A/N: I suck, I know. My updating has been crappy and I apologize profusely for those of you who actually take the time to read this. Life happened - work and family and blah blah blah. Well hopefully this makes up for some of it, I hope.

Please, please, please review. Not reviewing should be illegal.

Encounter

When we made it back to campus Alice was already waiting for us at the edge of the staff parking lot. A huge smile spread generously across her adorable face. Edward slowed and I swung down from his back, claiming his hand in mine.

"Why are you so happy?" I asked curiously as we moved from out of the tree line and regained our human pace.

"This is Alice's first time at college," Edward informed me before Alice had the chance.

"Really?" I asked shocked. I assumed that all of the Cullen clan had attended college at some point during their existence, with me as the exception of course.

Alice shrugged casually at me while she bounced excitedly on her toes. "I had more important things to do."

Edward, reading the incomprehension on my face added respectfully, "The last time there was an opportunity for us to further our education Jasper was still very new to our lifestyle. Alice chose to stay by his side rather than attend." His voice dripped with admiration as Alice shrugged again.

"I didn't want to leave him. He was stronger than he thought, he just needed a bit of confidence. Anyway, if we don't hurry up then we're going to be late," she paused for a brief moment and her eyes became distant. "It's going to be a bit of a squeeze if we don't hurry."

We left straight away, moving as quickly as we could without arousing suspicion across the campus. Our final lecture was in the smallest of all the buildings at Dartmouth, located near the centre of the large property. Merely seconds after we had swept into the small theatre and taken our seats in the back row on the far right hand side, a group of around twenty students came bustling in through the door. They were all rushing to their seats, hoping not to be late to their first Stats lecture. Only in their haste the majority of them pushed roughly past each other giving the less aggressive ones very little room. Up until that point the room had been practically empty. The rows were shorter than the others, holding only five seats. Altogether the room would only seat about forty students and it was gradually filling. The back four rows held only us and three other students, two on the far side and one in the row in front of ours.

It was less than a minute before the lecturer walked in and called the room into silence. I moved in my seat leaning closer to Edward so that I could rest my head on his shoulder and settled in for another hour of easy learning. The lecturer cleared his throat and then began with introductions and expectations. The first few minutes, like the other lectures that day went by uneventfully – then everything changed dramatically.

I was in the middle of choosing the correct page from my text book when two things happened – Alice gasped and Edward became rigid.

I turned very quickly in my seat, forgetting the humans around me to look at Edward's face. Only I couldn't see his expression as he was turned towards Alice. Her eyes were distant and her body was stiff.

"What is it? What's wrong?" I asked instinctively, forgetting to lower my voice. Neither answered but both heads turned in unison to the door at the back row on the far side of the room. I followed their gaze but saw nothing.

In my peripheral vision I noticed the girl in the row in front of us turn to see what all the disturbance was about, but she looked away hastily after only a split second, colour flooding her cheeks in embarrassment. Edwards gaze had flicked from the door to the girl and their eyes had met. It must have been frightening for her, and I wasn't surprised that she had looked away so quickly. His eyes were wide and panicked, almost frantic. Alice's expression was much the same, though her eyes never left the door.

"What's going on?" I demanded in a horrified whisper so fast and so low that it wouldn't have been inaudible to human ears.

Without removing his eyes from across the room Edward hissed back to me, "Vampire."

It was times like these that I wished that I didn't have so much spare room in my mind to think. I would have only been another seven seconds before the vampire reached the door, but in that time I had already worked myself up into a worried mess. My quick mind had already explored every explanation and outcome possible. What was it that Alice had seen? Why was this vampire here of all places? Were they here for us? Did they even know we were here? If they did then what did they want? Did they mean us harm? What about the humans surrounding us? Where they in danger? I was comforted very slightly with the knowledge that only the girl in front had noticed our strange behaviour and that it would take her a lot longer than us to process what she had seen.

