"I don't understand why this keeps happening," Sam groaned. The wolves had all transformed and were sitting on the Cullen's front yard. Fred sat next to Bree. He continued to use his power to repel people from he and Bree.
"Well," Jacob said, eyes never leaving the girl, "we've all maintained one tradition. Every wolf has imprinted on a female." Jacob reached out towards Bree like he wanted to make sure she was real and Fred growled at him. The two new vampires were skittish. Jacob withdrew his hand but never looked away from the frightened girl.
Sam looked at Jacob, surprised. "Yeah, you're right." He ran a hand through his cropped hair. "I just wanted normal," Sam moaned into his hands. "I just wanted a normal wolf pack with normal human mates protecting our tribe from normal vampire enemies."
"And now you've got a weird wolf pack with weird human and vampire mates and you're protecting your tribe from vampire enemies with your vampire friends," Bella snarked back. Rosalie ran her hand through Bella's long hair, a small smile on her face. Edward saw the comfortability between them and looked away quickly. "I think this is the best you could have hoped for, Sammy Boy."
Collin walked over and threw his arms around Rosalie's neck. She stood up, giving the boy an impromptu piggyback ride. She spun slow circles with the boy hanging from her. Sam quietly watched Rosalie with the smallest member of his pack. "Yeah, I guess it really is, huh?" Colling giggled in Rosalie's ear, and the sound lit up her eyes.
Jasper watched Rosalie. His sister usually made his gift difficult to have. Her constant anger and pain fed him with a never-ending well of painful and unpleasant emotions. Now, even with the impending threat to all their lives, Rosalie was happier than he'd ever seen her. Her joy at spinning Collin around allowed him to drown out his own fearful emotions. Alice laced her fingers through his. His small smile showed his concern.
Jasper came back to the task at hand. He took in Bree and Fred. Fred's ability to repel people was amazing. "What can you tell us?" Jasper asked them. The question was for both of them, but he was willing to bet that Fred would answer the question. He wasn't disappointed.
"Victoria has been amassing an army. She's turning people with reckless abandon. The newborns are wild and uncontrolled. They're sloppy killers, and they love wanton destruction. We," he looked at Bree, "we've killed a lot of people. We didn't want to, but there was no other way."
Carlisle crouched low to appear unthreatening. "We have all made mistakes. No one here faults you for that. We're happy to have you here, so please, don't worry. We'll do the best we can for you here." He looked at Fred, then at Bree. "We need whatever information you have, and then we will do our best to protect you. If you want, we'll let you leave and make your own way. We just want to protect our family. There are no ulterior motives, no threats, nothing like that." The two vampires examined Carlisle, seeming to come to a conclusion.
"We'll tell you anything you want to know," Fred agreed. "But first, we need to eat."
"Of course. A few of us will go with you, if that's okay." Bree nodded, her eyes falling on Jacob. "Would you mind if a few of the wolves come too? We just want to make sure that you don't accidentally attack any humans. No one will hurt you."
"Okay," Bree agreed. Jacob hurried to change. A large group rushed out of the clearing, leaving the rest of them to wait.
"Well, they won't be back for some time. I know what we can do to pass the time." Rosalie wiggled her eyebrows at Bella, who took a surprised step back.
Bella and Rosalie stood on the Swan front porch. Bella shook from head to toe. Bella rolled her shoulders. Rosalie watched her mate with an amused look on her face. "This will be fine. Everything will be fine." Bella looked at Rosalie. "Don't be nervous babe, he'll like you!"
Rosalie laughed and threaded her fingers through Bella's. "Babe? I like it." Rosalie leaned over and kissed Bella's shoulder. The wolf seemed to have forgotten that sixty degrees isn't exactly tank top weather, but Rosalie wouldn't complain about it. Bella's shoulder muscles rippled through her tremors. Rosalie considered pressing her lips to Bella's exposed collarbone. She pushed that idea aside. Probably wouldn't help the nervous wolf. "Were you this nervous when you met my parents?"
"I was this nervous when I met you." Rosalie smirked, and Bella continued. "Do you remember?" Rosalie nodded. "Come meet my family, Edward said. It will be fine, Edward said. There are no coffins, Edward said."
"Well, there weren't."
"You picked up a salad bowl, shattered it, and stomped away in an impressive pair of heels."
"You made a joke about becoming our meal and part of me wanted to laugh and part of me wanted to kill you and just get it over with."
