Vanity and Patience (24/?), Part II of II
Title: Vanity and Patience
Author: Achelle
Category: Books, FanFiction - Twilight
Rated: NC-17 or MA
Genre: Romance, angst, smut, Pre-Twilight/Midnight Sun
Status: In Progress
Characters/Pairings: Emmett/Rosalie Canon Pairings
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, and its characters, or plot. The characters, books, and plot are property of Stephenie Meyer. I make no money from writing this. I just love Twilight.
Warnings: Rated NC-17/MA for a reason. Some chapters may contain adult language, violence, assault, and sexual content. Lemons in future chapters
Summary: Rosalie is content to live her vampire life to its fullest, regardless of her resentment to her immortal situation. One day while hunting she comes across a dying man with an innocent face that she cannot resist. In an act of strength, she brings him home to change him into one of them. How does the vain and selfish Rosalie deal with an irrational newborn vampire who can’t see past his lust for blood to even notice her? Will she be able to swallow her pride and have the patience to stand by him? Will Emmett be the man who can change her life for the better? All Chapters are Rosalie's POV.
Chapter 1
Previous Chapter
AUTHOR'S CHAPTER NOTES:
Chapter specific warning: Lemon Squeezes! Sex is most surely implied in this chapter, but not in full detail.
Continued directly from Part I of Chapter 24: The Question
I’d spend a month never leaving his side. The summer was the best summer I’d ever spent in all my life, regardless of the loss of my human parents. Emmett and I were joined at the hip. I wouldn’t dare leave but for a second unless he ordered me away, which he never did. Emmett found many new things for us to do to keep me distracted. He was bound and determined for me to see the endless possibilities and joys that a vampire life could offer.
This particular evening, he decided on cliff diving. We were somewhere in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the northern tip of Virginia, right outside of Pennsylvania. I glanced below at the lake, which sat at the bottom of the cliff I stood on, in my bathing suit with Emmett by my side. Edward had just done a graceful dive down into the water, and I was to follow.
As I stood on the edge, I contemplated my talk with Carlisle earlier that day. Esme and Edward took Emmett on a road trip to hunt for new animals down south. Since Carlisle had accompanied me on a hunt the day before, I found no need to come along, and I figured it would be good for him to spend time with other members of the family… part of my newfound acceptance to my life. I found it strange that they took the car, but it gave me great quality time with Carlisle.
He and I decided on a few games of chess before settling down in front of the radio to listen to some programs. As he switched through the channels, he had decided to give me a heart to heart.
“I wanted to talk to you about something,” Carlisle had said, his voice soft.
“Sure. What is it?”
“We’re all terribly sorry for the loss of your parents,” he had begun. “I knew of your father through my peers and met him a couple times at functions. He was a great man. And I want you to know that I would never dream about taking his place in your heart. Richard Hale was a truly wonderful soul, and I could never fill his shoes.”
I was quiet, looking down at my hands. My father’s face, with the same violet-blue eyes, had popped into my head. My heart felt a pang of loneliness at the hazy mental picture.
“With that said, I’d like to stand in as a substitute,” he had offered. “Esme and I, it’s no secret that we want children of our own. We are making the best out of what we can with you, and Edward, and Emmett. I know we can’t offer much, especially since you kids are steps away from being adults, and probably don’t need us. And we don’t expect anything in return either. Please don’t think of me as trying to step on anyone’s toes. I know that you don’t exactly enjoy being a vampire, and maybe you harbor ill feelings towards me for it; I’m not sure.”
I had shaken my head vigorously at his last statement, feeling a bit horrible that he’d think that.
“However,” Carlisle had continued, “I’d like to be a father figure in your life, if you’ll let me. I would love to stand in and be your guardian, and for you to feel free to regard me as maybe even a second father, for as long as you’ll have me.”
Guilt washed over me at that moment. “Oh, Carlisle,” I had said. “I’ve never felt any resentment towards you directly. I know why you did this, and to be honest, no one could have been a better creator or caregiver to me than you. I may not like this life, it’s true, but I don’t blame you for it. I know your heart was in the right place.” I lifted my hand to touch on his arm reassuringly. “It always is.”
