Hey everyone. Update at long last, for all the lovely reviewers who commented despite the long time since the last update. I hope you like it; it definitely gets the plot rolling. I apologize in advance if it seems a bit choppy towards the end. Please enjoy and review to tell me what you think.

Chapter 6

Walking through the door of the house - or what he, personally, would call a mansion - Stiles wan't able to keep in his gasp of shock. The house was not what he expected, especially in such a cold, rainy place as Forks. And considering who he was pretty sure the occupants of this house were, it was even more surprising - after all, the floor to ceiling windows wouldn't hide anything from whoever ventured this far out into the woods. Stopping that train of thought, he ruefully thought that he doubted the teenagers of Forks were as stupidly suicidal as the teens of his high school.

Coming to a stop in front of the frankly terrifyingly beautiful couple stood in the middle of the large front room, Bella moving to stand beside him, he could barely look away from the almost familiar blond man stood in front of him. He was able to focus his brain enough to grab the names of the younger people dotted around the room but didn't possess enough brain power to stop his brain from rambling - about drugs! and to a completely massive guy who looked like he'd have less trouble snapping him in half than Derek would.

Oh, God. Derek.

"I hope you've had a good stay in Forks so far." His train of thought was cut off by the smooth voice of the one who had introduced himself as Carlisle. Concentrating, he focused back on the older man and realised that he wasn't the only one to have recognised...something. Realising this, Stiles let go of his hard-taught subtlety and just let the words flow out.

"You're a friend of Deaton's, right?" He didn't wait for a response before he continued, not registering the surprise on the man's face. "He gave me one of those cryptic messages when he discovered I was coming up here; not that it meant much to me, but that's normal, right? He never makes any sense, that man... I'm sure you got a call as well warning you - not that I need a warning! He probably alarmed you though, he sure did me. I mean, can't he actually just say something for once; something with a proper reason or explanation or, you know, even a proper point..." He stopped as his brain finally caught up to his mouth and he registered the weird looks being thrown his way.

"I'm sorry!" He blurted once more, feeling his cheeks heat up in embarrassment. "I babble a lot." He forced himself to stop there and not go on about the ADHD and adrenaline - that would probably bore them to death.

Heh. Death. They were already dead. Ok then, into non-existence. Yeah, that works better.

Looking up from where he had been unknowingly studying the floor, he realised he had a room full of eyes on him.

"Uh, hi." He smiles, feeling very awkward.

Looking straight at Carlisle, he could see the amusement in the golden eyes.

"Hello, again." Yep, that was definitely amusement - Stiles refrained from nodding to himself. "I am an acquaintance of Deaton's. I met him a number of years ago."

The younger Cullen's shared a quick glance - they'd never heard of this 'Deaton' until Stiles had mentioned him and were now wondering how their surrogate father had managed to keep someone from them, especially from Edward.

"I can't say alarmed is the right word, either. Perhaps more like..."

"Confused, disconcerted, panicked, startled, unnerved -"

Stiles was cut off by a quick flash of laughter.

"You do know that most of those all mean the same thing." The voice rang like bells, laughter obvious in the tone. It came from the pixie-girl, whats-her-name. Alice.

"I know" He smiled brightly at her. She smiled brightly back.

"What's going on Stiles?"

Stiles looked up, wide eyed, at his cousin. He hadn't even noticed her move but she was in the doorway leading to what he assumed was the kitchen. Her eyes were narrowed and her hand was on her hip. He smiled at her, trying to defuse the suspicion he could practically see emanating off of her. She didn't seem to be fooled.

"Nothing Bella. Someone from back home just knows Carlisle from a few years back. He only told me like, a few hours before I left and I bet he did the same for Carlisle and Deaton - the man we both know - has this beyond annoying ability to say something really vaguely and make it sound threatening and its really ridiculous because, ha, I'm harmless but - "

"Alright, Stiles, I get it." Despite what she said, however, she didn't look particularly convinced. He just smiled slightly brighter - he had more then enough experience lying to family to trick her.

Bella's mind was racing. She'd moved into the kitchen soon after they'd arrived when Esme had whispered to her that she had prepared food for her and, feeling hungry, she'd gone to investigate. Only to miss the entire conversation between her vampire family and her cousin. Seriously, what had she been doing? She knew she should have supervised the first contact - she was nealy 100% that she would be able to tell if Stiles suspected something - after all, he was her cousin and she had gotten fairly good at reading his rather open face the past few days.

Looking around the room, she willed her eyes to open normally - she knew she looked overly curious when her eyes squinted and judging by Stiles' so bright-it-had-to-be-at-least-slightly-fake smile, he knew it too. She relaxed completely when Edward walked up to her, putting an arm around her waist and pulling her into him. She could see Stiles relax out of the corner of her eye when she turned her head to smile up at Edward. Her brain went into overdrive once more - her cousin was hiding something from her, that much was obvious, despite how little she's learnt from him. What she did know was that he babbled when he was nervous and when he was really happy he did not smile that brightly - he was more the 'throw yourself at someone and smother them in you happiness' type person. And he was never tense; her uncle had told her that when they'd had a few hours alone the day before with Stiles as the only subject between them that wasn't slightly awkward. This out of character behaviour from him was suspicious and she knew, for sure, that he was hiding something. And that Carlisle, at the very least, knew what.