FORTUNATE • E. CULLEN

- 18 -

"Stay still." Emmett urges and Abigail narrows her eyes at him. He had told her to jump from a balcony, to run the fastest she could, to do anything she couldn't just a few days before and now she had to stay still.

"And what for exactly?" She asks him as she crosses her arms. Emmett tries his best to keep his smile from surfacing, it was the Abigail from before the sickness took the better part of her life away.

He takes a step forward and places his hands on her shoulder, trying to ignore the sharp intake of breath and the look Abigail gives him.

"Close your eyes."

Abigail didn't know what to think, she couldn't think. Emmett was in front of her, looking like some sort of god and she had to focus on sounds around her when all she could do was smell him and wonder what it would be like to have him closer to her. To have him kiss her.

"Abs." He sighs and her eyes snap open. "Due to transitioning, your emotions are heightened. I need you to focus." She pouts her lips but closes her eyes once more.

Only Emmett's smell came to her. He had to have done some woodwork recently, she could smell it on him. She wondered how everything worked, how she could..

"There's something." She suddenly says and her gaze drops to just past Emmett before she looks back at him. "What is that?"

"Deer." She nods slowly.

"Now what?"

"Now you hunt it."

"I have to kill a deer?!" She asks him.

"It's that or multiple humans, I think we both know the answer to that choice." Abigail purses her lips but nods, her mouth already watering as she could just imagine the blood-..

"It's still a disgusting thing about this whole ordeal." She mutters before softly making her way towards the animal.

It turned out to be three deers and Emmett did not have a chance to catch one of them because of the new born hunger that worked in Abigail. He just sat back and watched as she completely destroyed the animals. She was doing a lot better than he and the rest of the family would have thought but he did know that they had to get back towards the house before anyone came into woods. He was sure that he wouldn't be able to hold her back.

"You good?" He asks her and her head whips towards him. Her whole demeanor changes as she realises what she had just done and she steps back a little, looking at the massacre before her. Emmett slowly walks forward and wraps an arm around her, her attention quickly going to him. "Abs?" He asks and Abigail just looks at him. She couldn't believe that he just saw that and was still worried about her, how she was doing. "Should we head back?" Abigail frowns and though she wanted to say no, and stay here with him. To be with him. She knew that it was a bad idea. That the hunt was just for her to learn the basics and get some blood in her so they could give her even more information when they got back.

"Yeah sure." She answers after a while and Emmett couldn't help but notice how she looked when she was thinking it over. A giddy smile makes its way onto his face as he thinks about it, she was looking at him.

"So how long have you been one?" She asks him as they make their way back in a human pace and Emmett looks up to the sky.

"Since 1935." Abigail's eyes widen.

"So I'm having feelings for a grandpa?" Emmett starts to laugh before he hears what she actually says.

"You have feelings for me?" He asks her and now it is her time to laugh.

"You're kind of late to catch on. I thought older guys were supposed to be wiser?" She teases. It wasn't easy for her to talk about her feelings, to be vulnerable. She could only be vulnerable around Linda. "Oh my god," her eyes widen as she looks at Emmett. "Linda!" Emmett's face softens and he lays a hand on her lower back, guiding her towards the Cullen home. Her mind immediately distracted from the fact that her aunt was probably losing it right now and only focusing on his hand on her back. Though she was stone cold, it felt like she would burn right then and there.

"We're home!" Emmett announces as the two walk through the front door. Slowly, several of the Cullens show up and Abigail was seeing them all in a different light. Their beauty couldn't compare to anything human and she frowned at the fact that she hadn't caught on earlier.

"Welcome back." Rosalie says with a small smile as her and Lukas make their way over to her and Emmett. Abigail didn't notice but she took a step back to be closer to Emmett, her back touching his chest ever so slightly. "How are you?" Rosalie asks genuinely and Abigail shrugs.

"I don't really know? It's all kind of confusing." Rosalie chuckles and nods her head towards Lukas.

"I was the same." He admits before turning his head as Carlisle and Esme walk around the corner together with Alice and Jasper.

"Let's get you some clean clothes." Esme softly suggests as she raises an arm, motioning for Abigail to come with her. The latter looks down and once again, Emmett sees her posture change. He didn't need Edward to know that she was thinking about what she had done to the animals.

"Go on Abs," he whispers in her ear. "I'll be right here when you're ready." She looks at him and tries to decipher if he was telling her a lie but she couldn't find anything. He was telling the truth.

She nods slowly and walks towards Esme, already feeling some sort of cold from where Emmett was supposed be beside her and she looks back at him, only to see him giving her a thumps up, making her crack a smile.