FORTUNATE • E. CULLEN

- 09 -

Emmett was going to come to their house and somehow Abigail found herself looking towards it. She was trying different things with her hair, but it was no use.

"Linda?" The woman pops her head around the corner and stiffles a laugh as she sees that Abigail had did her best in dressing nice, but not obviously nice. Her hair was a rats nest and she looked defeated.

"I'll help." She stands behind her niece and runs her fingers through her hair. The once so thick and luscious brown locks, now just thinned out and bland. Linda knew that Abigail hated the way that it was and looked now, yet here she was.. trying to get it to move the way she wanted it to. "Ponytail?" Abigail simply nods and Linda starts twirling the hair. Two strands at the top were twirled and made it look like a bit of effort, yet not to much.

"Thank you." Abigail breathes and Linda crouches down, looking over Abigail's shoulder towards the mirror.

"You're beautiful." She says and she could tell that her niece was on the verge of tears. Abigail had never really cared for her appearance. But he past year and a half had changed that. She was too thin and her hair had partly gone and she didn't have her rosy cheeks anymore.

"I was." Abigail simply replies and Linda shakes her head.

"You are. You always will be." She kisses Abigail's cheek and walks towards the door before turning around. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Abigail chuckles and nods.

"I'll text you if we go somewhere." Linda hums in reply.

"Love you!" She shouts as she grabs her bag and opens the front door, ready for another night shift.

"Love you too!" She hears right before shutting the door with a smile on her face. She hadn't seen Abigail with such a smile in a long time and it was all thanks to Emmett. He made her feel something again, made her feel alive. She wasn't worried about leaving them. Abigail was a smart young woman and if they were to go somewhere, she would be safe in the large hands of Emmett.

Abigail starts cleaning the kitchen. It seemed like such a mundane thing to do, as if it didn't really matter anymore. And to her it didn't, but she knew that Linda liked the place clean so if they had to go somewhere quickly, they'd come back to place filled with rest.

A knock on the door breaks the silence and Abigail opens it to a grinning Emmett. "So what's in store for today?" Abigail chuckles and lets him in before offering him coffee or tea but he simply declines.

"Well, I read somewhere that we could do some sort of road trip with a coin and at every intersection we'd throw it. A limited variety of course." He nods and lets Abigail drink her tea on the porch.

"Are you going to tell me what's happening?" Abigail turns her head from where she is watching the clouds and looks at Emmett. He's sitting and leaning against their cottage with his side while looking down at her. She shrugs.

"Whatever do you mean?" She asks him and he shakes his head with a grin. He knew it wasn't going to be easy.

"I asked Carlisle about your pills." She raises an eyebrow as she looks at him. He noticed? "Are you going to tell me?"

"I'd rather kind of not." Her voice a breathy whisper.

"You're hiding something."

"So are you." She simply replies while looking back at the clouds, making it so that she doesn't notice him stiffening. "I have cancer." She says after a few minutes of complete silence. "I came to Forks to get my mind off of it."

"So you're using me?" A hint of a smile plays on his lips and Abigail sits upright, immediately ready to say no until she sees the twinkle in his eyes.

"It's working." She says with a slight smile and he just hums in reply.

"So what's on your to do list?" He chuckles. "Or do you want to do the road trip idea?" She looks towards the sky and shakes her head. That was no fun with this kind of weather, all rain and no soft breeze.

"Hide and go seek in a shopping mall." She says with a smile and Emmett nods.

"Alright," he stands and motions for her to get up. "Let's go!"

They get in the car and Abigail quickly texts Linda, also saying what she told Emmett. Linda simply replies with a thumbs up, probably to busy taking care of the elderly.

"So you're going to count to a hundred," Abigail says as they get closer to the mall. "And I'll go hide."

"And what do I win if I find you?"

"Your turn to hide." She says with a bright smile and Emmett starts to laugh. He had thought that she was a timid girl when he first saw her enter the cafeteria at school, but she was nothing like he expected.

"One.." he says as he places the car in a parking spot. "Two.." she quickly opens the door and dashes away, gaining strange looks from other people. She didn't know that Emmett could focus his hearing on exactly where she was going, but he decided that he wouldn't use it. That would be cheating.

However, after an hour he started to get worried. Shops were closing and he still hadn't found her so he used his hearing and found a heart beat rather close. She was softly giggling to herself and he found the sound adorable. He makes his way into the store where people still were choosing clothes. He crouches down beside a clothing rack and smiles at her.

"Gotcha." A bright smile lights up her face.

"You found me."

"I'll always find you." He replies and coughs awkwardly afterwards, that was bit straightforward even if he did mean it. "Were you here the whole time?" She cheekily shakes her head.

"No I-.." the lights go out and Abigail's eyes widen. "What the fuck." She whispers. "I was going from shop to shop so you wouldn't find me easily." She finishes her sentence and she moves closely past him before popping her head up. "Oh shit." She whispers and Emmett moves beside her, looking around the shop.

The lights were off, there was no one there, the guarding rails were down. They were locked in.