The Wonder of You

Everyone was glued to the spot where they stood. The Quileute Pack was in awe that one human could devastate the Cullen’s in such a manner. The Cullen’s were lost in a world of self hate, and Rosalie, well for the first time in her life she felt like someone truly understood her.

After an hour of just standing there, Edward ran off to their home in Forks to pick up his Volvo so they could drive back down to Cherryville.

When he came back he found his siblings still standing there. Edward slammed the door shut and walked over to them mumbling something about the car being ready.

The drive back to Cherryville was unnaturally quiet. Everyone was expecting Rosalie to scream at them, but instead she just sat in the back of the car looking beautiful and staring out the window.

After two hours of her silence, Edward finally broke and said, “DAMNIT ROSALIE! Can you at least scream at us in your MIND if you don’t want to do it out loud! Let us have it.”

Rosalie turned and looked at Edward through the driver’s mirror, and in soft tone said, “Paula already let you have it.”

Paula sped through the mountains and hills of Washington she drove until she hit Canada and tried to sneak in illegally but had no luck. She realized that her journey was at its end and that it was now time to head back to Cherryville, Oregon.

She cringed at the thought of having to go back, but what made her more freaked out was the fact that she now had to make peace with the Cullen’s if she ever wanted to find peace in her own life.

“MOM, PAULA’S IN THE DRIVEWAY,” bellowed her little brother when he saw his sister pull in on her motorcycle.

Paula’s family rushed outside into the driveway and as soon as Paula was off the bike her father swept her off her feet.

Paula smiled and cried into her father’s shoulder, she really had missed him in the three long months that she had been gone. Her father pulled away and Paula was immediately knocked down by her mother who was hugging her.

“You had me worried sick! Calling twice a week was not good on my poor nerves,” stated her mother.

Paula smiled and kissed her mothers cheek as she held her close and responded, “I know ma, but I’m here now.”

“BARELY! You’re nothing but bones! Get in this house you must be fed!”

As soon as her mother let her go, she took her twin 8 year old brothers into her arms, and hugged them.

“how’d you boys treat ma?”

“really good! We did everything you told us too!”

“Is this true ma?”

“Yes dear! They actually cleaned the house and did all the chores!”

Paula’s mother put a plate of lasagna, ravioli, and spaghetti in front of her, which Paula went through faster than anyone had imagined.

When she finished her dinner, Paula excused herself and went to shower, then came back downstairs in her pajamas and curled up next to her mother on the couch.

Paula’s parents couldn’t help but smile as they stared at their sleeping daughter. Her father scooped her up in his arms and began walking up the stairs into her room. Her mother fixed up her bed and they tucked her in, each placing a kiss on her forehead.

Emmett watched as Paula’s parents put Paula into her bed. He waited until they closed the door and then he made his careful entrance into her bedroom. He closed his eyes and lost himself in a fit of ecstasy as he inhaled her sweet scent.

He silently made his way over to the rocking chair by the side of her bed and sat down, he wanted to crawl into bed with her and wrap his arms around his waist but knew that he couldn’t because if he did she would surely wake up and kick him out.

He stared at her beautiful face, tracing her star tattoos with his eyes. He could no longer stand to be so far away from her, and he silently got out form her rocking chair and leaned over her to smell her hair.

Paula jolted up from her bed when she felt a cold breath on her neck. She looked around the room expecting to see Emmett in there, but he wasn’t. She looked at the window, but it was closed.

Part of her was upset by the fact that he wasn’t in her bedroom watching her sleep. Although she was still mad at him, she longed to see his face in front of hers, she longed to stare into his golden eyes and trace his lips. She shook those thoughts from her mind and went back to sleep.

The next morning Paula was woken up when she felt bodies fall onto her bed. She opened her eyes up slowly and saw that Tony, Mickey and Frankie were in her room.

She leapt from her bed and onto them. Paula quickly slipped on a pair of clothes and made her way downstairs with the guys to enjoy some warm home cooked breakfast.

One they finished eating breakfast they all piled into Tony’s car and began cruising around the city. The four teenagers joked around and talked shit until Paula said, “Hey I want to get some food!”

“You just ate.”

“Fuck you Mickey! I need to regain my figure.”

“True that, you’re too skinny. It’s unattractive, not Italian.”

“I agree! Where did those curves go?”

“Fucking try eating organic, the curves go quick!”

They got into the local drive thru and got burgers, fries, and shakes and yet again began to drive around the town. It seemed like everywhere they went everyone in the surrounding area would run to the car to talk to Paula.

