Welcome to the Family

An hour later, sitting at our kitchen table, I picked up my coffee cup, taking a gulp of the rich coffee.

"Really?" Alice asked excitedly.

I nodded my head, setting the mug down. "Yup."

"What was it like?" Jasper asked, finally starting to open up and not looking at me like a tasty snack.

I shrugged. "Besides the cold, it wasn't too bad. Up there, you can see for miles, and even the curvature of the earth itself."

Alice looked over at Jasper, a wide smile on her face as she clasped his hand. "Wouldn't it be great to climb Mount Everest?" she asked in her usual happy chipper voice.

Jasper smiled, nodding his head in agreement. "With you, absolutely," he said, his southern twang evident in his voice.

Looking past the two of them, I saw Carlisle standing at the doorway to the kitchen, one of his brows raised.

I nodded my head almost imperceptibly.

Leaving the doorway, he disappeared into the house to a back room where I was listening to their conversation while talking to Alice and Jasper.

"Adam says yes," Carlisle said, softly closing the door behind himself.

"So we are all in agreement," Emmett said happily.

"Almost," Evelyn said, interrupting whatever Emmett was going to say next. "Rosalie still hasn't voted yet."

"She told me before she left that she trusts Adam's judgment. Whatever he voted for will be the same for her."

I couldn't help but smirk a little at that.

"We can't stay here anymore though," Esme said.

I could hear as everyone in the room shifted to look at her. "There are no more rooms. Now that we have agreed that they will be joining us, they will need their privacy."

I heard a few grunts of understanding.

"Then it's a good thing we've already chosen where we will go," Carlisle said. "We can make a few calls and get construction started on our new home while we pack and get ready for the move."

"And you said you were also here when the Mayflower first arrived? How exactly did that happen?" Alice asked, her eyes wide with wonder.

I spoke on autopilot as I went through what led up to that while still listening to the conversation in the back of the house.

"Forks, Washington?" Evelyn asked.

"It's the cloudiest place in America besides a few other places. It's a place where we might just be able to live normal lives."

I heard a snort from Edward. "Normal lives. Like humans?" Edward asked.

"Yes," Carlisle said, a tone of steel coming to his voice. "Do you want to stay in a house for the rest of forever, or would you rather actually do something with the time we all have an abundance of?"

The room went quiet for a few seconds before Carlisle continued.

"We might not be fully human, but a part of us still is. As little as you show it, I know you crave human connection just like the rest of us." I paused in my talking as I listened.

This was the first time I had heard Carlisle talk like this.

"Don't you see it? Part of the purpose of the way we live our lives is to keep what humanity is still inside us. Just drinking animal blood isn't enough, though. We need to make bonds with humans too. We need to remember what it truly means to feel, to empathize, to care. The longer we keep to ourselves like we have been doing…the farther we get from the humanity we wish to keep."

Just then, Alice tilted her head to the side slightly, her brows furrowing together as her eyes went out of focus.

'Must be one of her visions?' I thought, watching her.

"Weird…" Alice said slowly, her eyes coming back into focus.

"What is?" I asked, curious as to what she had seen.

She shifted her eyes to look at me.

"The woman I saw here when we arrived. She's coming, but…but there's something I can't see. Kind of like you when I had visions about the Cullens. I could see them talking to someone, but that person, you, never came into my sight."

I chuckled. "That must be Liam," I said, just as the rumble of Rosalie's car came into my hearing range.

"Liam?" Alice asked, confused.

"Mine and Rosalie's son," I said, as if it was an everyday thing.

"You two had a son before she was turned?" Alice asked.

I shook my head in the negative.

"No. She was a vampire when he was conceived. But from that point on, she reverted back into a human during her pregnancy with him."

I sometimes forget stuff like that wasn't quite believable.

Alice and Jasper both looked at me as if I had grown two heads.

"I know how it sounds," I said, a coy smile coming to my face, "but it's true. We believe it has something to do with who I am." I said, waving a hand through the air.

They both looked at each other, then back at me.

I smiled at them, turning my head to look at Jasper, my eyes losing the joyful gleam they normally held, as if it had never existed.

"Before they get here, though, there's something I should warn the two of you about," I said, the smile on my face slowly dropping until I became only a vestige of the joyful person they had met.

Now I looked and sounded as cold as a blizzard.

"My son is like a normal human, blood coursing through his veins like myself. So I expect the two of you to be able to control yourselves around him," I disappeared from my seat, my image flickering before their vampiric eyes, "or things may end terribly," I said, now standing behind them with a hand on each of their shoulders as I leaned forward with my head level with theirs.

"Am I clear?" I asked.

I felt sort of like shit for doing this since I knew they were good people, Alice in particular.

But at the moment, they were just starting their journey on the 'vegan' transition and still had the intense pull towards human blood.

I could see in Alice's eyes that they were already starting to turn gold, but only barely.

Jasper, on the other hand, was completely different.

His eyes were still an intense crimson red color, with no signs of fading.

I guessed that was because he had been drinking human blood for much, much longer than Alice ever did, so he would have a harder time transitioning to the vegan lifestyle.

I had already decided Liam wouldn't be leaving my sight for some time to come.

Alice and Jasper nodded their heads slowly.

I patted their shoulders, the smile and gleam of joy coming back. "Good," I said, straightening myself.

"Then let's go meet the rest of the family," I said, making my way to the front door.

Stepping outside, I could hear as Alice and Jasper slowly made their way outside, hesitation filling their every move.

It must have surprised them more than I had thought that I could do what I had done, I thought to myself, watching as Rosalie's car pulled into the driveway.

Turning off the car, Rosalie looked at me.

I gave her a small nod, letting her know it was safe to bring Liam out.

Liam was seated in the passenger seat, a curious look on his face as he looked past me at the two new faces.

Opening their doors, Rosalie took the lead, walking in front of Liam. Her protective instincts on full blast.

Stopping ten feet from them, Rosalie looked at Alice and Jasper, not saying a word.

"My love," I said, giving her a small smile. "I would like to introduce Alice and Jasper."

Rosalie nodded her head slightly in greeting, trying to be cordial while also watching them like a hawk.

"It's so nice to finally meet you," Alice said, waving a hand at Rose and Liam in an excited greeting.

Liam leaned to the side to look past his mother, one of his brows slowly raising as he looked at the two, a mischievous smile coming to his face.

Glancing at his mother, he looked at Alice and Jasper.

"It's nice to meet the two of you," Liam said, waving back at Alice, a wide smile on his face.

Turning at the sound of approaching footsteps, we all watched as the rest of the family walked through the front door, taking positions in a straight line across the front porch.

As Jasper and Alice turned to face them, I made my way over to my wife and son.

Wrapping an arm over her shoulder, I smiled down at Rose.

"Don't worry, Liam is safe with them," I said in a whisper that only she could hear.

"How exactly do you know that?" she asked.

I smirked down at her. "They wouldn't dare," I replied, keeping my voice low and reassuring. "I might have... emphasized the consequences of any misstep on their part."

"Alice, Jasper," Carlisle said, taking a step forward to stand in front of all the other members of the coven. "It would be my pleasure to welcome you into the Cullen coven and family."