Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of its characters.

Moonlight Angel

This is a story about Isabella Swan. She has the deadly disease, xeroderma pigmentosum, otherwise known as XP. She moves to Forks to live with her dad. Every night at eleven o'clock, she hikes the hills in the forest by her home, to get to a clearing where she can sit and look at the moon and the night sky. She loves the moonlight; the only light that would not and could not hurt her. One night while she is up there, she has a run-in with non other than Edward Cullen. Who is this mysterious boy with golden-topaz eyes and skin as pale as hers?

Ch: 1

I lye in a clearing on a blanket, that was covering the forests floor. I had my arms under my head, using them as a pillow, and stared up at the dark night sky. The only light coming form the half moon high above my head. I quietly listened to the rustles of the trees as the cool night air blew through them and the sounds of the forest animals scattering about for a late night meal or shelter. I loved the night. Especially here in Forks in my little clearing where I could actually spot the bright starry sky instead of an endless blanket of clouds. It was in a higher elevation, so it took me a little while to get up to the clearing but I came up here every single night since I've moved back to Forks. And, once I made my way back down, trying my hardest not to fall and break my neck, I would feel myself slip into a slight depression when I looked up and could no longer see the beautiful stars, but an endless sea of clouds that threatened to spill it's contents rudely on my head.

I closed my eyes, and breathed in the strong smell of the wild, a far much better smell than that of being stuck in a stale room all day. I wish I could stay up here forever, and not have to worry about making it home on time before the suns rays decide to wake up the little town of Forks, Washington. Even though it is cloudy and rains here like there's no tomorrow, the suns rays are so powerful that even through the thickest of clouds, it could injure me to an extent that could lead to my death.

Even though I feared the sun, I yearned to actually see what this world looks like in daylight. I've seen what it looks like through pictures and on TV, but I'm sure it's a far better experience to see it with my own eyes. Plus, I'd be able to feel the sun warm my pale skin. I hated my skin. I wished so much that it could look like all those pretty supermodels who looked like they've been bathing in the sun. My skin wasn't even compared to that. It was so pale that I actually wonder why I don't glow in the dark.

You're probably wondering why sunlight could kill me and no, I am not a vampire that will suddenly combust into flames as soon as the sunlight hit my skin. But, funny thing is, it's actually quiet similar to that.

It all started about a year after I was born. My parents, Renee and Charlie Swan, were taking me out on a beach outing one day. They heard on the news that they were suppose to get a clear break from the clouds and since it's not sunny very often in Forks, my mom called up the Blacks and asked if they would like to come along on a beach picnic. When we arrived it was still a bit cloudy but they set up a blanket anyway, with me sitting down with my favorite teddy bear while the adults set up the rest of the things and talked.

I guess about an hour into their picnic, the clouds finally started to clear and the sun was unveiled. It wasn't long until I started to scream my head off and my mom thinking I was crying because I was hungry, started to fix a bottle. When she finished the bottle and turned to me, she noticed that my face and arms were starting to turn red with some spots starting to blister up. Both my mom and dad panicked and rushed me straight to the hospital.

The doctor ran some tests and said that it was an allergic reaction to the sun. Since I hadn't been expose to much sun since I was born, my skin had a bad reaction to it. He told my mom to keep me in long sleeves, pants, hats, and wear a high SPF sunscreen and I should be fine. So, with some antibiotics and some ointment to put on my burned skin, my parents headed back home.

My parent's had hoped that this incident was going to be a one time thing and if they followed the doctors orders on what to do if I were to be out in the sun, then everything would be okay. But, they were wrong. About a year and a half later I was two and a half years old and surprise, we finally got another sunny day. My dad was at work, so it was just Renee and I. We were in the kitchen and my mom was going to make me some oatmeal for breakfast but realized she ran out.

"Sweaty, I forgot I made you up the last of it for yesterday's breakfast." She said with a sigh, "What else do you want? Some cereal? Eggs?"

"No oat-ameal?" I asked with a pout.

"No sweaty, how about I make you up a batch of pancakes?" She asked with a smile. I was a very stubborn child so it took my mom a while to convince me that I could not have oatmeal.

"Fwine, I want pwancakes." I said still pouting. My mom just laughed and promised that I could have some tomorrow since they have to go to the store and get some groceries anyway.