"Are you sure you didn't just want to kiss me?" Bella stepped closer to Rosalie, hovering over the blonde. "Maybe the first time you saw me your soul went, 'oh shit, that's mine?'"
Rosalie pushed Bella. She stumbled backwards and hit the house, hard. Rosalie stepped determinedly to Bella, heels clicking on the concrete. Rose put a hand over Bella's shoulder, looking up at the wolf. "Maybe my soul said, who is this fragile idiot in my home?'"
"Not so fragile anymore," Bella said, leaning towards Rosalie.
"That's true. I don't know about the idiot part, though."
Bella scrunched her face at Rosalie. "That's fair, that's fair."
"How am I supposed to tolerate you for all of eternity when you're too nervous to formally introduce me to your father?"
"Tolerate me?" Bella inclined her face towards Rosalie's. "Excuse me, I make your impending eternity enjoyable."
"Is that so?" Rosalie leaned closer to Bella, leaning her body against the wolf's.
"Mmhmm. In 100 years, we're going to look back on right now, and you're gonna have to admit it: I bring you joy."
"I hope you're ready to wait 100 years to hear that."
"You're the one with no patience. Me? I can wait forever."
"Can you?" Rosalie asked, her lips ghosting across Bella's. Bella leaned forward, trying to steal a kiss from Rosalie. Rose stepped back abruptly. "Good. Now introduce me to your dad."
Bella huffed, her heart pounding and her cheeks red. "She-devil." Bella reached for the hidden key to unlock the front door.
"Everyone and their mother hides their keys above the door," Rosalie whispered scathingly.
"What are you gonna do? Break in?"
"Maybe," Rosalie smirked.
Bella pushed the door open and turned to look at Rosalie. "You ready?
"Are you?" Rosalie retorted with a glance at Bella.
Bella took a deep breath, took Rosalie's hand in hers, and led the way to the living room. "Hey dad!"
"Hey Bells," Charlie answered, never looking away from the TV. He was watching some college sports round up that Bella couldn't care less about. "Where you been kiddo? I feel like I haven't seen you in days."
"Sorry dad," Bella sounded like a cowed child. "I can't guarantee I'm going to be around too much, but we'll talk about that later. I'd like you to meet someone."
Charlie finally looked away from the tv. "Oh, crap." He jumped up from the couch, set his beer down, and straightened himself out. He was still wearing his sheriff's button-down, but it was open, and his badge was hanging sideways. He was the picture of middle-aged man relaxing. Bella smiled fondly at her awkward dad. "Hello, sorry I'm so-" he gestured at his disheveled appearance with a shrug.
"Hello Mr. Swan," Rosalie reached out with one hand. Charlie took it and shook it. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Rosalie Hale."
"There will be no Mr. Swan in here!" Charlie said, looking down surprised at Rosalie's hand. "Formalities don't belong here. Call me Charlie."
"Hi, Charlie. I'm really happy to have finally met you."
"Me too." Charlie scratched the back of his neck. "I mean, I did see you on my couch not too long ago."
"Sorry about that, sir. We had stayed up so I could meet you, but she sleeps like the dead."
Charlie smiled, clearly charmed by Rosalie. "So," he looked quickly at Bella and smiled just a little, "what are your intentions with my daughter?"
Bella's mouth popped open in surprise. "Dad, no!"
Charlie held up a hand and watched Rosalie. She could imagine him using this face on criminals. It probably worked with them, if there were any criminals in Forks at all. "Forever, sir. My intentions are her forever." Rosalie reached for Bella's hand, wrapping up the warm fingers in her cooler ones. "I don't know what she's told you, but I have every intention of keeping her as long as I'm alive."
Charlie's face softened for a moment, then hardened again. "You know, Rosalie, my daughter has been quite distraught over you."
"Dad, no!"
"She was sick in this house, every single day." Charlie's stern look was back. "I watched her waste away and couldn't do anything about it." He folded his arms across his chest.
Rosalie considered Bella, who was turning bright red. Rosalie hadn't known what Bella went through. "Really?" She frowned, then turned her attention back to Charlie. "It was a misunderstanding, sir. It will never happen again." Rosalie turned her dazzling smile on Charlie, who took a step back, stunned.
"See that it doesn't. She's all I have. And, wolf-like tendencies aside, it's my job to protect her."
Bella blushed. "How have you been?" Rosalie inquired. "I hear Bella and her dog friend showed up just in time to save you."
"She did. Your dad says my leg is healing just fine. Who knew raising a wolf was so helpful?"