He then smiled with a slight hint of relief in his handsome features. “That’s good to know. I know it took a long time for you to accept us as family and I hope with your loss, that you haven’t lost any of that for us.”
I looked at him with reverence and sincerity. “If there was anyone I would choose to be my father, second to my own, it would be you, Carlisle. There’s no doubt about that.”
He sighed in relief. He then held his arms out to me and I gladly stepped in to give him a hug. “Esme and I are always here for you,” he had said. “We really love you. I cherish you as my daughter. I want to be there for you to lean on when you need someone-maybe even escort you down the aisle, if and when you ever marry Emmett.”
I had then pulled away, looking at him with surprised eyes. It was strange to hear it from him, this being the first time he’d ever brought up the possibility of me and Emmett getting married. Though in this time, a woman of my age would marry, it shouldn’t be such a surprise hearing it from Carlisle. In his time, I would’ve been married at fifteen, and by now had all my children. Marrying Emmett, of course, had crossed my mind a million times, but I wasn’t sure how two teenage vampires would look getting married in this society, especially ones from the same household.
“Is that you applying for the job?” I joked. It was a nice thought, but Emmett had never mentioned marriage to me, nor would I have the pride to bring it up myself.
“Yes, I guess I am,” Carlisle had chuckled lightly.
I had suddenly imagined myself in a gorgeous flowing gown, on Carlisle’s arm and Emmett’s dimple-framed smile at the end of the aisle. If I didn’t know any better, I thought I had felt my frozen heart flutter. “I’d be honored to have you escort me,” I responded, “if it ever happens.”
“If it ever happens,” he had agreed, with a subdued amusement in his tone.
I smiled at the memory of that conversation, despite my nerves, my feet finding the edge of the cliff that I now stood on with my toes. Carlisle had eased my reservations about trying such a new sport all that day until they returned. I should actually be all right with the idea of jumping off a cliff by now, but at that moment, standing there with Emmett, I still had my qualms.
I felt Emmett move to stand behind me, looping his arms through mine so that he’d have them wrapped around my waist. I felt a moment of his warm breath on the side of my face before his lips pressed against my right cheek. I shivered in response. “I promise you, this will be fun,” he whispered.
I nodded, but I wasn’t completely swayed. Though I knew my immortal body was capable of surviving and mastering such a jump, I would never try this on my own if I didn’t have to. Without Emmett’s enthusiasm or encouragement, I would find it a frivolous past time at most.
“I’ll follow you right after,” Emmett reassured me. “The best jump is the first. Trust me. Edward and I did this the other day. It was amazing.”
I nodded, giving him a small but apprehensive grin. “Okay,” I breathed, and he stepped back to let me go. I took in a sharp breath before effortlessly propelling myself into the air. I let out a combination of a scream and a laugh as my stomach filled with butterflies during the fall.
The jump was terrifying at first, but somewhere in the middle, it felt exhilarating, and most of all, liberating. I’d never felt so free, and somehow, it solidified my promise to Emmett that I would try to begin to see what great things this second life had to offer. I guess I could view it as sort of letting go of my inhibitions-letting go of my insecurities, my doubt, my shame, my anger. I was beginning to see possibilities in this life, even though my desire for mortality was still somewhere buried in my heart. I was beginning to see that my wish could be easily overshadowed if I concentrated on the wonderful bliss of my life with Emmett.
I plunged into the water head first, diving into the deepest point before maneuvering myself to the surface of the water. I moved my arms slowly, looking upwards on the cliff where he stood, ready to take his jump. I was eager to watch Emmett’s turn.
“Here I come!” I heard his booming voice bellow from the top. He took an intentionally less graceful leap into the air. His fall seemed to take forever, and he hollered the whole way down. I couldn’t help but laugh at the fun he was having. He belly-flopped into the water, causing a wave as large as a wall of water to push away around him, and I dipped my head into the lake to find him. He was nowhere to be seen.
“Totally unnecessary, Emmett,” Edward complained, playfully.