After I ate my breakfast, Renee put some sun block on me (which I liked because I loved the smell) and then got me dressed in a long sleeve shirt, pants, a hat that they bought just for sunny days like this, and even a pair of gloves for my hands. Renee was scarred to go out since this would be my first time in the sun since my "allergic" reaction to it. We've only had a couple of sunny days since then but she and Charlie didn't want to chance something like that again. But, she didn't want to keep me inside like a hermit forever whenever the sun came out, so she just followed the doctors orders in making sure my skin was well covered and then we were out the door. But to her horror, we weren't even all the way to the car yet, when my skin started breaking out underneath my clothing and I started to scream at the painful burning sensation. My mom, rushed me back inside and looked me over from head to toe. Even though I had pretty much my whole body covered with some type of clothing, my skin was beat red with swelling blisters. My mom was a wreck and didn't know what to do, so she called Charlie and told him what had happened. He told her to call the doctor right away and he would be on his way home.

Dr. Roberts came to our house and was surprised to see me full of sunburns once again and told my parents he would like to do some tests the next day when it wasn't so sunny. So, my dad and Renee took me in the following rainy day for the second and definitely not the last of my tests that I would receive.

After several tests that day, Dr. Roberts went over the results and couldn't find anything blood or skin related to what my condition could be, so he could only say that my condition was a very severe allergy to the sun and I was not to be exposed to it. My mom was mad that he couldn't do anything about it and that night after they put me to bed, Renee and Charlie had a fight over my condition.

"He can't expect us to keep her in the house whenever it's sunny! That's just ridiculous!" Renee said as she watched Charlie plop down on the couch and rub is face in his hands tiredly.

"Well what are we suppose to do Renee?" he asked with a sigh, "Do you want to risk our daughter getting burned every time she goes out into the sun? Because I sure as hell don't."

"No, Charlie I don't. But there has to be a cure or something for whatever she has! I don't want her to live the rest of her life sitting inside on a sunny day while all her friends are out having fun!" She exasperated.

"I don't either but you heard Dr. Roberts. There is no cure for allergies, all you can do is try to prevent a reaction from happening and the only way we can do that is to keep her out of the sun completely." Charlie said, starting to get annoyed.

"But what if it's not just some stupid allergy? What if it's something else that can maybe be cured?" Renee asked as she sat down on the couch next to Charlie.

"Renee, what else could it possibly be?" he asked.

"When Bella first had her reaction, I called my mom and told her what had happened. So she talked to her dermatologist about it and he said that he would like to examine Bella and do a couple of tests. He thinks that whatever it is, he might be able to prescribe some type of an ointment or cream that will coat the skin and keep Bella from being burned."

"Dr. Roberts ran all the tests he could and he didn't find a damn thing. I think we need to face the fact that there isn't anything else we can do but keep her out of the sun, that's it!" Charlie said and grabbed the remote to turn the TV on.

"That's it?" Renee said angrily and stood up with her arms crossed. "That's all you can say? There might be a doctor out there that can help our child and you don't want to do a damn thing about?"

"There's nothing else we can do Renee!" Charlie yelled standing up to face her, "I don't want to send my daughter to some high priced quack out in Beverly Hills, just so he can wring us out of our money for nothing!"

"Well, too bad! I don't care if you don't want to or not! I am taking her out there to meet with Dr. Greene. It won't hurt to get an experts opinion on what could be wrong with her!" Renee yelled back.

"No you're not! We already know what's wrong with her and he is going to tell you exactly what we already know!" Charlie shouted.

"You can't tel-" Renee was about to shout when I walked into the room with my teddy clutched in my little hands.

"Mama, what's wong?" I asked then yawned.

"Nothing sweaty, you're daddy and I were just talking." She said with a smile and scooped me up.

Then she turned to Charlie and with an eerily calm voice she said, "I am taking Bella to my mom's this weekend. It has already been arranged and she has an appointment with Dr Greene on Monday. Don't worry about the sun, California is getting a major storm in so it's suppose to rain from Sunday all the way into Wednesday and we leave Saturday night. We will be back sometime late Wednesday or early Thursday.

With that she turned around not giving Charlie a chance to say a word, and walked up the stairs to tuck me back into bed.

