry about the Volturi. They want our secret protected, and you're no threat to that secret."
"But the Agency is made up of humans and-"
"Sort of." He pointed out. "It's a secret for a secret, isn't it?"
Lexi frowned as she quirked a brow. "Does that matter?" Were the Volturi some kind of knowledge hoarders? Did they wish to know all there was to know? Were they okay exchanging vampirism secrets for others?
"There are plenty of other species out there that humans don't know about. Vampires do, but humans don't. The Volturi has coexisted with them for the same reason: secret for secret. The Agency and their dealings may not be a species, but it is a secret they wish to defend. One could even say that you have many secrets of theirs that are worth protecting." He quirked his head towards her, waiting for her nod of confirmation. "The Volturi just want our secret to be defended as well. They don't want a repeat of the vampire hunts that occurred back when I was human-"
"All those decades ago…" Lexi couldn't help the joke at Carlisle's age. She needed something to ease the tension in her shoulders.
He nudged her sharply – never sharp enough to cause pain, but enough for her to know that he was trying to mess with her back. Not as effective when his eyes and smile were filled with affection. "Careful, little one. One day you'll be 300."
She avoided saying the 'maybe' that popped into head. No need to speak it into existence and manifest it. She just got her family back; she couldn't lose them to her own mortality now.
And venom didn't work on her because she felt weird and nearly blacked out and was allergic to it apparently so even if she were to start aging there would be nothing they could do for her and-
"I don't think we need to worry about the Agency right now either." Carlisle continued. If he noticed her anxiety, he didn't say anything. Perhaps he had the same anxiety. "What the Agency does, that is. If they can convince others to undergo the same deal…I suppose that's their decision. You don't know what they plan to do with the hybrids do you?"
Lexi shook her head. "Anderson said that Davidson was upset they let me go. That I wasn't working for them anymore. They poured too much money into me to let me go. I assume that's what he wants to do with new hybrids. Have them work for the Agency."
"It wasn't your cup of tea, but it might be theirs. If the Volturi decide they don't like the arrangement, let them handle it. We've nothing to hide from them if our paths end up crossing."
"But what about Jasper and I? Won't they be curious like they were in the past? We said we wanted to avoid-"
Carlisle bumped her arm again, gently cutting her off, "Aro has already studied your mating experience as much as he wants. He wouldn't have let the other pairs go if he had more curiosities about them."
"But I'm hybrid, I'm different." She protested once more, "What if he wants to take me back and-and study me?!"
"Aro doesn't need to study you. Aro can see every thought, experience, and feeling you've ever had with a touch of your hand."
That didn't make any sense. He kept the other couples. Eleazar said so. Aro took them into captivity and studied them and tortured them and…. Hensley closed her eyes, rubbing them with the palms of her hands. It didn't make sense.
"What are you thinking?" Carlisle asked gently, leaning forward slightly to see her expression better.
"Why did Aro keep the others?" She dropped her hands. "Why would he keep them if he can just see everything?"
"Because he couldn't see everything with them. They had never experienced the situations he put them in. He likely wanted to know exactly what set them both off." He took a breath, looking back out to the trees, "It's different with you. He can see how you've grown up, the way your body behaves to certain things…. The Agency already did a lot of that testing, unintentional as it may have been." When he looked back at her again, his voice was more confident, as if he had convinced himself of his own words. "Think back to all the things you did. Think back to the missions you went on. Did you not find the limits of your skin? Your speed? Your strength? He would see all of that."
That was true. If the Agency had been good for one thing, it was finding out the limits she had. Her father was right, just as he often was.
Carlisle squeezed her hand, reminding her of her gift once more. "Of course, I'm right. It comes with old age."