I poked my head up above water level at the mention of his name, but he wasn’t anywhere above water level. Edward was on the other side of the lake, shaking the water out of his ears as he laughed.
Suddenly, I felt a pair of hands hand grip my legs, and before I knew it, I was sent up flying into the air and back down again. I squealed. Emmett had tossed me out of the water from below me, only for me to land in it again. I kicked for the surface, laughing as I pushed my head out into the air.
“Couldn’t find me, could ya?” he teased, and I could hear Edward guffaw in the background.
I cupped my hand and splashed him with a wave of water. “Don’t do that to me again!” I demanded, splashing another large amount of water at his face.
“Oh, is that how you want to play?” Emmett countered, his face full of underlying monkey business.
He chortled and fooled around with me, tossing water at each other before he disappeared again under the surface of the lake, only to grab me from underneath and send me up like a canon again into the air and back into the water. I laughed harder than I had laughed in a long while. I needed it, and I was grateful to him for giving me that opportunity.
It wasn’t long before I decided it was time for me to jump again. I realized that I happened to love it. I ran up the hill, positioning myself the cliff before doing a triple somersault in the air. I crashed into the water, head and hands first.
“Woo-hoo! Swell dive, babe,” I heard him cheer on.
Emmett followed, jumping down in an even crazier display of acrobatics, and Edward did the same. Suddenly, I was overcome by my competitive nature, running after them, each one of us taking turns after the other with more complicated jumps. This continued on for a while, all of us trying to out-do the other, diving in the night.
After a few hours of such a competition, Emmett walked up to the top with me. He stood at the cliff at my side, taking hold of my hand. It was something he hadn’t done yet.
“Emmett?” I asked turning up at him, a bit confused.
He smiled down at me. “We do this one together, all right?”
I felt my frozen heart flutter as he beamed at me with those gorgeous dimples on that chiseled face of his. It was a small gesture, but one with a grand meaning. I gazed at him with softened eyes. “All right,” I nodded.
He slipped his hand further into mine, intertwining our fingers. “On the count of three okay,” he prompted. “One… Two…. Three,” and with that, we simply stepped into the air in front of us.
I shrieked as we both fell. This dive felt different, but in a lot of ways better than any other time I fell. I felt the security of his grasp on my hand the whole way down. I felt freedom from all negative aspects of this life, without any fear. He never let go of my hand as we submersed into the water. It was impossible to fear anything with the comfort of a man like Emmett by my side, willing to take giant leaps with me. The night of fun was over after that jump, Edward already heading to land to put on his trousers. As we dried ourselves with the towels we packed and dressed in our dry wear, the symbolism of such a jump stuck with me. Emmett was right about diving. He could not have suggested a better past time, and I was once again forever grateful
That next morning Edward agreed to help me find and purchase Emmett’s books while Emmett sat at home with Esme. It was August 21st, 1936, and though I’d made note of the date, I didn’t realize the significance of it until much later that day. It was three days until the start of our first semester in college. We perused the aisles of the campus bookstore, trying to match the book titles and assigned professors to the professors on our schedules.
“So will you be hunting with him today?” Edward asked me suddenly, picking up a Calculus textbook.
“Probably,” I answered. “Why? Will you be our babysitter?” I couldn’t hide the sarcasm in my question. The supervised hunts were getting old quickly.
He shot me a defensive glare. “No, actually. Carlisle is lifting the order for house arrest.”
My expression grew to one of confusion and surprise, as his face turned smug.
“Is he?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. “Huh. Funny, I spent all day with him yesterday. He didn’t mention that. Why didn’t he? And why the sudden change of mind?”
“Good behavior,” Edward muttered, matter-of-factly, picking out two composition books. “Emmett exercised quite a bit of constraint when he went to Rochester, as well as just lately in general. It showed that if he concentrated hard enough, he could restrain from killing people. Plus, since school is coming up, Carlisle realized he has to start trusting Emmett sometime.”
“Okay, then… Why are you here with me and not Emmett?”
