Aro is complicated, and sometimes he tries to be a better man.  He likes Bella, and wants her to be happy.  He knows what she's been through, and he's not trying to make her life difficult.  But he's also got his issues, and he isn't dealing well with the way things are after the war.  He's having trouble reconciling what was with what is.  Going from being the leader of a huge, powerful coven, to just an ordinary dad, with teenagers, no friends, and no real standing, is a challenge for him.  Joham messed with him too.

Bella didn't touch Jasper, and she hunted and spent time in the woods before returning to Volterra.  Alice probably didn't consider the scent, but it doesn't matter.  Everyone knew they were going to meet with Jasper.  Secrets are almost impossible to keep in Volterra.  Alice and Bella neglected their friendship for two years, and came to the point where they blamed and hated one another.  But there's a lot more good history between them than bad, and the same perfect memory that makes it hard to let go of love, makes it hard to give up on a friendship either.  Even when Alice blamed Bella for Esme's death, she still bought her the charm.  Bella's anger at Alice came with learning all she'd held back, and she really only had a short time to deal with that knowledge.  

Rosalie always comes off as the b!tch.  I like seeing her more as the one most broken.  If you beat it, sooner or later even a good dog will bite.  I think the war had a serious impact on Rose.  She lost Emmett, who was all hers, from his creation on.  He was everything Royce wasn't, and that was her stability for so long.  Losing Emmett along with her beauty, again took everything that mattered away from her.  Garrett showed her there's mre to life than having beauty, and a good man.  Before they became a couple, they talked.  Bella only saw a little of that, but they spent their evenings outside, looking at the stars in the Alaskan sky, and talked for hours.  Garrett's a good man who sees more than her beauty.  Like Carlisle does with Bella, he encouraged her in ways that helped her blossom.  Besides, Garrett likes women with some sass and spirit.  

Not having wireless these days is a real hardship.  I'm probably the least wired person I know, and even I miss it when it's gone.  My husband doesn't have any patience when the internet isn't accessable.  He's on the phone to get it fixed the minute it drops.  As long as I can still write, I'm patient, but I miss connecting with folks online.  Kids having to entertain themselves without a screen?  How dare you abuse your children! (giggle)  There's still a lot of story to tell.  I've been trying to look at the story objectively, to figure out what could have been cut.  I can't find anything that doesn't impact the story in some small way.  Maybe my scope was too big, but I have problems writing short stories.        

I'm a sucker for stories where the romantic interests behave like adults, and talk to each other.  So many stories have artificial drama, just because they won't talk!   In the books, sometimes Bella would avoid confrontation and do whatever she wanted.  But I recall one hard conversation with Edward, where she admitted some things concerning Jacob.  It's this maturity I tried to show in this story.  

Before the war, Jasper may have quit on Alice for cheating.  But he's a changed man, and he's ready to embrace his feelings, and love her fully, no matter what happened.  

Aro wasn't looking for a mate, but when Bella and Alice seemed to fall into his lap, he felt it would be crazy not to try.  He really does want to be a parent.  When Joham was in control of Volterra, he was kept from his youngest two kids, as a way to punish him for what Joham saw as disloyalty.  He's only really had two years with Armando and Arianna, and that's in the chaos of the aftermath and trying to rebuild.  

The hybrids were abandoned by their fathers, because in many instances their fathers didn't realize they had children.  Joham controlled them so completely, he was able to suggest they forget.  "Go do this little task for me, then you can go home to your wife, my friend."  Aro knew he had children, because Joham wanted him to know the horror of what he'd done.  Caius only had Dora, because Joham was afraid of him having someone who could compete with him.  Dora's ability works like Joham's, but in a different way. She controls people physically, but their minds are their own.  Joham controled them mentally, though they knew they were being used.  Caius linked everyone together under one goal.  The fathers weren't allowed to bond with their children, and often their mates didn't know they existed.  Many of the hybrids were brought by Joham, and they're his own children.  He liked hybrids better than vampires, but they were still only tools to him.  

