There was something about having vampire boyfriends (or vampire love interests?) that brought people together. Rachel found herself thoroughly enjoying the rest of her lab with Bella. She had always been a nice girl, but Rachel greatly appreciated Bella's confidence in her and Emmett's relationship. And the fact that Bella didn't treat her as insane for still wanting to be with Emmett. Not that Rachel could tell anyone, but something told her that her friends and family back home wouldn't quite be as supportive.

Except maybe Emmett's family. It was still their son, right?

"You should come over sometime. Meet the family." Bella told her as they walked towards Rachel's dorm room. Her voice lowered considerably as she added, "It'd be nice not to be the only human around."

Rachel grinned as a flutter of nerves rushed through her chest. "Oh, man. House full of vampires…that sounds…."

"They're not as bad as you might think. Esme, Carlisle's wife, she's the sweetest. She loves you already. And Alice is-"

"So, they definitely know?" Rachel wasn't sure how she felt about that. A strange mixture of hopeful dread settled in her stomach. Something told her that the family wouldn't be as nice as Emmett's human family. Though if Esme liked her, maybe there was some hope after all.

"Oh, yeah. Well, they know you and Emmett talked yesterday. I guess I don't know if they know anything else. Probably. I mean, Alice and her gift make it hard to-"

"Alice's gift?" What kind of gift does a vampire have? Like a present? A superpower? Weren't vampires gifted enough?

Bella seemed surprised that Rachel was confused, but explained, "Uh, yeah. Alice sees the future. She has these, like, visions when people she's watching make a decision."

"Has she been watching me?" Rachel was almost afraid to ask. The logical answer was yes. If one was supposed to disappear when they became a vampire, if they were supposed to avoid anyone from their human life, then it would make sense for Alice to watch Rachel.

Bella confirmed her thoughts, "Yeah. She's been trying to determine what you'd do. If you'll be with Emmett, if you'll run screaming, if you'll tell anyone."

"Well, telling someone seems like a good way to become dinner, so I think I'll avoid that one." Rachel replied without really thinking. It wasn't until Bella exhaled a laugh that she realized, and her eyes widened. "Sorry, that was…that wasn't…that was insensitive."

"It was kinda funny." Emmett countered, walking just a little fast to join the pair. Rachel grinned at him, feeling much better at his presence. Seeing Edward's just behind him…less so.

Bella was only focused on her boyfriend, glancing back at Rachel to give a little wave before picking up her own pace.

She didn't bother returning Bella's gesture, knowing the girl wasn't watching. Instead, she turned back to Em, "Glad you still my thoughtless humor amusing."

"Eh, it's kinda one of the best things about you." Emmett shrugged. "You got homework tonight?"

Rachel wished she could answer 'no' to Emmett's question. The idea of spending the afternoon and evening with him sounded far more appealing and she internally wondered if she could put off any of her assignments to the next night, or even the weekend.

At one time Rachel had thought it silly to put real life on hold for a night for a boy…now, she'd put her entire life on pause for five more minutes with Emmett. Death really did put some things into perspective.

"Maybe. Just a little though. I can do my reading over lunch tomorrow and-"

"Its alright if you do." Emmett gently cut her off with a dimpled smile. "It just changes my plans a little for tonight. Stick to something a bit more tame instead of…" He rolled his eyes, briefly shooting a glare back to Edward. Rachel decided that Bella's boyfriend was pissing her off. "something more interesting. Take a ride with me?" He nodded back to his Jeep and Rachel agreed easily. Anything to get them away from Edward and Bella. Anything to escape back into their own little world.

As soon as they were in the vehicle, Rachel felt better. She took a breath, holding it in her lungs for a minute before releasing it. Calm and cool. That's what she needed. Oddly enough, that was her boyfriend now. Of course, he'd always been that way, now he was just that way…in more ways. Gosh, when had she gotten so awkward?

"How was your day?" Emmett asked conversationally and Rachel started in on her usual spiel. She told him about her classes, the things she found interesting. They talked a little about Rachel's roommate and her other friends, how she enjoyed spending time with Bella, and how well they got along. She avoided talking about Edward or Edward's warning. It would only frustrate her, and Emmett. Besides, the point was to escape from her worries, not feed into them.

She tried to work on her homework as they drove, determined to get as much of it finished as possible before they did whatever Emmett had planned. Though she quickly found out that Emmett had nothing planned. They sat in his Jeep off of a secluded road that Emmett swore no one drove down. Rachel did her homework and they chatted about whatever light hearted topic they could think of.

