When we made it back to the house I went straight to the room to feed Hazel and Jake before going to change into a shirt that covered more. I chose a long-sleeved, crew-neck shirt and tucked it into my jeans so there was no risk of it riding up again. It was bad enough that Peter saw my scars, I didn't need Jasper and Alice to as well.

"Kitten? Are you okay in there?" I heard Peter say through the door. "You've been in there for two hours now and I wanted to know when you wanted dinner." Shit, had I been in here this long lost in thought? I opened the bedroom door to see Peter with his hand raised as if he was going to knock again. "Fuck! Kitten, I didn't even hear you come towards the door, you scared me!"

"Sorry about that Peter, something I've learned with my gift is that if I am lost in thought deep enough it goes into some form of survival mode and hides me from the world and it takes at least an hour for it to go back to normal after I zone back into reality." Good to know that works against vampires, then I'll be safe anytime I get lost in thought. "I'm ready for dinner now, though not if you're cooking it." I laughed.

Peter looked at me offended before responding, "No, I am not cooking it, no need to kill all of us in a grease fire. Jasper offered to make you a southern meal that we used to eat when we were human, he already started cooking it but wanted it to still be fresh when you ate it."

"Oh, I love trying new foods! At least with Jasper cooking, I know it will be edible." We headed for the kitchen where I saw Jasper standing at the stove stirring something in my tamale pot. "Jasper, why are you making something in the pot I use to steam tamales?" The pot is usable for other things, but I never use it for anything besides tamales because I never need to make large portions of food in one go.

"Glad to see you're back with us Izzy. I'm making you a traditional southern gumbo so I needed a big pot to cook it in. You'll have leftovers but I figured that between you starting classes and Peter not being able to cook that you wouldn't mind."

"That sounds wonderful Jasper, thank you. You're right, I likely won't have much time to myself to cook between caring for Hazel and Jake and doing my schoolwork. I appreciate the thought."

"It's no problem to me Darlin', I have to make up for us leaving you somehow and this is one way I can. Anyway, despite human food smelling horrible, I miss cooking, I used to help my Mama with it all the time, feeding seven kids was never an easy task…" Jasper said, looking out the window sadly. Alice came walking into the room then and hugged him from behind, I wish I could have a relationship like theirs, but I would never be able to trust anyone like that ever again.

"Don't worry Jasper, you can cook for me until I'm old and grey, it'll take some getting used to, but I'm excited to not cook for a little bit after being the main cook since I was 12." He looked at me with a smile on his face, "Then I get an excuse to keep my brother and sister around anyway!" I turned towards Peter with a smile, "and I get a new friend out of the deal too." Peter looked away from me quickly but it seemed as though his face dropped when I said that. Was he thinking of leaving soon? Shit. The likelihood of Jasper and Alice leaving if he leaves is high so that would explain that reaction. I need to find a distraction before I start panicking, "Hey Alice, I never thought I'd ask this, but would you go shopping with me? I need to get more weather-appropriate clothes before classes start tomorrow and wouldn't mind some help finding good outfits for when I want to wear something that isn't my usual jeans and t-shirt"

Alice was jumping up and down with glee when I finished. "Of course, I'll take you shopping! I never thought the day would come when you wanted to add more to your wardrobe, yet alone ask me to help! We'll go first thing in the morning when the stores open, how does that sound?"

"That sounds perfect Alice, we can take my truck so that we have the space, Jasper, Peter, would you be willing to watch Hazel and Jasper?" Both men nodded, "Awesome, thank you." I didn't really want to go shopping again, I had bought new clothes before coming down, but I apparently bought clothes that revealed my scars too much for my liking and if I was going to have vampires around me consistently I needed to have clothes that hid them or else I'd run into the same awkward questions from Alice and Jasper that I did Peter.

A/N: That's chapter 3 in the bag. It's been a bit since I wrote a story of any kind, let alone one that others will read, for now, I think the best thing will be writing no more than one day per chapter, but if I feel it's going too slow that will change later. Thank you for reading so far and if you came back from the original story ten years ago welcome back.