"Is this real? This is weird." Bella grumbled to herself.
"So," Charlie looked between Bella and Rosalie, "I'm gonna ask a really weird question. What are you?"
Rosalie looked at Bella, wondering if she should risk her mate's father like this. "It's a secret, sir. As in, to protect us and you, we can't tell anyone."
Charlie folded his arms. "I feel like I should know about who's in my house, in my town." He tried to look stern, but Rosalie smiled at him again and his mouth dropped open. Bella smiled. It was unfair how Rosalie could just use her beauty like that.
"We'll talk about it. It was very nice to meet you."
"We're gonna go upstairs, Dad," Bella said rolling her eyes. Charlie still looked surprised, so Bella pulled Rosalie towards the stairs.
"Ok," Charlie huffed. "Keep your door open!" Bella reached her room at the top of the stairs and fell onto her bed giggling.
"Keep the door open," she grumbled into her bedspread.
Rosalie looked around the room, taking it in. She'd never been up here before, and the image of Bella on her bed was distracting.
Rosalie looked at the corkboard on Bella's wall. It had a few short poems tacked to it. They seemed to be pulled off one of those small desktop calendars. Rose read one of them
nothing is louder/than overthinking/after midnight
Rosalie pushed a small 'winter is coming' paper out of the way to read the poem hidden underneath it. do not let temporary people/and the sadness they bring/make homes out of you
Rosalie heard Bella shift behind her, but she kept looking at the board. There were small pictures on the wall. A printed selfie of Bella and a woman who looked like an older version of Bella took the upper right corner of the board. Pinned next to that was a photobooth strip of images. Bella, Jessica, and Angela were in the four frames, looking delighted. This must have been after Bella had been bitten by the wolf, because she was clearly taller and stronger than the other two girls. There was also a casual confidence in the image that Bella hadn't had before the Cullen's left. Rosalie smiled happily at the image. Bella came up behind Rosalie and wrapped her arms around Rose's waist. Rose leaned into Bella and hummed happily.
"So, are we going to tell Charlie?" Bella mumbled into Rose's shoulder. Rose put her hand over Bella's.
"He's in just as much danger either way. Do you want him to know what I am?"
"How about we defeat the vampire menace and then tell him?" Bella murmured. "He should probably know, but there's a chance we don't make it to next week." Rosalie turned around in Bella's arms and looked up at her. "I'm just saying, I am painfully aware of how dangerous everything coming up is, and there's a chance one or both of us don't make it." Bella kissed Rosalie's forehead. "We've been together for a whole five minutes, and already we're being attacked!"
"Don't tell me you're picking up a flair for the dramatic."
Bella picked Rosalie up. Rosalie laughed and wrapped her legs around Bella's waist. "You know, you could be a bit nicer to me." Rosalie laughed again, and Bella smiled at her dopily. "You have smiled more in the past week then I have ever seen you smile before."
"I have smiled more in the past decade than I have in the past seventy years." Rosalie looked down from where Bella was still holding her in the air. Rosalie ran her fingers slowly down Bella's jawline. "You know," she said quietly while looking at Bella's lips, "we could leave. We could just take off, you and I."
"Could we?" Bella bit her lip, considering the idea seriously. "Could we really? Leave your family, my pack, my dad?" Bella looked at Rose. "Could we leave Alice and Emmett and Jasper?"
Rose sighed, then kissed Bella softly. "No," she breathed against Bella's lips, kissing her again. "I suppose we couldn't." Bella walked over to her full bed. "What are you doing?" Bella's eyes flashed. She looked mischievous. "Bella!"
"We've got some time until the newbies are done hunting, and we can't train anymore with Jasper out controlling their emotions." Bella smirked.
"And!?" Rosalie gasped.
"And," Bella tightened her grip on Rosalie and dropped bodily onto the bed. The bed seemed like it was going to hold, and then the bottom snapped out of it. Their combined weight was too much, and the frame crumbled. They bounced when the mattress hit the floor.
"Bella!" Rosalie yelled.
Bella laughed at the top of her lungs as Charlie came running up the stairs. "Bella what the-" He took in their compromising position. Rosalie looked embarrassed, but Bella couldn't stop laughing. "Okay," Charlie backed away, not shutting the door. "You're paying for a replacement Bells!" Bella's laughter continued. Rosalie smiled at the wolf and patted her back as the laughs turned into gasps for air. Please let us all make it through.