Edward's arm wrapped around my waist securely from behind and a moment later I heard the quick and light footsteps approaching the door. The vampire's approach would have taken only a fraction of a second but to me it seemed to take hours. My eyes were fused to the exit as I expected to hear the final step he would take before pushing the door ajar - but the last footstep never came.

They had stopped only inches away from the door, on the opposite side to where we sat. That's when I heard it, the unmistakeable sound of a sharp intake of breath. The vampire inhaled deeply then I heard their weight shift. I was as frozen to the spot as they appeared to be. My eyes bearded down on the light wooden door as though my gaze alone could push it open or fuse it shut. The final outcome of this situation balanced on the point of a knife depending on their next move. The lives of the twenty-nine other students in this room could become forfeit in a matter of seconds.

An instant later I heard the vampire move again, their weight shifting once more. Then suddenly, they were running back in the direction they had come from.

My tense body instantly relaxed slightly as his lightning fast footsteps faded very hastily away into the distance until I could hear them no longer. I instinctively turned back to Edward. His expression was emotionless but his eyes were distant, seeking.

Alice stood slowly, her expression was composed, and I worked hard to make mine the same. I touched Edwards forearm and he lifted himself to his feet almost robotically, turning towards the nearest exit. We slipped out silently, I wasn't even sure if the lecturer noticed, but the instant I left the room the scent hit me. The small hallway outside the room was filled with the sweet scent, so fresh and strong. I breathed in the perfume once more to confirm my suspicion, it was very familiar to me and my perfect vampire mind recognised it immediately.

"It's him!" Alice and I both exclaimed simultaneously.

There was no mistaking it. The scent was identical to the one we had discovered in the forest by our home. This vampire was the one who had been threatening my family. I felt the sick feeling growing in the pit of my stomach again.

"Where has he gone Edward?" Alice questioned fearfully, a little bit too loudly considering there were still students less than ten metres away.

"South," he said reassuringly, though his voice was still on edge, "but I've lost his voice."

"We can't stay here," I said nervously, partly because of prying ears from the class room but mainly because I had the immediate need to get back to Reneesme and the others. South was in the opposite direction from our house but this knowledge only calmed my panic minutely.

Edward nodded and we all moved quickly towards the parking lot. The trip back to the house only took about three minutes but it was horribly long. The moment the car had come to a stop I was moving swiftly out of the passenger seat and into the front entranceway.

I found Reneesme, Emmett, Rosalie and Esme in the lounge. Emmett and Reneesme were sitting on the floor facing each other, while Rosalie and Esme watched amused. Emmett and Reneesme were in the middle of what looked like an epic arm wrestling match. Emmett had Reneesme's tiny hand gripped in his bear like one as she pushed his, with both hands, towards the carpet. He was obviously allowing Reneesme the upper hand, but he wasn't making it easy for her.

I was the first to enter the room, but only by split seconds. The others' relaxed postures instantly straightened as they read the concern on our faces. Esme's mouth dropped open to ask a question but Alice answered before she had a chance to speak it.

"We found him, we found the vampire."

I heard the others all inhale sharply in shock as I moved forward and swept Reneesme up off the carpet and sat her on my hip.

"Well actually, he found us. He was at Dartmouth. He almost walked into our lecture," Alice continued.

The next instant Carlisle and Jasper flashed down the staircase and into the room. Everyone turned to Carlisle.

"Could someone please explain to me what happened," he said in a calming voice, looking at Edward, Alice and I.

"I saw him coming, but my vision came too late," Alice began, she was calmer now in the presence of Carlisle. "I was so excited about my first class that I saw it only seconds before it happened. I saw him enter the room, but when he actually approached the door he must have caught our scent. He never came in. He just ran away."

"In your vision, did you see how he would have reacted?" Carlisle questioned her, obviously trying to ascertain how dangerous this new vampire could be.

"I saw him enter the room, but he wasn't expecting us so the future was blank after that. He hadn't had to make that decision yet so I don't know."