When I wrote this, I loved how Bella and Carlisle created a different kind of love story from hers and Edward's.  They both follow their patterns, but then realize they can't deal with each other in the same way.  It's different, and in Bella's case, I think it's more mature.  There's no love at first sight here, and it has to grow and be nurtured.  It takes intention.  One thing I love in romantic stories, is when two people talk like adults, instead of stewing in their misunderstanding like kids.  Being able to apologize and move on, is so much better than holding a grudge and waiting until "irresistable forces" drive them together in spite of their anger.  Calling him, when she's still afraid he's distancing himself from her, is a sign of maturity.  

she's finally starting to move past her grief.  Carlisle helped her take the first steps, but it would have been easy to retreat when he turned his back on her.  There's just so much sucking need in Volterra, she can't backslide.  I think a lot of her grief stemmed for how she felt about Edward.  In her eyes, he set the sun in the sky, and she thought they were just destined to be together.  She fell in love, when there was really no connection between them, except for his beauty and being off limits.  I always thought her idea of ove was flawed; He's beautiful, I love him!  She had a high school infatuation she blew up into the real thing.  She's more mature now, and she knows what real love is.  Losing the magical love, has left her open for something grounded in the real world, not the fantasy.  

That Harry Potter reference was fun.  I've thought of writing fan fiction for that series, but I don't think I'm up to the task.  Rowling didn't leave many dangling strings or unwritten back stories.  Add to that how fully fleshed her world is, and the length of the series, and I'd have a hard time keeping all the balls in the air.  Then she also wrote the epilogue, showing how everyone turned out and what happens in the future, so all the bases are covered.  My biggest impediment is remembering all the magic, and terminology for spellcasting.   

I think yours is my hundredth review!  

Bella keeps stumbling, clumsily along, making messes and knocking over things.  But it works for her, and when she tries to clean up the mess she made, she winds up  working through a bigger mess someone else left behind.  I think it's because she's not a leader, or an ancient vampire, or crazed for power, that she manages to find the heart of the matter and jump right in to fix it.

Carlisle's heart is in the right place, but he plays too much by the rules, while Bella just charges in.  Together they have the right balance.   

There are a lot who would be angry with Bella, if they really knew what she did.  When the Cullens showed up at Volterra, they stopped the rumor mill before it could spread all the bad news.  Dora has a way of hearing all the rumors and secrets.  Aro likens her to the "fly on the wall" when it comes to what she knows.  She's small, quiet, and she's had the run of the complex since she first started walking.  She knows anything Caius talked about around her, and she heard from the survivors what happened.  Plus she's into research.  

Caius and Joham sort of fed off one another.  Caius believed there would be a confrontation between vampires and humans, and Joham was trying to create a super soldier, and an army that would blend in with humanity until they were called up.  Caius was fully behind the war in Denali, because it offered him revenge for their earlier embarrassment.  He didn't intend his wife and daughter to suffer, he thought they'd easily win, and they'd come home victorious.  Joham did insist his wife join them, but Caius believed she was protected at the rear of the army.  Aro knew the wives weren't safe there, but he embraced the possibility of being a widower, with the freedom to take Alice as his mate.  

I've never seen Bella as particularly compassionalte, and the girl in the books wouldn't have moved to save Dora.  But Dora is so close to Nessie's age, and in many ways this Bella feels responsible for the creation of the hybrids.  She's lost so much, she can understand how Dora feels.  Before the war, she led a charmed existence, and now she can see how everything is interconnected, and she's not above it all.  

The war changed everyone, even if I don't write it all out.  Mom once told me about a friend of my dad's who went to Vietnam.  He lost his leg, and he came home with stories he wouldn't even tell his wife, unless he was very drunk.  Some things are subtle, and others are just too horrific to tell.  I've learned along the way that readers fill in gaps with their own imaginations, if I don't dump it all out there.  If I say "abuse" I don't have to write the details.  In this story, the after effects are far more telling than any details, and Dora still has her story to tell.  She's not the only one.  

Jasper could have influenced his victims, for sure.  But I sort of think it would be hard for him not to feel their final struggles.  I can imagine, when they're on the brink of death, their minds would dump all that fear and horror, and he wouldn't be able to change that.  But who knows?    

Thank you for fixing it; you're awesome!  I usually don't worry about it, until the two weeks have passed, and it drops off the update page.  I'm still working on the assumption that keeping the document size close to uniform has a positive effect.  I imagine a truck filled with packages, and they stack up nice and neat if they're all close to the same size--no errors.  Maybe it was that pretty blue coffee mug on top that messed up the pile this time.  (grin)  

I don't know if Bella is one to pick up strays, but she sure found a wildcat.  It just seemed obvious to me, that the Volturi would want a hybrid of their own, before they outlawed them for everyone else.  I could imagine legalistic Caius working to create his own hybrid, while it was still allowed, then writing a law against it soon afterward.  He probably would have kept her a secret, if not for his wife finding out.     

