Waxing Gibbous

Agreements

The last morning of relative peace, I woke up in Rosalie's bed to breakfast. Rosalie was sitting next to me a tray of oatmeal and juice, in her lap.

"good morning"

"Good morning. Did you make this?"

She nodded a self-smug smile on her lips. "I can cook a little bit. Esme's been teaching me."

"you didn't have to make me food" I replied, i knew she couldn't eat and didn't want her to think I expected it.

She shook her head her smile still present "I wanted to. Plus, we have a reason to use the kitchen now"

"well, it smells great" I took a small tentative bite.

"you look a little nervous" she mumbled as I swallowed the bite. It was really good, apple and cinnamon. I shook my head at her comment though because I wasn't worried about it being bad or poisoned.

With a chuckle I responded "sometimes I forget that just because my body temperature is 112̊ and things don't feel hot to the touch doesn't mean they aren't. I have burned my tongue too many times"

"oh, it's not too hot, is it?" she replied a little worried.

Again, I shook my head a gentle smile on my face "no, it's perfect. And it tastes great. You got the perfect amount of cinnamon"

Rosalie was pleased with this; I could see her preen a little at the compliment. I finished eating knowing that I would have to go talk to Sam. Rosalie ushered me into the shower and somehow managed to have some of my clothes ready for me when I finished.

I thought she grabbed them from my home but soon realized I didn't own these, so she had to buy them. Of course, like with the bed and breakfast I had told her that it wasn't necessary, but she again told me that she wanted to.

"I want to be able to do just as much as I could if we were human. And this is all a part of it"

I smiled and gave her a kiss "okay, as long as it makes you happy, I'm happy. As long as you don't start expecting me to wear dresses. I'm okay with it for special occasions but everyday" I trailed off jokingly but was caught off guard when Rosalie didn't laugh. Her eyes were zoned in on the scars along my ribs flickering slightly to the circular scar just on the other side. Her fingers trailed the ragged discolored indentations that lined my ribs.

"what happened?" her voice small and pained.

"a werewolf" I saw a brief flash of anger on her face before sadness returned. "it's okay, I killed it. I don't know how many there are, but I know how to identify them, and I won't let any get near you"

"I'm not worried about me. I'm worried about you."

"if I arm wrestle... Alice would that make you feel better about my strength"

"no"

"HEY!" Alice called out from the hallway. I snorted as she walked through the room. "I'm strong"

"see, I'll prove it to you. But until then I have to go see Sam and discuss some things. But I'll be careful"

"what about this one?" she touched the circular scar, the one I got from being shot. Just to the left of my navel.

"I got shot... When that other one was in the woods. the one with the dreads"

"Laurent" Alice answered.

"yeah, he was killing hikers he was always gone before we could get to him – most of us were still new. Anyway, he was killing people, so we had to find him, in doing so we left some evidence behind. Paw prints, and a few of us were seen. Rumors of massive bears or a bear. Then they found out it was a wolf; the paws and fur. It helped us out when my mom got hurt, because we could make it look like she hit one of us. Paul and Jared went all out. But that made the rangers nervous, so they sent hunters into the woods"

"you got shot?" Rosalie barely whispered. I could hear the intake of breath from Alice and Esme. I could tell they were listening.

"Yeah... Mark." I looked at their faces seeing shock and restrained anger "it was an accident. He was trying to shoot Victoria. She had Harry in her hands, right behind Charlie. I don't know what Mark was thinking but Harry was his best friend since childhood. And I think he knew she was the one who hurt my mom. Any way he shot, and I tackled Victoria. Getting hit in the process. I guess he thought maybe silver could hurt a vampire."

"were you okay?" Alice asked, I knew she was thinking about her return to Forks. It happened the same day.

I looked up at them a rueful smile on my lips "yeah, it's a permanent scar. I guess silver is my weakness. It's a reminder of my failure..." I shook my head. "I'm okay. It didn't go in very deep, and my body healed the moment it was removed."

Rosalie didn't seem to like that I was risking my life, but Alice was able to convince her that I could do it. I gave her a kiss goodbye before walking downstairs.

I passed by Emmett on the way out. "you know, I could always pretend to lose an arm-wrestling fight. Just once"

I chuckled when I heard Rosalie let out a curse. Esme and Carlisle both gave me a look of concern as I passed. But I gave them a smile of reassurance before heading out of the house.

Once I was in the woods I stripped down and phased putting the clothes in my mouth as I ran towards Sam's.

Convincing them to sort an alliance wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. They heard about a Vampire in the area unknown to the Cullen's and a possible threat to Bella and Charlie and my mom by extension since she stayed there a few nights a week and agreed almost immediately.

"well boys" Sam began but added "and girls. We're doubling our radius. This vampire is a threat to us all and we must stop it before it hurts anyone"

It became an agreement; we would watch over Forks and the Swan residence when they needed to hunt, and I would keep an eye out to see if the vampire left Seattle.

During the day when Edward couldn't be with Bella and needed to hunt, Bella would go to La Push. I tried to spend as much time with Rosalie and my family as I could, but with everything it was strained.

Even more so the one night we didn't have to patrol we had a bonfire. Bella was going to be safe at La Push, since she would be surrounded by half a dozen wolves.

But I wasn't sure if she needed to hear the legends, they painted the vampires in poor light. It wasn't false but scaring her more.

Jacob insisted.

That night I sat with the pack around the fire, the others having already eaten their body weight in food. I'd lost count after they ate 10 hot dogs each. I was thankful that while I needed to eat more food than before I still didn't seem to each as much as them. I needed more protein than them and I could get it in various methods.

I could eat grains and I did eat a lot of carbs; they were high in calories. But I would even it out with lean meats, fish was a common place in Forks, so I ate that a lot. Bella sat down behind Jacob, his back leaning against Bella's knees. Other than a few teasing comments from the pack no one really saw any issue with Bella being here or with her being with Edward.

No one besides Leah and Bella really knew the true extent of mine and Rosalie's relationship. And I trusted that neither would tell, they were fine with Bella and Edward, but I didn't need them to question my job by being involved with a vampire.

From what I told and showed Leah about Rosalie, she actually liked her, the fact that Rosalie cared about my humanity and didn't want to change me and that she was worried about me were added benefits.

At first, I had been worried Rosalie wouldn't like me spending time with Leah and she was a little jealous at first. Especially when she found out that I went away with her for a week. But unlike Jacob, Leah wasn't hoping for anything more. She was my sister the same relationship between the two of us existed between Rosalie and Alice.