Carlisle nodded softly before turning to Edward. "What did you hear?"

"He was frightened mainly, as Alice said, we took him off guard. Before he reached our scent his thoughts were centred around his most recent hunt," Edward answered purposely. Carlisle raised an eyebrow.

Edward nodded in response to an unspoken question. "Yes human and very recently, a student."

I shuddered again. Someone was dead, someone had been murdered by this man. Violent and horribly vivid memories of my time in Volterra forced its way into my head, terrifying images of menacing and sadistic red eyes, hungry with brutal desire. The memories continued until I could almost hear the blood curdling screams that had come from deep within the Volturi's feeding chamber ringing in my ears. In front of my eyes I could see the look of pure terror on the small Latino woman's face as she gripped tightly to her rosary beads. I instinctively tightened my hold on Reneesme and shrunk closer to Edward, wanting to feel his comforting arms. Either he sensed my discomfort or he felt the same way, whichever - he moved to my side, putting Reneesme between us and pulling his arm tightly around my waist.

"Hmm, I had expected as much," Carlisle muttered thoughtfully. "His whereabouts was very peculiar however, what was his purpose at the school?"

"As far as I could tell… he was attending class."

Carlisle gazed out the window deliberating. "Strange, very strange indeed. The restraint required is not normally found, though not impossible…"

"He goes to Dartmouth!" I queried in shock. I could barely believe my ears. A human drinker being so involved in society, it was practically unheard of.

It was different for us, being around humans, we didn't rely on them as a source of nourishment so it was easier to ignore the allure of their blood. However, it would be a thousand times more difficult for a vampire who did drink human blood to control themselves as much as would be necessary to.

"He has been for quite a while," Edward stated with almost a tone of admiration in his voice.

"Is there anything else you can tell us?" Carlisle asked, turning his attention back to Edward now.

"Not a lot. His thoughts were mainly just confusion and fright as he left the campus. He was headed towards a location in the valley but he moved out of range before I could get an exact spot."

Carlisle nodded then turned to Alice.

"He's too indecisive at the moment to work out what his next move will be. I don't even think he's considered it himself," She told him without having to be asked.

"This could greatly complicate our situation," Carlisle announced to the room. "Aside from the fact that this vampire is extremely dangerous and has targeted this family already, we need to keep in mind that he is hunting humans in this area. I don't even need to explain the consequences if we were somehow implicated in this."

Nothing more was discussed after that. Everyone sat quietly wrapped in their own thoughts and fears.

I had to leave, I couldn't stand being in the room with everyone looking so uncomfortable. Moving was not a big thing to the Cullen's, but for me it was huge. I had already uprooted my life twice, both time's had been very painful emotionally. Only the move to New Hampshire had carried with it an air of excitement and adventure – it seemed right to be moving on with my life in such a positive way.

Again I felt like I had been dealt another bad hand, like the universe was laughing at me. A person was only allocated a certain amount of happiness in their lifetime and I had well and truly used mine up, now the universe was throwing a spanner in the works just to mess up my happy little reality.

I slipped out of Edward's grip and handed Reneesme gently back to Rosalie before swiftly exiting the lounge. My dejected feelings were steadily turning aggressive, and I didn't want the rest of the family to see me like that – especially Reneesme.

This was his fault, he was the one who had hurt my family. I didn't even know his name which just frustrated me further.

I stormed angrily along the hallway towards my room. First he had tracked us down in our own home and now he had even invaded our school. I hated him to my very core. I hated his pure existence. We had done nothing to him – I didn't even know what he looked like for Christ sake! How could someone I knew so very little about have so much influence over my life right now? All I had to focus my anger on was his poisonous scent which had infected my world.