I still have trouble picturing Carlisle as Fascinelli, since he was cast so much older than 26.  Young Robert Redford comes to mind, but he's usually so tan, I can't imagine him vampire pale.  My casting director is still sort of looking for him, but I can see him in my mind when I write him.  Carlisle again put his patients first, and this time it almost cost him his chances with Bella.  I don't like writing characters who have it all figured out and never make mistakes.  Carlisle didn't think he was being rotten to Bella, when he told her it couldn't go any further.  He thought he was allowing her to backslide into her grief, which is what he thought she wanted.  He also reassured her she would always be welcomed as part of the family.  When she broke down and cried, he assumed most of that was more grief, and reacting to Alice's attack.  He just decided he didn't want to be caught up in her pain.  He didn't realize she was crying over him.

Pure fluff is hard for me to read.  Even when I love the characters, I don't like easy storys withough some drama.  I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop, and when it doesn't, I feel like it should have.  I've also noticed when the stories are too fluffy, the writer puts in contrived situations to move the plot.  The Big Misunderstanding, or the Deep Dark Secret from the Past, for example.  I had lots of fun writing this story, and the twists and turns were so much fun.  Originally, I'm sure I had lots of cliffhangers, but in reorganizing and editing, I'm letting a lot of them go, for more uniform chapters.  

I love good villains!  The evil, mustache-twirling fiend who wants to take over the world, makes me yawn.  I love it when they've got their own motivations, and they're not just out to cause mischief.  I especially love it when they've got redeeming qualities, and something that makes the audience identify with them.  Loki from the new Thor movies comes to mind.  Part evil deity, and part hurt little boy, I really like him.  The cute actor didn't hurt either.  I also loved Snape, even before he was redeemed.  Maybe I just thought Alan Rickman was sexy in his outfit, but I sort of forgave him, when I learned that he hated Harry because of things his father had done to him.  

There is a lot more to Aro than what I put in this story.  It was hard to resist adding in some of his secrets.  I've pulled up his outtake, and I might finish it and add it here.  I've got so many stories on my task bar, I'm often torn which one to write.  I'm writing an original novel, a new fan fic about Jasper, a detailed outtake for one I've finished, the last chapter in my Leah story, and now that Aro outtake.  All this along with editing CFH and having a chapter every other day.  

Alice is such a complicated character.  In two of my stories, I've written her with Aro.  I really think they would be a great compliment to one another--if Aro isn't cast as the old creep.  In one, Alice abandoned Jasper and went to Aro, because she was having visions of the vampire End of Days.  It was in an epilogue to a long story, and I had a character who came in to fill the hole in Jasper's life.  She hated that Jasper never quite got over his lost love.  Alice has so much that was never written, so when I wrote my one-shot about her, I had to find a way to reconcile the bubbly, seemingly shallow, party girl, with the precog who was institutionalized, and can't remember her family.  It's pretty dark, if you want to check it out here.  

Thank you so much for the gushing reviews.  It warms my heart to see someone 'gets it.'  I know I gushed to my poor daughter as I wrote it, and I had to cackle over every twist and turn.   

You know it's funny, but after writing for so long, I can watch movies and TV shows, and know the writer won't get rid of certain characters, no matter how much the fans despise them.  Some characters just move the plot, even if they're doing rotten things.  Aro makes a lot of big ripples in his pond, and yeah, it would be crazy to trust him.  

Aro can be a creep, but sometimes he's a charming creep.  He's not above using his kids to get what he wants, but he does love them, and want to protect them.  

Carlisle tried to tell Bella that he puts his patients above all else, but she didn't expect it to be like this.  They both have a lot to learn.  

Aro definitely has a high creep factor.  He does love his kids, he just doesn't know how to be a dad.  Alice didn't mean to send her into his clutches, she was panicked, and didn't realize Aro would change direction so fast.  Nobody's perfect in this story.  

I'm tickled to be featured.  

You hit the nail on the head.  Aro comes with some bonuses as well, since Bella likes his children.  Aro may be a conniving little blood sucker, but he knows how to get what he wants.  

Bella's not exactly a pushover, but Aro is good at getting what he wants.  This is a bumpy road, and nothing here comes easy.  Carlisle realizes he messed up and he was ready to apologize, but Bella isn't ready to hear it.  In a way, he's still expecting her to behave as Esme, and he has to learn she's different.  He only has his own experiences to go on.  He was able to get Esme through her pain, and they fell in love.  He's afraid Bella is more like Gabriella, and he can't offer what she really wants.  They still have a lot to learn about one another.  