And that was their plans for the next two weeks.

It was oddly nice, just sitting and talking to him again. Almost like Rachel was escaping the world for a few hours each afternoon. Part of her wondered if Emmett was truly real, or if Rachel just daydreamed her days away. Was he nothing more than a figment of her imagination? A maladaptive daydream, as Macy had explained during lunch once.

The only thing keeping her from truly believing such a thing was Bella. Her lab partner asked about her adventures with Emmett after every class period. At first, she didn't seem bothered by their activities, encouraging Rachel to keep hanging out with Emmett. But towards the end of the two weeks, Bella slowly started inquiring about Rachel and Emmett going further in their relationship; doing something other than sitting in his Jeep out in the middle of nowhere. It almost seemed as though Bella was unsatisfied by the pace of a relationship she wasn't in. The thought made Rachel laugh.

"Bella thinks we need to hurry this up." She took Emmett cheekily as he started on the typical highway out of town.

Emmett rose an eyebrow at her, confused as to what she was talking about. "Hurry what up? The Jeep? It can go faster…."

"No!" Rachel was quick to dissuade him. The engine slowly returned to its normal hum. "She meant you and me. She wants us to hurry things up."

He cracked a smile then and Rachel got the impression that Bella had been working on Emmett as well. "Yeah, yeah. Bella likes to rush."

"She tell you that we need to kiss already? I swear she's asked the last two classes we've had together." Bella's sour face at Rachel's rejection popped into her mind and she rolled her eyes. Bella surely meant well, but it was a little weird to think about how invested Bella was.

Emmett frowned, eyes snapping to Rachel, "What? No. She hasn't been pestering me at all."

Then Rachel just felt betrayed. "What? You said Bella likes to rush! I thought she'd been working both sides. Can't believe I'm the only one who's had to put up with Bella's incessant comments…." Rachel pouted, crossing her arms like an upset child.

"I just meant Bella likes to rush her own relationship. She's been begging Edward to change her for, like, six months." Emmett chuckled, "I'll definitely have to give her crap about it though. What's she want us to move forward so quick for? I thought she'd be on Team Edward and want us to take it slow so I don't hu-…mess it up."

Rachel tried not to dwell on Emmett's near slip. "I dunno, she didn't say. I guess I never asked. I just laugh. It's nice to have someone who thinks this is a good idea and isn't telling me you're dangerous."

"Who told you I was dangerous?"

Well, shoot. Rachel pressed her lips together, hoping that if she didn't answer right away, that Emmett would drop it. Instead, he came to his own conclusions.

"Edward's a dick." He muttered, shaking his head. "Sorry about him. Guess I'm apologizing for a whole new set of brothers now."

She smiled, thinking of Emmett's human brothers and their quirks. Em certainly had apologized for them once or twice. Not that he needed to. "Yeah, I guess so. It's okay. It really doesn't bother me that much, other than it being a little irritating. I get that he's trying to look out for me, but I can make my own decisions. And as stupid as it may sound, life hasn't felt this right since…well, you know."

Emmett lightly exhaled, a small little smile on his lips. He nodded and looked at her. "Yeah, I do know. I thought about you every day after it happened. Had Carlisle grab the newspaper for a while, until my obituary came out, just to make sure that you were alright and that you made it out." He scoffed, shaking his head. "Pretty sure I drove everyone in the house nuts for a while. I waited right by the door for Carlisle to get home with that paper. Eventually Carlisle started reading it on his way home, then just giving me the news as soon as he knew I could hear him. It was the most stressful part of my day; waiting for his answer."

Rachel could picture that. Emmett standing by a garage door with a hopefully expression, almost like a little puppy waiting for his human parents. "So what you're saying is, they've had a lot of time to prepare for this."

"Honestly, not really. Like I said, it wasn't until recently that I thought you and I could be together. I was going to leave you alone, just like I was supposed to. Let you life your life like you were supposed to. But Bella kept talking about how sad you looked when she came over to work on stuff, and how it was hard for you to talk about me when she asked…and I just couldn't do it." Emmett stared off in the distance, his face unreadable.

Rachel frowned at his words. Had she been that bad? She didn't remember herself being so awful. At least, not on the surface. Did her face look worse than she had thought? She thought she did a good job of maintaining a neutral presence.