As expected I heard Edward follow me seconds later. I didn't necessarily want him to though. I felt stupid and pathetic. The whole family was going through exactly what I was, only I seemed to be the only one going to pieces over it. I was embarrassed at how I was acting and tried my best to calm down before he entered the room - easier said than done for a vampire unfortunately. Like every emotion I felt, the anger and hatred I had in me at that moment controlled everything. It was so powerful I felt like I could scream. So I wasn't surprised to see the anxious look on Edward's face as he pushed the door open.

I must have looked frightful. My hands were balled into fists at my sides, my arms even quivered slightly with the force of it. My jaw was tight and my teeth ground together. I turned away so that he couldn't see my raging expression but split seconds later he had scooped me up into a tight hug. He lifted my feet off of the ground and held me so tightly to his body that if breathing had been a necessity, I would have passed out. He wrapped his arms around my back and leaning his head down to rest on my shoulder. After a long embrace he turned his head and pressed his lips firmly into my neck, squeezing my waist as he did so.

The up side to my intense emotions was that they were very easily distracted. After a few moments all I could concentrate on was his strong arms around me, and his soft lips pressed to my skin. The resentment and anger was almost immediately dulled to a low burn in the back of my mind.

"Please believe me when I say that we are going to be ok," he pleaded softly with me. His arms loosened slightly so that my feet touched the ground and I was able to breathe enough to reply, but I didn't want to. I hated the word ok, it was never enough. To just be ok wasn't good enough for my family. Something I had picked up from Edward.

"I hate him," I answered after a few moments. My voice shook a little with the power of the emotion I was keeping at bay.

Edward released me a tiny bit further so that he could look at me directly in the face, my muscles had relaxed now but I was sure that my eyes gave me away. Edward could always read them perfectly.

"Why us? Why here? We've done nothing to him and look what he did – what he's done to you..." I broke off and shivered at the memory.

Edward's soft eyes shimmered sympathetically in front of mine. He took his arm from around my waist bringing it up my body to stroke my cheek gently.

"I'm fine Bella," he reminded me. Fine – another word that just wasn't sufficient. "I'm still here with you, safe and secure. He really hasn't caused us any lasting harm."

"Why are you defending him?" I snapped accusingly in a harsh tone that I couldn't control. I immediately regretted it but Edward seemed unfazed. His eyes remained soft and unharmed.

"I'm not, it's just… well, I got a good look into his mind today Bella, and I don't think we are being entirely fair to him. It is us who invaded his space after all. We must remember that he was here first." I stared at him blankly, I hadn't thought of it that way. Up until today I had just assumed that he was just a drifter like most others of our kind. I hadn't yet considered that this was his home; Edward had said earlier that he had attended Dartmouth for quite a while after all. We were the intruders, not him. I felt stupid again.

"Earlier when he ran away, I could hear that he was genuinely afraid. He feared us Bella. He was scared at the fact that we had taken away his safe place. He must have worked very hard to get to the point he is at – being able to be so close to humans despite the thirst – but today we took that away from him. We took away his sanctuary. I don't think he chose to attend Dartmouth simply because of the feeding possibilities," his face twisted a little, disgusted at a thought or a memory, "though he is getting plenty of opportunities. What I'm trying to say is that loneliness can cause a person to do powerful things, and I think Dartmouth was his way of coping with his loneliness." When Edward spoke his voice was soft and sympathetic. I could see it in his eyes as well, that he truly pitied this strange new vampire. The compassion he had astounded me. Edward truly was a beautiful person.

I was stunned into silence.

"Why did he hurt you?" I was finally able to ask. The way Edward had described him just didn't seem to fit with the things he had done. I wanted to pity him like Edward did. I didn't want to fear him. But he had still hurt the one I loved, and I couldn't move past that.

Edward's eyes hardened ever so slightly. "I don't know. It's definite that he recognised my scent outside the theatre today. My smell reminded him of Rosalie as well, but he gave no explanation as to why he did what he did. He was so overcome with fear that he didn't think of much else."

"What does that mean for us?" I asked, confused.