Arianna's boyfriend didn't attack her.  It was Jasper, but Arianna saw him as Vito.  Jasper has developed a new way to use his talent, manipulating perception as well as emotion.     

Colette as she is now, is unlikable.  It's fine if you want to dislike her; she still has a lot of growing up and learning to do.  Everyone from Volterra is dealing with the fall-out of what Joham did to them.  There are also a few little unknowns that are having a big effect on them all.  

Bella was critical in the war.  Alice knew it, and she also knew that if Bella knew Edward would die there, she would have wanted to run away with her family.  If the vampires and wolves didn't make their stand together, then Joham would have picked them off a few at a time.  He would have found them eventually, and when they were moire vulnerable, likely when Nessie gave birth.  Alice saw many different outcomes, but she didn't see Bella's shield take them all out.  She just knew if they ran, everyone would be lost.  All those memories and visions of the war, were driving Alice insane  

The affair with Aro was her way of keeping her sanity.  Dropping it all in Aro's lap, gave her just enough strength to keep going.  In a way, she did that when she met Jasper, coming to him with all her fear and brokenness.  Edward was also a big help in dealing with her visions, and she doesn't have him anymore.  Alice probably misses him as much as Bella, and somewhere in her mind, she blames herself for his death.  

Jasper is in shock.  He can't believe "his" Alice would do that to him.  He doesn't yet see that she's not a little girl being manipulated by Aro, but a woman struggling not to lose herself in her visions.  A long time ago, her parents sent her to a mental institution.  This Alice has suffered a lot of loss because of her "gift."  Jasper can keep her calm and sooth her, but he doesn't yet understand how much she has to deal with.  Edward was her buffer, and she doesn't have him any more.  

There's still a lot of story to tell.  It's good to be back.     

I should have responded before I went on my trip.  Aro is not finished being a problem, in fact, he's just getting warmed up.  How often did their mercy and compassion come back to bite them in the butt in canon?  It's difficult to keep secrets in Volterra, and Aro usually knows everyone's business.  

There is a lot of grief and anger still at work in everyone, on both sides of the war.  Carlisle messed up.  I don't like to write perfect characters who don't make mistakes.  Alice made a whopper of a mistake, and there's a lot of fall out ahead.  There's still a lot of twists and turns ahead, and no one is immune to getting some of the mess on them.    

Carlisle thinks he's always going to be living in Edward's shadow if he pursues Bella.  He's been working so hard to pull her out of her grief, and then it all comes crashing back in on them.  He's also been trying to tell her how much Alice has been damaged, and she didn't seem to get it.  

I liked Leonora, and I could easily imagine a story like hers happening in Volterra.  If you want to get the attention of the Volturi, you attack their city, and what could be seen as their people.  

I think having a retaliatory affair is common when someone is cheated on.  If Carlisle doesn't want Bella, then she's single, and Jasper rationalized that it might be a way through their pain.  This made Bella realize she loved Carlisle.  Still more twists ahead.  

Good luck on your husband's procedure.  

She didn't plan it, but it all came out--now the fall-out.  Maybe I'll get one more chapter before I leave, and hopefully it's a better place than this one.  

I also think about how Alices visions got her committed to a mental institution.  Scary stuff goes on in her mind, and this time the bad things happened.  You're not in left field at all.  With so much grief and loss, none of them have really healed and put it behind them.  It still comes out in unexpected ways.  I did a lot of wicked things with these characters, including letting them behave wildly out of character, but with reason.  They're not the perfect, polished Cullens; they're damaged, and trying to figure out how their lives work with so many of their loved ones gone.  There's a sense of violation that comes with losing those who shouldn't die.  Bella is probably the closest to healing, because she and Rosalie are the only ones who really confronted their grief head on.  She's still deeply hurt, but she's ready to move on and see life beyond the war.  

I'm a sucker for seeing guys be regular guys.  Letting Carlisle be a bit of a goofball makes him a bit more real to me.  Men who can laugh, even at themselves, are personable, and I like that much more than brooding sexuality.  I like thinking that being a vampire, wouldn't mute being a man first.  

Aro is just too much fun to write.  I sort of picture him like Bruno from Dancing WT Stars.  Not the looks, but the exuberance and passion.  I don't see him as the stuffy, dated, relic shown in the movies.  Many readers have a strong negative reaction to him, but I have a stronger bias against Caius.  Fan girls like Caius, because he's the cute blond actor, but he's the pompous, legalistic killer, who destroyed Irina for making a mistake.  

