"Chris, I don't know if I'm ready for this," Fi whispered, I looked over at her and gave her a gentle smile, the fear and worry was written all over her face, but I could also see deeper than that, I could see her readiness, her strength, she may not have believed she was ready for this brief exposure, but I knew she was, not only that I have complete faith in her. I placed my hand on the center console of the Mercedes, palm up and she placed her hand on top of it.

"Carlisle and Esme wouldn't let you do anything they did not believe you were truly ready for." I explained "and I wouldn't let you risk failing if I didn't have faith in your strength." I added, squeezing her hand gently, returning my eyes to the road.

It was seven months after the Volturi had attempted to execute us over my niece Reneseme, seven months since Fiona Nickelson had appeared in my life. Even with my ability to profile, I still don't know why she chose me over her Irish family, why she chose to remain with us Cullens instead of returning to the nomadic life.

Don't get me wrong I am thankful every day that she made this decision, it's only been a short time, but I cannot imagine spending any more of my immortal life without her, but at the same time I can't fathom the idea of leaving my family for someone I only just met, connection or not. And yet that is exactly what Fi did, she willingly left her family...for me.

"You have more faith in me than I do." Fi murmured bringing me back to the present, I gave her a half grin, which she weakly returned.

"Hey you did pretty good last week at that farmer's market." I reminded her and she shrugged and pretty good was an understatement, she had been bloody amazing.

The farmer's market had been Carlisle's idea with Esme's pushing. It was a farmer's market/antique show and Esme being Esme was all over that, but we also thought it would be a good trial run for Fi, having been on our diet for so many months and not around humans aside from the occasional visit from Bella's father. Her resolve was impressive and even with the crowds of the market, Jasper who kept a very close eye on Fi had little to do except keep Alice on a leash as she tried to decorate Fi's new room.

Edward had impressed me too as he willingly (though what was he really going to do with it now?) given up his room next to mine to Fi who shyly accepted his offer. The entire trip to the farmer's market Fi held tightly onto my hand and just took in the sights, wordlessly. Even when Alice tried to discuss accessorizing with her, she would nod and duck her head, Fi's shyness made me look outgoing and bubbly.

But she did great with the farmer's market and like my parents firmly believed, we had no doubt she would do great at the movies, hence why it was just her and I, no siblings, no parents babysitting us. Just Fi and I are our first date…together, alone.

The movie was rated R and given the fact that neither one of us look old enough to be driving let alone seeing a rated R film, my fake ID had to look the part thanks to Jasper's talent with forgeries. The teen at the counter did question it, but sold us the tickets anyway, she wasn't paid enough to argue with a license that looks pretty legit. I however regretted my decision in the film…not at first mind you and I will admit it was pretty damn funny, both Fi and I laughed at several parts, and more parts than some of the other patrons, clearly our British/Scottish/Irish humour got the more subtle jabs better than our American counterparts. The amount of gore in the movie was surprising, but Fi handled it…I handled it and we actually enjoyed it.

We didn't head right back to the car, it was an overcast afternoon so no worries about the sun, the crowd wasn't bad either. I think the threat of rain was keeping everyone inside, I glanced at my watch... Then again it could be the fact that it was nearly six in the evening...pretty sure that's dinner time for most humans so maybe that was it, the restaurants were probably filled to capacity which was fine with me. Fi sighed and rested her head against my shoulder as I gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

"I'm proud of you Risse," I whispered, ever since Emmett started calling her Fi Fi, I made it a point to find a different nickname, Fi's middle name is Larissa, and she told me her sister would sometimes call her Risse, which worked for me. "And I'm sorry about the movie,"

"Why?" Fi asked "it was funny,"

"Funny yes but certainly a bit gorier than I expected,"

"Gory yes, but its okay, I don't know why but I feel fine, not thirsty or anything." Fi assured me and I looked into her eyes for confirmation not that I didn't believe her, her eyes were a near perfect mix of yellow and red, creating an amber like color and even then the red was fading fast. She had taken to her strict diet with ease and her resolve during the movie was proof of that.

"Do you want to keep walking around or head home?" Fi made a face "what?"

"Emmett had a movie marathon going on when we left." I looked at her confused, I had been in the garage changing the oil on some of the cars all afternoon, I hadn't been in the house for hours when we left for the movie. "I'd really rather not see where he is in the film."

"What movie was he watching?" I asked seriously trying to figure out what movie fi was bothered by

"Terminator," Fi replied shuddering "and he was still on the first one,"

"You've seen the Terminator movies?" I asked unable to keep the surprise out of my voice

"No," Fi explained "just the first few minutes of it, then Emmett told me there were a few more and he was planning a marathon if we were interested." She shuddered again "something about it." I grinned "it's not funny!" She protested trying not to laugh

"It's a little funny, I thought you were scared of Emmett or something,"

"Well that's a given," she replied losing any control over her laugher she had.

"I'll admit the Terminator movies aren't my favorite films in the world, but what don't you like?"

"He had the second one sitting on the table, with the glowing red eyes on the cover, it was a wee bit creepy."

"Ah, understandable," I looked at my watch "he's probably gotten bored with them by now, Emmett's attention span when it comes to movies is worse than mine." I assured her and she nodded

"I guess can head home if you'd like, I'm sure Esme and Carlisle are anxious to find out how things went."

"They knew you'd be fine. Like I knew."