Emmett shot her a look like she was crazy when she told him. "Maybe it's just the enhanced vampire sight, but you did not look OK, Rach. One look at you and I knew you were upset and hurting. That day when I saw you in the woods…I hadn't planned on seeing you. It was a total accident that I even ran into you, but I caught your scent, and I couldn't help myself. I had to get a look at you, just to see if Bella was exaggerating. Honestly, I think she was trying to save my feelings or something. It wasn't good, Rae Rae."

She wasn't sure whether or not she should be offended at his statement. Though, it was a bit hard to be when she knew there was truth behind his words. She hadn't been alright. No matter how hard she had pretended, things hadn't been good.

"What'd you do after I was gone?" He asked suddenly, like he'd never considered it before. Maybe he hadn't.

Explaining her life after his death wasn't something she wanted to do. Therefore, she asked him a simple question in return. "Do you want the truth? Or what I tell everyone who asks?"

"The truth." Was his easy answer.

"I tried to survive."

He smiled again, but that time Rachel couldn't quite figure out why. Instead of guessing, she asked.

"It's the same thing you're doing now." He told her. "Except this time, you don't have any say in the matter."

She smiled too. "I didn't have any say in the matter back then either. If I had my way, I would've done exactly what you said you thought I did. I would've moved on, gotten married, and had kids. My heart just would've cooperate."

"If it makes you feel better, mine didn't either."

Rachel glanced at Emmett – her Emmett. He wasn't joking like she had expected him to. There was a softness in his face that she was far too familiar with. How many times had he looked at her with that same expression? How many times had he cupped her cheek and brushed the hair out of her face with that same loving look?

"What you thinking?" He asked, breaking the silence.

"I wish life gave you statistics. How many times I have seen that look on your face, is there a time on the clock I've never seen before – you know, the important stuff." She gave him a cheeky grin, "How many times have I had to find things for you that were right in front of your face?"

"At least twice." Emmett replied. She rolled her eyes. She could count at least ten times. Two had been a silly response. He continued, his tone with the same cheer and level of sincerity, "Well, lucky for you, vampires have super memory. I remember everything now, so I can give you nice life statistics. And I can probably find stuff on my own now too."

Rachel giggled, "Dang. Here I was looking forward to giving you crap about it again."

"Sorry, Rae Rae. I'm new and improved now."

That was going to be strange. Her Emmett, with the same personality, but different quirks. Or the same quirks? He still looked up when he thought…but he wouldn't need help finding his sun glasses that on the same island he swore he checked. Was he still a slow reader? Did he still hog the blankets? Forget to close the toothpaste? Perhaps she'd find out.

If Emmett didn't harm her first.

Rachel crumpled that thought up and threw it away.

"Can I ask you a question?" She pushed forward, trying to keep the air light instead of heavy like her thoughts.

"Anything." Emmett answered easily. Maybe he knew she was trying to maintain the mood too.

"What are we doing? I mean, obviously we've been sitting and talking, but is there a reason we just sit in your jeep and hang out? Do you wanna go for a walk or something?"

He chuckled at something she didn't know was funny. With a shake of his head, he sighed, "Sorry. I kind of forgot that I never explained this to you. I'm training." He grinned, both dimples showing up adorably, "By being in the car with you, your scent has less space to travel or thin out, so it's stronger. I've been practicing being okay with your smell by having us hang out in the car. I'm up to hunting every other day, instead of every day."

Emmett said the words with such pride that Rachel couldn't help but have it swell in her chest, despite not knowing if it was good or not. It sounded good. Less hunting meant…he struggled less? "That's great, Em. I just wasn't sure if you were holding back because I was doing homework all the time."

"Nah, just me practicing. But if you're bored, we can do something else. It's getting colder out, so our outdoor time is kind of limited because I don't want you to freeze. And it's hard for me to be in places with lots of people still, so that kind of limits indoor activities, I guess…."

Rachel recognized that look. "Don't worry about it, Em. I'm fine doing this. Honestly, just hanging out with you is good enough for me. I mean, I did think you were dead for the longest time. Just hearing your voice is kind of a blessing."

Em sighed, looking at her with a different expression she'd seen many times; love. "Yeah…yeah it is."

He reached is hand out to her, stopping short before she could fully lower hers to his. She hesitated as his retraction, watching as his hand curled so only his pointer finger was extended. He looked up at her and smiled sheepishly.

She giggled again, deciding that he did have new quirks. Then, she connected their fingers.