Well, as you might know by now, there's a lot more shake-ups in store, and many twists.   

The city full of vampires is a little hard to swallow, unless you have the population complicit somehow.  I like that she still hasn't hunted anything but animals, and so she sees vampires as murderers.  Funny, that she never saw Edward that way.  Aro with children is an interesting twist.  He's got a son, but his two daughters just mess with him in a lot of ways.  Now that they're teenagers, he's got his hands full.  I think Carlisle used to be friendly with Aro, before Gabriella was killed, and Aro still sees him as a friend.  I don't think Carlisle ever forgave him for voting against her.  He sees him as a key player in vampire politics, and he recognizes that others see him as a leader.  Carlisle is very concerned about the hybrids, so he'll even help Aro, if it means making their lives easier.  

There's still a lot of story to tell, and this one has some twists.   

It surprised me how many places Meyer wrote were real.  Forks, Port Angeles, the Quileutes, Denali, Volterra, and even the Italian restaurant where they went on their date, are all real.  Imagining vampires in a real setting is a bit challenging.  I think they'd be noticed occasionally, especially in Volterra, where they've lived for centuries.  I'm sure the residents there would know if there wre vampires living among them.  I still have trouble wrapping my mind around the number of people who would have to die, for them to survive for so long.  

I like Aro as he's written.  I picture him different than he was presented in the movies.  I don't know why, but I picture him much more complicated than he's portrayed.  I've written an outake about his origin that sort of goes along with this story, but I never managed to finish it.  It's too easy to see characters as black or white, good or evil, and I like multi-layerd people with the capacity for both.  Having daughters, that's got him right out of his element.  

The hybrids have a few different reactions to Bella.  Some are like Nahuel, and dthey're in awe of her, and others have a different view of her.  Thanks again for the details.  

I'd intended for them to spend more time with Ness, but imagining a group that size coming to stay, would probably be a lot of effort for a new mom.  Jasper is trying to help them out, but Colette isn't going to let go so easily.  Anton was my answer to the human woman in canon, who knew the secrets, and accepted that she would either become a vampire, or become food.  Carlisle would never let that happen.  I'm pretty sure the Volterrani would know if there were vampires among them, especially after they've lived there so long.    

Alice has changed a lot.  You're one step ahead of me, on Bella and Carlisle's relationship.  

I love stories where the characters can converse in a mature way.  I've read too many stories where the characters can't talk, wiithout embarrassment, anger, jealousy, or misunderstanding.  It's irritating when characters declare themselves in love, when they can't even talk to each other.  Jasper is a favorite character of mine.  The way I see it, you can't have empathy if you don't like people.  He's insightful, because he cares and wants the best for his family.  Carlisle has talked with Colette, and so has Bella.  She's not listening.  She's got a messed up idea of how things should be, and the will to make it happen.  

The way Bella deals with Colette, is from her interactions with Esme.  It would have been so easy to fall into the trap of competing with the girl, and being jealous.  But instead she chose to behave as Esme might.  The war has given her some maturity.  She's falling for Carlisle, but she's not going to force it, even if it means Colette could steal him away.  It sort of reminds me of how Edward allowed other boys to ask her out, giving her ample opportunity to make a different choice.  

I don't think Colette realizes what she's doing is wrong.  She doesn't see it as adversarial and divisive.  She only knows what she wants, and what makes sense to her.  She's a child who wants a toy, and doesn't understand that it might belong to someone else.  She hasn't developed enough empathy to see outside her own little bubble.  Daddy said Carlisle was mine, and that's all that matters!  

One thing I think Meyer did, was establish her immortals as frozen in time.  Once they reach the age of maturity or are vamped, they don't grow any more, either emotionally or physically.  A mature Jacob is supposed to be exactly the same, even eight years later, when Nessie reaches that point.  It's like a stasis field.  I never saw it that way, and it's one of those things that bothered me.  Edward was frozen at seventeen, so it was acceptable for him to be with Bella, even though he was actually 103.  That doesn't wash with me.  Age is more than what you look like physically; it's experiences, maturity, and even generational markers. Eight year old Nessie with twenty-five year old Jake would be just as wrong.  When she's 18, he's going to be thirty-five!  Not if she was my daughter!  