I wish I could say that my dad was right about Dr Roberts but after meeting up with Dr Greene and he did his full tests and examination, my mother and grandmother finally got my true diagnosis.

"Well, I believe I have figured out what is causing Isabella to have such a strong reaction to the sun." Dr Greene said as he looked at my chart. "I was hoping it was just some type of allergy but after going through her blood work, I noticed that Isabella's nucleotide excision repair enzymes, have been mutated. The nucleotide excision repair enzymes are in your blood and help to repair any damage that is caused my ultraviolet light. Since Isabella's are mutated, they can't help to repair the damage that is caused by the sun, which is why she gets severe sunburns and blisters when she is exposed to UV rays. This mutation is normally found in an autosomal recessive genetic skin disorder called xeroderma pigmentos, otherwise known as XP."

"So, you're saying my daughter has a genetic skin disorder called XP?" My mother asked, "And you found this out just by looking at her blood? Shouldn't her other doctor have found that out as well?"

"Yes, she does. And yes, by looking through her blood cells and completing a sequence analysis, I was able to find the mutation in her DNA. Now, this mutation could have been caused by either the mother or father holding the mutated gene, in which they passed it on through Isabella's DNA." He said and handed her the blood results. "As for her other doctor not being able to find out is probably because their blood lab is not licensed to do full sequence analysis's."

"Okay, so- what exactly does XP do? I mean other than the sunburns, is there anything else I need to look for and is there a cure for it?" Renee asked slowly.

"Well, I'm sad to say that there is no cure for XP. Once the gene is mutated, we can't do anything to repair it. But there are other symptoms to XP other than the sunburns. When your mother told me what had occurred and how old she was, I had a second idea of what it could be. You normally see signs of XP in children one to two years of age and it normally affects the skin, eyes, and nervous system so; when I did her exam I looked at her corneas and noticed that her eyes are slightly sensitive to light. Also, I noticed she has a light spread of freckles on her face as well as a few sunspots where she was burned and this all usually happens amongst XP victims. Here is a full list of symptoms." Dr Greene said handing my mother the list.

My mother scanned through the list while my Grandmother read it over her shoulder. Their eyes both caught one word and they both looked at each other horrified and turned back to the doctor.

"Cancer? This can cause my baby to have cancer?" Renee grated out.

Dr Greene looked at them sullenly, "Yes, unfortunately individuals under 20 years of age who have XP, have a greater risk of onset of non-melanoma skin cancer."

"Oh my god, is-is she going to get skin cancer?" Renee asked wide-eyed.

"There is a possibility yes, but if you take all the precautions with her, then you are setting her chances of getting skin cancer, very low." He said, trying to calm her down.

"Well, what kind of precautions do I have to take?" She asked.

"Isabella must not be exposed to the sun. When it's sunny out, make sure she is in a room where the windows are fully covered and no UV light is inside. If I'm not mistaking I think I remember Marie saying that you guys live in Forks Washington correct?" He asked.

"Yes, that's correct." Renee said.

"That's good, so it's mostly cloudy. You shouldn't have to worry about covering the windows if it is cloudy out, since she hasn't had any reaction while being out when it's not sunny, then that must mean that her XP condition is not that severe. But, you must keep your eyes open for any signs of a reaction, even if it is cloudy out. Her condition can worsen and I am afraid that the precautions are even more strict if they are."

"Worsen? How could they worsen and what would we have to do if they did?" Grandma Marie asked, stroking my hair as a napped in her lap. What could I say; all those tests wore me out?

"Well, she would start to have a reaction even on the cloudiest of days. The littlest of UV light could kill a person with a severe case of XP. If that were the case with Isabella, then her living confinements would have to be suited for someone with severe XP, which means absolutely all UV rays must be blocked during the day."

The rest of the meeting was pretty much spent with the doctor giving Renee pamphlets and other information on my disease. How to help your child and how to make their lives as normal as possible, was one of them.

Hah, normal as possible. Renee thought we were lucky that I didn't have such a severe case and thought I was lucky and was going to be able to live normally except for on sunny days. But, boy was she wrong.