He chuckled. “Well, Carlisle wants to wait an exact year from the date of his change-September 5th-for him to be released into the human world. It’ll just be better that way. A full year gives peace of mind-to Carlisle, to Emmett, to all of us actually.”
“I see,” I replied nodding my head. I was a bit disturbed that I wasn’t informed of such a decision. Finding his curiosity about our hunting plans odd and random, I studied Edward’s nondescript expression. Though his face was composed, I felt as if there was an underlying reason to his question. “Well, why do you care if I’ll go hunting with him today or not?”
“I don’t really,” he said, immediately stiffening and taking the defensive once again. “Just trying to make conversation. I was also curious if I’d need to take him hunting myself, but if you are, then my afternoon is free.”
By the time Edward was done with his sentence, I realized I didn’t care, and had gone back to reading Emmett’s schedule. I found comfort in the fact that for every class I didn’t share with him, Edward did. All we had to do was purchase double the books of those courses with Emmett.
A few hours later I followed Emmett as he tracked the scent of some bobcats in nearby West Virginia. We chose to do a little sight seeing, climbing a tree on a mountain with a fantastic view of the nearby areas. I perched myself on a branch as Emmett did somersaults and back-flips off of the branches nearby.
I watched him with very fond eyes. Not only was the backdrop of close to three states worth of landscape lovely, but the acrobatics of the Herculean vampire was sure to keep me entertained for hours. “Show off,” I muttered, playfully.
At that moment he did an aerial off of a branch above me to another one near where I sat. “Admit it, babe. You like it.”
I rolled my eyes, but a smile played at my lips as I twirled a golden lock of my hair in my fingers. “Well, what I must admit is you couldn’t have chosen a better tree. The view is fantastic.”
“Eh, it is, I guess,” he sighed.
“You guess?” I asked, turning to him, and catching him watching me intently. “I think I see clear across three states from this height.”
His expression wasn’t swayed. “Sure you can, but no, not really fantastic. Not compared to my view,” he whispered, his sight aimed at me. I saw my reflection in is eyes, the setting orange sun kissing off my golden hair, and my eyes just as gold. I was only sporting a no-name cotton day dress, but even in its drab fabric, I still looked stunning.
Nothing, however, compared to the man before me. The corner of his lip curled into a half smile, his dimple gracing his cheek, and to my vain surprise, it took me a moment to realize he was talking about me.
His facial expression, however, sent my heart soaring, and even seated, my knees seemed to turn to gelatin. I narrowed my eyes, smirking. “No fair.”
He shot me a puzzled look. “What?”
“How do you do that?”
He cocked his head to the side, still puzzled. “Do what?”
I sighed. He had to know. “Your smile. That look. I feel like you don’t play fair when you do that to me.”
“Oh, you like that, do you?” he said, giving an exaggerated half smile.
I waved my hand dismissively in his direction. “Ha, now you’re trying too hard.”
He chuckled. “Got any room for more?” he asked, gazing over my shoulder onto my branch.
I grinned. “Of course.”
“Aces,” he exclaimed, swinging his legs around so that he landed to sit next to me.
Emmett leaned in immediately to brush his luscious lips against mine. He pulled away, gazing at me with an instant of apprehension. It almost looked like he wanted to say something, but he stopped himself. Something was strange about him in that moment, something uneasy, but I couldn’t place it. His expression changed to one of slight disappointment. Breaking away suddenly, he said, “We should go.”
“Are you all right?” I asked, cocking my head to the side and leaning in to take a better look at his expression..
“Yeah. Never been better,” he mumbled, trying to sound like his usual upbeat self, but I wasn’t truly convinced.
I nodded anyway, following him as he scurried down the tree. Out of curiosity, I glanced at his face, which had now turned into one of deep contemplation. It seemed he was pondering something.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” I pressed. “You seem to be bothered by something.”
He shook his head, still lost in thought as we descended the tree, leaving me to think that I should leave it alone.
“Ever thought of going to Africa?” he asked suddenly, as we neared the ground.
I wrinkled my nose at such a random question, turning my head upward to look at him climbing down above me. “Africa? What’s there to do in Africa?”