Then there's the whole idea of magical mate selection--ugh!  I hate the whole idea of soul mates, one perfect person in the universe for me--love at first sight thing.  Bella thought she had that with Edward, and is discovering the universe holds so much more.  People are multi-faceted, they grow and change, and there's no magic to keeping a relationship strong.  The imprinting is just weird.  To me it feels like laziness on the part of the writer.  Why write two people growing together and discovering love, when you can snap your fingers and call it divine destiny.  It's a deus ex machina of the romance genre.

I do write in canon, so Jacob is married to Nessie. But it's not exactly problem free.  Later in the story, I show how Jacob treats Ness like a child.  Sometimes it's hard to write canon, when it doesn't make sense to me.  Later in the story, I get to confront some of the imprint issues.  

I think this story benefits from Twilight not being so current.  As time passes, people forget how certain they were that Bella belonged only with Edward.  Seeing the actors split helps too.  When I first wrote it, those two were a hot couple, and the idea of Bella with Carlisle was hard to swallow.  I think the imaginary war in the movies helps as well.  Time does heal, and Bella and Carlisle are getting there. 

I finally had to calculate when Carlisle was born, and then look up what was happening in history at the time.  It really puts it in perspective to see colonies established in this country, and England signing treaties with Scotland.  Somewhere between inquisitions and witch burnings.  He's very old-fashioned, but he's also old enough to know where legislating morality failed.  Part of what makes him who his is, is his faith. Somet things make sense to him, like courtship.  He's not a man who could hook-up or enjoy a one-night-stand.  He's not a friend with benefits.  

My story about Jasper is called "Crimson Rose of Texas," and it's still a WIP.  After I finish with Leah and the wolves, I'll probably start that one.  I know where it's going, but I hate when I don't have a clear end in sight.  Jasper still hasn't told me.    

Ugh!  I hate computer problems....reminds me I need to back up my writing; it's been a while. Joham liked to take the lost and broken, so they wouldn't be missed.  That didn't stop Colette from loving her mother.  Trying to come up with vampiric gifts is fun, but it's too easy to make them too powerful.  Colette's mother had AIDS, and for a poor woman in Africa, that was a death sentence.  I think that's why Colette's talent was healing; she was trying to save her mother, even before she was born.  Healing is powerful, but considering she has to take on the afliction to heal it, makes it a little more reasonable.  

"I'm busy getting busy!"  (giggle)  Carlisle is so laid back and non-confrontational, I don't think he's ready for the drama.  

My husband is a computer guy, with all the technical certifications to intimidate most computer geeks.  He could probably figure it out, if he had access to their end.  But they probably couldn't afford him.  (grin)  He tells me it's probably in how the software is configured, (He had more technical terminology for it, but I zoned out at that point.)  It's good enough for me to know it's not something I'm doing on my end.  Since the story is finished, and I'm just reorganizing the chapters and editing, I should be able to keep with my every other day schedule.  

I always have fun writing Jasper.  He's such a deep character, and yet there's little about him in canon.  He's changed because of the war, and he plays a strong part in this story.  I'd tell you, but I don't like giving spoilers.   

Alice has had a rough few years.  Edward was the one who helped her with her visions when they were too hard to handle.  Jasper has been doing his best to help her, but she saw a lot more than most of them realize.  

Thank you for appreciating "my" Bella.  I wasn't a big fan of the books either.  I read the first, because my daughter read it, and they were so popular with the kids.  Then I had to read the others, just to find out what happened!  I normally woulldn't feel so driven to read all four, but Meyer thinks and writes so different from what I could imagine; I really couldn't guess how they would end.  My idea of normal and acceptable weren't even in the same universe as hers.  

Part of the reason I write fan fiction for the series, is because I need to "fix" it.  I can't stand how passive Bella was, and how she fell in love with Edward because of his looks, and because he was unique.  That whole love at first sight thing, really bothers me.  In my writing, I try to put in more connections, more reasons, and make the implausible sound reasonable.  The very things Meyer loved about the story, are the things I find most irritating.  She envisioned a sparkling vampire holding hands with his human girlfriend.  I hated the sparkle!  I do all I can to minimize it.  I also hate that she has written the toughest vampires in fiction.  The only thing they're vulnerable to are broken hearts?  No.  I've worked to give them weaknesses, and make them closer to their fictional cousins who could be destroyed by humans.  