Wednesday afternoon was still cloudy outside so my mom decided we would early Thursday morning that way we could spend more time with Grandma Marie. I was sitting on the living room floor playing with a new play set that she got me. Grandma Marie and Renee sat on the couch discussing some "grown up" stuff while I was having fun playing when my arm on the left side that was facing the living room window, suddenly started to burn like it did when Renee was taking me out to go to the grocery store.

As soon as they noticed, they covered up the windows and mom put on some antibiotic ointment that I had gotten from Dr Roberts, while Grandma called Dr Greene to explain what was going on. He cancelled the rest of his appointments for the day and rushed over to take a look.

He said that my Grandma and Renee were smart to remember to cover the windows and keep me out of the light. And after he looked my arm over, he told them something that Renee had feared to hear, my condition was starting to take a turn for the worse and I was not to be in any UV light for the rest of my life.

So here I am now, seventeen years old, and haven't seen any sunlight since that day. Renee, being stubborn and not forgiving Charlie for not wanting to look into my condition further and not wanting to live in the stuffy little town of Forks anymore (her words, not mine) blamed it all on Charlie and moved us out with my Grandma Marie a few weeks later where they made sure I had a room that was suitable for my living conditions. When I was old enough to go to school, Renee started home schooling me and Grandma Marie helped her out on that a lot. When I was about ten years old, Renee started going out on dates again so on those nights Grandma and I would sit out on the back porch at night and talk. We couldn't see the stars very well there since we were in the City of Los Angeles. But, I still loved just being able to go outside and feel the cool night air on my skin.

About a year or two after, my mom was starting to get restless with having to home school me and be stuck at home all day. She said one of the other reasons why she divorced Charlie, was because she wanted to be able to do things she never got to, like having a job, going out places with friends, enjoying the sunshine and trying new things. I knew my mother loved me and she was just lost in trying to find herself so it never really bothered me that she wanted to be out instead of spending time with me. Besides I had Grandma Marie to look after me. But sadly when I was thirteen, Grandma Marie got really sick and passed away. It devastated both my mom and I. I was going to miss her so much and I was so afraid I wasn't going to be able to say a proper goodbye at her funeral, but they arranged it to be at 7:30 at night so the sun would have set by then.

After her passing, I asked my mom if I could join the online school at night that my doctor told us about. That way, my mom could continue with whatever she had to do and wouldn't have to worry about my schooling. I convinced her that I would probably be better off learning from an actual teacher anyway, in which she amiably agreed.

There is a special online school for kids just like me. We get about ten kids per online "classroom" and get to see each other and the teacher via web cam. I absolutely love it because I don't feel like such an outcast and freak when I get to talk to others who have the same condition as me. So not only do I get to learn, but I get to socialize with other kids my age.

When I was fifteen, my mom met and started to date a guy named Phil, a minor league baseball player who was (and still is) trying to make it out to be in the major leagues and play for the Los Angeles Dodgers. So, with him being a baseball player, he travels from state to state with his team to try and make it to nationals. I saw how unhappy she was whenever he had to leave, and new that my mother would have given anything to be able to travel with him (and I knew it was something she really wanted to do since she listed it as another reason as to why she divorced Charlie.) But, now she was stuck with a daughter who couldn't be exposed to any UV light and could only be outside when it was dark.

So, I sat my mother down one day and told her that I wanted to move in with Charlie and give her and Phil some space and room to develop their relationship. She hated the idea at first but after a few weeks and some convincing, I got her to agree.

And so, that all leads us to where I am now. Living in Forks Washington with my father, Chief Charlie Swan. Yep, he became the chief of police. With all the extra time he had not worrying about being home with his family, he was able to take the job when Chief Grey retired.

I sighed again as I looked up in the dark night sky of my little clearing and the alarm on my watch that I wore on my left wrist started to beep, signaling it was time for me to pack up and start to head back home. I gave myself two hours to get home before the sun came up. It only took about a half an hour to walk back down to the house since it was a lot easier going downhill than up, but I still gave myself enough time just in case.

I took one last look and deep breathe of the fresh night sky, and then sat up to pack my water bottle, blanket, and book back into the confines of my back pack. I then grabbed the flashlight off of the clearings floor and started my trek back down to head home before the sun would start to rise and wake up the town with it's deadly rays.

AN: Well, what did you think? Please let me know! Your reviews would be greatly appreciated, thank you thank you! :)