He shook his head softly. "Again, I'm not certain. I didn't get the chance to have a good enough look into his mind as to ascertain what it is that he wants from us. To react rashly and leave could be needless, as I can't tell for sure that he means us harm or that we should be afraid. By no means do I think we should ignore this, but at least now we know a bit more about where he is coming from and where his head is at. For the time being, I think the best thing to do would be to stay put but to continue to be extremely cautious," he was speaking with a desperate need to put my mind at ease, I could tell. Maybe in the past it might have worked, if only temporarily, but with an extended mind came more room to worry and fret. I wasn't able to ignore anything so easily anymore. I tried still, for his sake.

"I shouldn't have acted the way I did," I said looking down at his chest, unable to look him in the eyes through my shame at my earlier behaviour. I wished that I had half the benevolence and compassion that Edward possessed. "I'm sorry," I almost whispered.

He moved his hand from my hair and placed one finger under my chin, lifting my face to his. "Don't be, you had every right to be concerned and angry." Whether it was intentional or not, his eyes gazed hopefully into mine – like he was attempting to inject some happiness or relief into me. "Plus, you're amazingly cute when you're angry. It reminds me of when you were human, like a furious kitten." He laughed and pressed his lips firmly to my forehead then dropped his forehead to mine and sighed.

"Are you ready to go back to the others?" He asked, his eye appraising mine as he spoke. "We have some decisions to make."

"Yeah," I said after a moment.

Still embarrassed, I walked beside Edward back downstairs to the others. Reneesme was already waiting nervously by the lounge room door. The moment we reached her she flung her arms around me and I pulled her up into my arms.

When she came to eye level with me her tiny hand reached up and rested on my cheek. Her stunning large brown eyes gazed into mine and swum with intense concern.

"Mommy? Are you alright?" Her soft angelic voice questioned anxiously. In the back of my mind I thought of how I never heard her speak enough. Her voice was so astounding, her words and thoughts so pure – it seemed unfair that she so often kept them from the world.

She showed me an image of my face when I had left the room minutes ago. My features were harsh, almost tormented. I hadn't realised I had shown my emotions so visibly.

I took her hand from my cheek and held it in mine, dispersing the image from my vision.

"I'm ok darling," I reassured her. I couldn't help the temptation to kiss her lightly on the cheek. When I drew back I saw that her expression was puzzled again. "What is it honey?" I asked with anxiety.

"The man who hurt Dad and Aunty Rose," her eyes flashed quickly to the spot on Edward's forehead where his cut had long since disappeared, "Why did he do it?"

I forgot sometimes how intelligent Reneesme really was. Her mind was like a sponge that seemed to absorb everything around her, she really was more observant than we gave her credit for.

"I don't know baby," I tried to tell her as calmly as possible. The last thing I wanted was for her to feel afraid. I wanted to tell her that everything would be alright now and that we would all be safe, but I just didn't know that to be true. I wouldn't lie to her, I refused, she would see right through my lie - my efforts would be pointless and hurtful.

We gazed at each other for a few moments. Her large brown eyes probed mine gently and wordlessly while I tried my best to comfort her with my own. It was in that moment when the realisation dawned on me - I was the adult and she was my daughter. I hadn't exactly had the best role model of a mother when I was growing up, but one thing I had never doubted was Renee's strength. Never once had I felt unsafe in her presence, despite her immaturity and harebrained antics. She would have given her life to keep me safe and I knew that. I only hoped that Reneesme realised that about me too. I had to put all of my worries and fears away and concentrate on being the pillar of strength that a mother should be, that Reneesme needed me to be. Something in her eyes told me that she believed I could.

I sighed once and finally drew my eyes away from hers, setting my jaw determinedly and asked the same question that had been asked so often lately, in a newly empowered voice.

"What do we do now?"

The answer came in a form that most definitely shocked me. I turned to see Alice's glowing face shinning with a glorious smile and she answered with a tone to match.

"It's going to be sunny tomorrow," she said gleefully.

A/N: Please, please, please review. You'll make my day!