I shouldn't be so critical, but these are the only books I've read that were better as movies.  The screenwriters got it.  They put action in place of angst, and Pattinson said so much with his brooding stare.  Most fan fiction writers base their stories on the movies rather than the books.  I've even been told I got Nessie's eye color wrong.  I still haven't seen the Breaking Dawn movies.  I did look up the war scene on youtube, and I was surprised at how similar it was to mine.  Mine didn't hae flying vampires, but the speed and destruction were similar.  I wrote mine before BD came out.  

Thanks so much for your detailed reviews.  I'll probably post again in two days.   

The hybrids are all damaged.  Products of rape and instruments of war, they've all got something wrong with them.  Add in their physical maturity with a lack of wisdom and emotional maturity, and it's easy to see Joham created potential monsters.  Thanks again for reading.

In spide of her warped ideas, I actually like Colette.  I think at this point, Bella is just trying to understand her feelings, rather than making any decisions.  Colette isn't so reserved; she's ready to make a claim.  Joham had a way of matching people up, with no more regard than putting together a matching wardrobe.  

Thank you so much for your kind review.  One of the things I hope to do in this story, is show a bit more depth in each of the characters.  I loved coming up with Carlisle's story.  There's so much that can happen in his 375 years.  Little is known about him, and we didn't get to see much of his emotional side in canon.  I hope what I've created meshes with what's known of him, as well as the other characters.  Thanks for reading.  

The subject of loss is one I'm not so familiar with, thankfully.  My dad died in a work accident when I was eight, leaving my mom a 26 year-old widow with three kids.  I saw a lot of sadness and coping second hand.  Part of what I wrote in this story, is driven by the characters.  Bella was nearly suicidal when Edward left her, a death has to be that much more hard and real.  She needed help from Jacob to cope, and now Carlisle is helping.  

There are a lot of new and original characters I introduce in this story.  The canon characters left, will still be involved as well.  I love Jasper, and he's also changed by the war, but for the better.  

Carlisle as he's written is probably my favorite character, though I like Jacob too.  There's just something about a vampire who refuses to kill.  If vampires were real, I wouldn't want to be one, because of that whole killing thing.  To gain immortality, but lose my humanity?  Nope.  I think it's too easy to forget that he's a young man, with more going on than just "compassion."  I had a lot of fun giving his character a bit more flesh.  His history challenged my research skills, but I don't see how I can write a 375 year-old character without bringing in a little history.  

Thanks again for reviewing.  I hate to say it, but when I posted the next chapter, I got a "my fatal SQL error" which means it won't send out notifications.  I got these all through my last story, and once they appear, there's nothing I can do about it.  It's not on my end, and I get tired of writing the admin and asking for the story to be put on the front page for every update.  So, I'll try to stick to the two day updates, unless something happens to take me away from my computer. 

In writing new relationships, I think it's important to pay proper tribute to what went before.  I never fell in love with any of the characters, or their actors.  Most of what is presented to love, is their youth and beauty, and that just isn't enough for me.  I've written them in many different forms, but for me, part of the challenge and fun, is in keeping them as recognizable as possible, while giving them depth.  Warping the characters and making them out of character might work for some, but then it's really just original fiction, using the images of the actors.  For me, out of character needs to come with a reason.  In my story, they're out of character, but I hope to show that what heppened to them has challenged their usual ways of coping and interacting.  

I also dislike perfect characters.  The Cullens seemed to have everything together.  To me they seemed a bit plastic.  In this story, they've all got some flaws, and things they had to overcome.  Carlisle cultivates an image, so he can be a doctor, and a respected member of the community.  Bella gets a chance to peek beneath his mask, and he doesn't always have it together.  I also hate when characters magically form attachments and go at it like bunnies. Thanks again for reading and leaving a wonderful review.

As much as Edward was controlling and over-protective, Bella allowed it.  She took everything, and after he left her in New Moon, she took him back without a question.  If not for Jacob, he might not have known what he did to her.  

This is New Moon Bella times ten.  Without his intervention, she would have been lost.

Thanks again.  You can see a bit where this is heading.  I don't think you'll be disappointed in what happens.  I must say, the reading audience here is a bit more forgiving than I'm used to.  So many just don't wish to read any new pairings.

The beginning is rough.  It does get better, I promise.

The relationships in Twilight were left a little undercooked in my opinion.  Part of the reason I think it worked, was because she left it up to our own imaginations, and we each filled in the blanks and created our own perfect romance.  But when I came to it as an older, more experienced reader, I saw flaws in the perfection.  The love was incredibly strong, but some of the reasoning was missing, or a bit off-putting.  Here, I tried to explain some of what I didn't like.  It's funny, but when I flesh out a story in agreement with the author, rather than counter to her, it gets better.  Why was Edward overprotective?  Why did Bella cling so hard?  Why was Esme mothering them all?  The reasons make it more realistic to me.  Thank you for appreciating what I wrote.  