They ended up in a meadow outside of town, just sitting on the ground eating the mountains of food they bought and smoking a joint. They were asking Paula of her travels

“Well I was in Humboldt for like three weeks I was living with an old lady there, she was something different. She was an old hippy, fucking graduated from Harvard, she helped me a lot. After that I just wandered I got a tattoo of my grandma and grandpa, I went through a lot of towns and had a lot of different really rad experiences.”

“Did you learn anything?”

“Yeah, but it’s an inner lesson. Like if I told you what I learned it would make no sense because it’s special for me you know?”

“Oh.”

“How’s your wife?”

“She’s good, yeah, she’s three months pregnant.”

“WHAT?! Oh my congratulations we’re gonna have a little TONY!”

“Yeah and guess what!”

“What?”

“You, Mickey and Frankie are gonna be the godparents.”

Rosalie watched as her family became more and more emotionally unstable with each day that passed. She had not noticed how much they all really cared about Paula, until the day that she tore them a new one.

Rosalie smiled when she thought of Paula; here was a human whose life Rosalie had ruined but this human wasn’t mad at Rosalie.

This human didn’t want to get a stake and ram it through her heart (which of course wouldn’t work), instead this human asked her to forgive her for whatever pain she had been put through.

Rosalie saw Jasper fall into a pit of depression and although he managed to keep his emotions from infiltrating the others, sometimes he would slip and Rosalie along with all the other Cullen’s would be filled with a sense of dread and hopelessness.

Edward and Bella were always locked up in their room, being miserable.

Esme was at a huge loss, she sat in the living room all day just staring out the window as if expecting Paula to show up on her motorcycle.

Carlisle also spent his free time with Esme staring out the window, trying to comfort her but not really knowing how.

And Emmett, her dearest Emmett, was the biggest wreck of all. He walked around the house, forcing a smile on his face trying to reassure everyone else that everything would work out and that they could just move to a different town and find someone to erase the memories of this town from their minds.

Emmett was acting like such a child; he thought that if they left that they really could find a vampire that specializes in memory loss.

Whenever Emmett thought he was alone he would pull out the ring that Paula had given him and stared at it as he “wept” without tears, but with the sounds.

Rosalie slowly began understanding that her and Emmett were not meant to be. She played back the moment she had found him.

There he lay with his blood everywhere after being attacked by the bear, if he had been her singer there would’ve been no way for her to have been able to control her thirst and she would’ve killed him, but control on her part was actually rather easy; there was no struggle there.

No struggle like what Edward and Bella had been through, or even what Emmett had been through with Paula.

That’s what stunned her the most, the fact that Emmett, her precious monkey man, that was so ridiculously strong and was always thirsty had been able to control himself around Paula, a strong human but who was still incredibly fragile.

That’s when she came to a true realization that the person who Emmett is supposed to be with is Paula, not her.

Soon Paula became all Rosalie thought about. She was very pretty, Rosalie couldn’t deny that. She was a very tall woman, with an hour glass figure and long dark hair. The tattoos didn’t detract from her beauty, they enhanced it.

She wasn’t an annoying insufferable needy person like Bella was, and still is. Instead she was a strong independent woman who could admit when she was wrong.

Overall Rosalie approved of Paula; she decided that she would not have been able to part with Emmett to someone less deserving.

Rosalie was taking a stroll through town when she heard the news that Paula had finally returned from the road. Immediately Rosalie went home and began pacing around the house trying to think of what to tell Paula.

Edward was returning from a hunt with Bella, when he was bombarded with Rosalie’s thoughts. They all consisted of talking to Paula, and how she would go about doing it.

Edward was intrigued by this, could Rosalie really want to make friends with this human?

Rosalie gasped when she heard Edward sigh, the bastard was looking into her thoughts again. She turned and narrowed her eyes at him.

Edward looked at her and said, “You’re gonna talk to her?”

“Yes.”

“May I ask what you are going to say?”

“No, it’s none of your damn business.”

“Can you tell her something for me?”

“I most certainly can not! You and the rest of the family fucked up, you screwed her over and you screwed me over now get the hell out of my mind or else I’ll rip your head off and burn it!”

It had been a month since Paula had returned to Cherryville and she had finally settled back into the swing of her life.

For the most part all of the preps that graduated had gone off to college, so the town was a bit emptier.

Some of the greaser’s had gone off to school to get their education, but they would be back a greaser’s heart is always in their hometown.

Paula had just spent the afternoon at Tony’s house with his wife Betty. Tony was working in an auto shop in a town 40 miles away and was making very good money, because he specialized in repairing engines.

So since he was gone all the time, Paula took it upon herself to be over with Betty and help her clean the house and take her shopping and all that stuff since she was pregnant.

