Love Is A Curious Thing

All is Quiet in The End

The next morning, we all wake early with an anxious feeling of what is to come and not knowing what to expect. Things are quickly packed up and everyone gathers in the snow covered field waiting with baited breath. There is a swish of clothing being drug across the snow, and everyone tenses as the noise gets closer and I know that this must be the vampires coming in.

"The Red Coats are coming! The Red Coats are coming!"

I hear one of the vamps on our side mumble under stress and I snort slightly, knowing now isn't the time to laugh. They come into view, black coats and all, looking like an army of the evil dead and it's clear we are outnumbered and if this turns badly... I'm not so sure we'd make it out alive. I have to still my natural reaction to shift my weight, noting that I'd be the only one the field that would have to do that and there's no reason to single myself out.

"Aro, let us discuss things how we used to. In a civilized manner." Carlisle states as he approaches, and I lift a brow not knowing he knows these vamps so well.

"Fair words Carlisle. But a little out of place, given the battalion you've assembled against us." His voice makes me tense, something about him just fills me with apprehension especially since he's seeing our gathering as an army instead of witnesses...

"I can promise you, that was never my intent. No laws have been broken."

"We see the child. Do not take us as fools." A slender vampire with hair as icy as his tone sneers back.

"She's not an immortal. These witnesses can attest to that. Or you may look, there is human blood running through her veins and flushing her cheeks."

The leader Aro, silences the sour blonde trying to falsify what Carlisle is saying, as he begins talking to Bella and wanting to meet Nessie–no doubt wanting to know for himself if what we say is true or not. The exchange is short and strange, he makes a strange noise when Ness is close enough–hearing her heartbeat up close and only after she places her hand on his cheek does he admit we are right and that Ness was born not turned.

There is a brief altercation between the angry blonde vamp and the woman who must've claimed the Cullen's broke the law, ending with her losing her head and her sisters almost launching an attack which would've needed badly for all of us. Luckily Edward was able to talk them down and Carlisle began talking again, hoping and proving they broke no law.

"Agreed. But does that mean there will be no danger? No threat to our secrecy?"

My eyes widen as this mad man is now trying to grasp at straws, trying to find something to convict the Cullen's of... I feel Jake tense beside me as he realizes the same thing.

"I have evidence the child won't be a risk to our kind."

Comes from the female of the pair that just decided to show up across the clearing and I recognize them as two more from the Cullen family. We all seem to wait in a heavily tense silence as he is shown whatever it is that ends with his face becoming paler...if that was possible.

"Now you know. That's your future, unless you decide on a different course." She announces and I'm curious to know what happened.

"If you were sure she could remain concealed from the human world, could we leave in peace?" Edward attempts again as the angry blonde vamp attempts to find more fault.

Suddenly two more people come out of the tree line, somebody the Cullen's found while she was gone. Aro then commands him to speak, and he explains he is exactly like Nessie and is one hundred and fifty years old. He explains that he has traits of both vampire and human, proving that Nessie will be vampire enough for their laws and human enough the wolves shouldn't have any issues with her.

"Dear ones, there is no danger here. We will not fight today."

He announces to his gathering and it seems our side can finally take a breath, a smile works it's way onto my lips. He and his army disappear into the snowy wilderness, and the Cullen's and their witnesses breathe a sigh of relief and smiles quickly spread to everyone gathered. With a nod from Seth, Sam and Jake also give nods before Sam and his part of the pack retreat back to safety after a look in my direction.

Jake waits, no doubt to just make sure everything is fine with Seth before we head home and whatever communication they have while in wolf form Jake sends a wink in my direction and I know we are good to head home. Jake moves to the side, to shift back so it's not such an awkward walk back.

"One helluva day isn't it?" He says with a grin as he makes his way back over and reaches for my hand.

"Yeah...I'm glad it didn't really amount to anything because who knows how nasty it would've been." I cringe at the thought not really wanting to know what would've happened to us had there been a fight.

"Honestly, me too. There wasn't a need for us to shed blood over what we knew to be true." I just nod as we begin the trek home.

My anxiety seems to melt away the farther we get from Forks and the closer we are to home and finally the start of some normalcy. The last couple of months have been something I never would've picked my life to look like, but I'm thankful and grateful to be a part of such a large family that would do anything, cross the ends of the earth just to protect those they call their own. After everything with losing my father–the one person who truly cared for me, and the drama with my own mother, I finally found where I belong and it is a soggy little reservation in the Pacific Northwest, the farthest thing away from everything I thought I knew.

And I wouldn't change this life for anything.

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