Thank you for your willingness to think.  You'd be surprised how many readers come in with their own prejudices, and notions of how characters should behave, and they don't give a writer a chance to change that opinion.  My favorite readers are those who will let me tell them a story.  

It seems you've got a few issues with canon Edward.  I thought he was a bit of an overprotective, controlling creep.  If he didn't have Pattinson's good looks, I doubt readers would have allowed him to get away with so much.  I try to write the reasons behind those irritating behaviors.  I try to add depth to the characters, since most of their canon characterization could be summed up in a couple paragraphs.  

Don't yank out your hair, there are even more twists, ahead.      

Rosalie and Emmett are characters I love to play with.  On the surface, they remind me of the typical homecoming king and queen.  She's beautiful, he's a big tough guy.  They almost belong together, like the perfect couple on the top of the wedding cake.  I like to dig a little deeper.  The way she died comes back to me again and again.  This cold, shallow, ice princess had a "life-changing" experience.  This is why I wrote that she wanted to be cherished.  Royce ripped that dream away from her, and Emmett never really gave it back.  In the books, she carries her bitterness like a sword.  

in most of my fan fiction, I've tried to take some of the shallower aspects of the story and give them some depth.  Meyer managed to tap into her readers' psyche, but I think many responded to what she didn't write, as much as what she did.  it's probably why this story lends itself so well to fan fiction.  I love characters, but I need to look behind the mask, and see what makes them tick.  I've also had a lot of fun, trying to give reasons to behaviors that made no sense to me in the story, like why an old vampire stalking a young girl and watching her sleep, was considered romantic.  And why they all went to high school.  

Joham was barely in the books, so he was fair game to play with.  In all honesty, I think I went too far with his monstrosity.  Then again, history provides us with many examples of humans who have been just as warped.  Esme, Emmett, and Edward had a lot of reasons for fighting to their deaths.  It would have been hard for me to write so many deaths, without a noble cause behind them.  Those things do happen, but I never like to see it as a reader, and I owe it to the fans not to be so casual with their beloved characters.    

Thank you for the kind words about my writing.  I've learned so much through writing simple fan fiction, and every time I go through an old story, I find new things to edit, because I've learned to do it better.  I'll happily take criticism as well as kindness.  I'm editing this as I post, and still find rough edges to knock off.  The present tense is bugging me now, since it's starting to feel unnatural when I reread.  Sometimes knowing when to stop is a skill too.  

Thanks again.     

It's funny you picked up on the aspects of Esme so early.  Even though she's gone, and Carlisle doesn't wallow in his grief, her influence is felt in many places in the story.  Even though Carlisle seems to have put it behind him, he's still grieving, and it comes out in unexpected ways.  Everyone in the story has to deal with it in their own way.  Carlisle shows Bella she's not alone, and she can't just pretend she's dead.  He's also making sure she moves on with her life, which is what her dad did in New Moon.  Thanks so much for the kind words, I really appreciate them.  

The grief is a theme that runs through this story, but it's  more about healing.  Everyone copes with it differently, and what seems like wildly out of character behavior, is an expression of trauma and loss.  You'd be surprised how many readers thought I should stick to how they were written in the books--keep Carlisle always a compassionate pacifist, keep Bella and Alice always friens, etc.  Those readers have probably never suffered through anything more challenging than a dead goldfish.  What I've written, tests them, and they come out changed.  My job is to write the transition, so it doesn't come out of the blue.

Thanks again for your comments.   

The next chapter should hold a few laughs.  I can't promise no tears, but grief does take time.  At least from here on out, life goes on.  Thank you for reading, I know this is a hard one.  

I think Alice has the toughest power.  Her visions are so dependent on choices, it's hard for her to know what will really happen.  I think there's a lot that goes through her mind, that she doesn't share with anyone.  I've written that her mind has compartments, where she hides certain visions, because Edward could read them.  I've also written that she can tune in to specific future happenings, by thinking about a person or event.    

Thanks for reviewing.  MDD had its moments, but this story piles it all up in the beginning.  I promise it won't be heartbreaking all through.  Being "different" is the best compliment you can give me, considering there are thousands of Twilight fan fiction stories out there.