Betty was currently in the living room resting on the couch, and Paula was in the kitchen preparing a banana split because Betty had just gotten a very strong craving.

Betty’s eyes widened when she saw the banana split she took it in her hands and said, “Ah thanks Pauly you spoil me!”

“No problem Betty, you know I like helping a pregnant woman out.”

“That reminds me has Tony told ya?”

“That I’m gonna be the godmother?”

“No silly. What we’re naming the kids?”

“KIDS?!”

“we’re having twins! A boy and a girl.”

“Oh my word! What are you naming them?”

“their names are Anthony Paul Michael and Paulina Francesca Merreti.”

You remember that time when Tom Cruise jumped on the couch during Oprah’s show and started screaming out for joy? You do, good, because that is exactly what Paula did when she heard that the kids were going to be named after her. She jumped off the couch and hugged Betty kissing her face all over.

After helping Betty get dinner cooked, Paula hopped on her bicycle and started the ride back to her house. Paula was a mile away from her house when she heard her name be screamed out she turned around and saw none other than Rosalie Hale calling her over.

“Hello Paula,” greeted Rosalie warmly.

Paula was taken aback by her warm greeting and her mind began racing, maybe Rosalie was pretending to be nice to her so she could kill her. Paula thought against this because if Rosalie was going to kill her she would have done it ages ago.

“Hi Rosie,” responded Paula with the little confidence she had left.

“Rosie,” questioned Rosalie with a beautiful smile on her face.

“I think it fits you, it’s beautiful I can call you Rosalie if you want me to.”

“No, you can call me Rosie.”

“So, what’s up?”

“Well I was out looking for you. I know you have a tendency to just cruise around the town so I was hoping to run into you, so we could chat.”

“Chat?”

“Yeah, if you want to of course I mean I know I must not be your favorite person.”

“You’re my favorite vampire though.”

Rosalie smiled at the comment Paula made. Paula grabbed her bicycle and began walking alongside Rosalie. They walked in silence until they reached a clearing in the forest and sat down.

Paula sat on a stump, watching as Rosalie paced back and forth she could tell that Rosalie had something important to tell her and was hoping that Rosalie would just get it over with.

“You know if you just say whatever you want to say it’ll make you feel better.”

“I know, but I don’t know how to say it!”

“Just blurt it out!”

“There’s a lot to blurt out.”

“Then blurt it out slowly.”

“Forgive my family please.”

A look of confusion took over Paula’s face.

Had she heart right?

Did Rosalie really just tell her to forgive her family for what they had done?

Rosalie saw the confusion on Paula’s face and knelt down in front of her taking her warm hands in her cold ones.

Paula stared into Rosalie’s warm golden eyes and asked her, “Have you forgiven them?”

“Yes.”

“How could you? They betrayed you Rosalie! They’re you’re family! In this life, all you got is your family. They’re scum.”

“Now Paula, don’t be so hard on them. I’m a real fucking bitch.”

“You ain’t a bitch; you just know what you want and how you want it.”

Rosalie smirked; she knew she liked this girl for a reason.

“But I forgave them, because that’s what families do. They forgive each other when they make mistakes. Paula I’ve never seen my family so torn up, and we’ve been through so many hard times together and I have never, ever seen them so sad. I’m not saying that what you did was wrong, because it wasn’t. They deserved that, and I have to thank you for standing up for me when they were treating me like a heartless creature. And I think they’ve suffered enough. From the moment you left, till right now all they’ve done is mope around and be miserable and I can’t take it.”

“Did they put you up to this?”

“No. I came because I wanted to because I want to make things right. I want to be your
friend Paula; I want you to be happy.”

“I can only be happy if you’re miserable.”

“Not even.”

“What do you mean not even! You know I can only be happy if I’m with Emmett, and he’s your mate and I don’t want to make someone miserable for my own selfish needs!”

“You know how I met Emmett?”

“How?”

“I was hunting and I heard a scream, and smelled a lot of blood so I ran over to where the screaming coming from and there on the forest floor being mauled by a bear was Emmett. His blood didn’t draw me to him like yours does to him, or Bella’s did to Edward. His face drew me to him. He looked like a baby a friend of mine had when I was human, his dimples and dark hair made me want to protect him and save him. I picked him up and begged Carlisle to change him, which he did. Over the years I confused my need to protect him with love, and not until recently did I realize this. I turned him, so he could meet you I understand this now and I want you to know that he has not stopped loving you. That when he thinks I’m gone he sits alone and stares at the ring you gave him. I never wanted to cause him any pain or you, I just thought they were messing around with the wedding. I just hope that you can forgive my family. That you can forgive him.”