“Hunt! You realize what kind of game they have? I was reading it in a National Geographic the other day. Zebras, gorillas, lions, elephants, cheetahs, gazelles, giraffes… the possibilities are … mouthwatering. I’m salivating just thinking about it. Rose, just think-you and me on a safari. Promise me you’ll go with me sometime.”
We had reached the ground then. I shook my head as I dusted my hands free of any pieces of leaves, branches, and bark. “Blood,” I muttered turning in the direction home.
“Always thinking about blood. You and your thirst.”
He chortled. “Is that a ‘no’?”
“I don’t know, Emmett,” I sighed, walking ahead of him as I felt him following me. This wasn’t his first crazy idea for our future together. He was all about dreaming up new ways to enjoy our time. Though I appreciated his ideas, some of them were a bit far fetched for reality-at least for now.
“It wouldn’t be permanent,” he persisted in an excited, hopeful tone, taking large steps to catch up to me. “It would be like… just for a year or two, and we can rejoin with the family afterwards. I think it would be snazzy.”
His excitement had me amused despite my speculation. “We’ll talk about it another time, Emmett,” I promised, laughing a bit at his infectious enthusiasm.
“So you won’t go to Africa with me?” he insisted, slowing his pace considerably.
“Ugh, Emmett, I don’t know,” I groaned, becoming irritated with him. I kept walking, but I slowed as I heard his footsteps silence behind me.
“Hmm. Well, maybe you’ll agree to marry me instead?”
I halted in my step. Did he just say what I think he said? I turned around slowly as I asked, “What was that?”
I gasped as my eyes met his, like warm honey. They had slowly transitioned to gold in the past month, with only the slightest trace of tangerine on the rims of his irises. They were full of hope and nerves, as they gazed upon me through the umbrella of his thick lashes. He was on one knee, with his head turned up to look at me.
He chuckled nervously. “I was gonna do this in the tree, but then I realized there’s no place for me to get down on my knee up there, so I had to squash that idea.”
“Emmett…” I began, but I was utterly speechless. It suddenly made sense to me why Edward had asked if I was going to go hunting with Emmett earlier today, or Carlisle’s mention of escorting me down the aisle when I one day get married. Emmett had shared his plan with them.
Emmett took a deep breath before he began to speak again. “I know that you’re not satisfied with this life-I know that. I know that you feel like you’ve been imprisoned in some endless… hell. But I want you to know that if this is hell, I’d gladly spend it with you, my angel, by my side forever. I would gladly spend the rest of eternity making this hell-our hell-a rightful heaven for you. I want the rest of our life as a chance to make you happy.”
It felt like my eyes were stinging, and though they couldn’t swell with tears, they would if it were possible. My hand instinctively traveled to cup over my mouth.
“To spare you a bison time and time again,” Emmett continued, his voice apprehensive but gentle. “To provide you with a mirror when you need it. An audience when you play your music. Maybe win a car for you in a hotrod race one day. Anything. This life might not be what you always wanted, Rosalie, but it is our life… And I’ll be damned if you don’t let me show you all the ways it could be a good life, Rosie.”
He reached into his pocket, and my gaze immediately fixed on something shiny between his forefinger and thumb before he held it before me. “So, Rosalie Lillian Hale… will you marry me?”
I’m terribly sorry for the long wait on this chapter. We had to move out of our house right before the holidays, and then I got engaged to a wonderful man during Christmas. I then had issues finding Rosalie’s voice again in my head, as well as Emmett’s adorable dimples. Wedding planning has got the best of me lately.
And just so everyone knows, no I didn’t plan on Emmett proposing to Rosalie just because it happened to me. It was part of the original outline for this chapter, and a funny but happy coincidence!
Also, thanks to the ladies of Altered Lions and Sacrificial Lambs for doing a feature entry/group review of V&P! I appreciate you for giving my story a shot, even though for some of you it wasn’t your cup of tea!
Please review and let me know what you think, as each review feed my creative soul, and inspires me to keep writing.
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And if you like the story and want to discuss that or anything further, please come by and play on the Vanity and Patience Thread on the Twilighted.net Forum.