Fi was about to respond when I heard my name being called... from across the street. My name isn't exactly uncommon so I didn't even acknowledge the voice even though it sounded familiar.

"Chris Cullen!" The voice shouted, more insistent this time and resorting to my last name "hey man come on wait up!"

Fi looked at me curious and I slowly turned to face the voice. My stomach dropped. It was Patrick. A year older, a year bigger and with someone I'd never met before but definitely Patrick. "Hey man good to see you!"

I winced and gave him a wave

"Hey Pat, how's it going?"

"Man it's going great how about you?"

"Hanging in there,"

Patrick turned to the girl

"Sam this is Chris, we've been going to school together since sixth grade. Chris this is Sam my girlfriend."

I held out my hand and she shook it, I could see her wince at the cold

"Nice to meet you, sorry about the cold hands. We just left the theater they had the AC cranked in there something fierce." I explained "uh this is Fi," I introduced.

Fi seemed a little hesitant at first but shyly shook Patrick and Sam's hands, her only interactions directly with humans had been Billy Black, Jacob's father and Chief Swan, Bella's father. Billy had kind of been a test subject and Fi of course had passed with flying colours, which led to Charlie who in his usual fashion didn't want to know details, but was happy to meet the newest member of the Cullen family. Fi is timid to begin with so I really wasn't too worried about her shaking their hands, but still that was why she was hesitant.

"Wow it must've been cold in there," Patrick exclaimed "we were going to go for a show in a little while, maybe we should go back to the car and get our sweatshirts."

"So…" I started "how have you been?"

"Can't complain, you?"

"Same,"

"Chris, I've got to know," Patrick started to say and I felt my stomach drop again, here it comes, the age question, it's been a year since I last saw my Forks friends and in that year at least one of them had hit adulthood well at least going to be a junior in high school, while I still looked like the same scrawny middle schooler they had met in sixth grade, how the bloody hell was I going to explain this one. "How come you didn't come back?" Patrick asked and it was all I could do to not breathe a sigh of relief.

"Back to Forks?" I asked and he nodded "I ended up going to visit my aunt and uncle over the summer and when I got back my brother and sister-in-law invited me to stay at their new apartment in New Hampshire, they're both going to Dartmouth and it was offering advanced high school placement courses for sophomores and up and my parents thought it was a good idea for me to take full advantage of it." I paused "that's actually where I met Fi here, she was taking the courses too."

"Sweet," Pat exclaimed "that sounds really cool, trust me much better than our wonderful Forks' education. There was a lot of shifting with teachers last summer so things were chaotic at school and not the good kind. Does that mean you're coming back for our junior year?" Patrick asked "or are you going back to Dartmouth?"

I shrugged

"Not sure," I admitted "I'm back for now, but I might be able to apply for early graduation if my credits are approved, which means I can start applying to university."

"That sucks man," Patrick admitted "we missed you this year, without you and Marie it just wasn't the same. I mean I'm happy for you and everything, but still."

"I know, trust me I missed you guys too," Patrick nodded "so how is everyone else?" I asked cautiously, Jenna and Patrick had been a thing last time I saw them so the fact he was with this Sam girl made me wonder what had happened

"Pretty much the same, 'cept Jenna moved."

"Really?" I asked, that explained a lot "when?"

"Last October, her dad got a job in Florida so they moved out there."

"That's good," I replied "I mean, sad, but I'm glad he got a job," Jenna's dad had been laid off during our freshmen year and her family was really struggling to make a go of it.

"Yeah it was pretty sudden. I think they ended up staying with her grandparents. Last time I chatted with her they had just moved into their new house. She seems happy, talking about getting a job next year at Disney maybe, save up for college."

"Good for her, any other big changes?"

"Naw, everything is still the same, hey I heard your brother and Bella got married,"

"Yeah, sorry for the no invite, I think my sister was afraid if any of my friends came I'd disappear during the ceremony and reception. I was a groomsmen so for some reason I was needed." Patrick laughed "so what brings you here? You're pretty far from Forks," I mean granted so was I…but heck I figured Olympia one was a big enough and far enough away that I shouldn't run into anyone I know and two we were an hour and a half from the city itself in a tiny town, what are the odds…'course my luck being what it is.

"College hunting, Sam is going to be a freshman at Evergreen University so I'm checking it out. My parents are really pushing me to start narrowing it down before school starts, they don't want me to wait until my senior year to start. But she was telling me about this theater here in Centralia so I had to check it out."

"Makes sense," I replied, I glanced at my watch "you still have my email right?" Pat nodded "drop me an email anytime, but we've got to get going. It was great to see you," I added and Patrick shook my hand again, fully ignoring the cold

"You too Chris,"

"It was nice to meet you," I said to Sam and she nodded

"Nice to meet you too, and you too Fi,"

Fi gave a timid wave and I felt her slide her hand into mine, as we turned away from Pat heading in the opposite direction of the theater they were heading towards. When we rounded the corner out of sight I breathed a sigh of relief

"Bloody hell," I muttered

"Who was that?" Fi asked

"Patrick, he was a friend from school, before Bella and Edward got married I was pretty close with a group of friends from Forks, when everything happened with Bella getting p…"

"Pregnant?" Fi guessed giving me a sly grin

"Yeah that,"

"You are such a boy," she replied giving me a gentle elbow to the rib

"Right, anyways I lost touch with them on purpose because I didn't know if we would be moving right away if at all." I paused "it's tough to make me look older than fourteen or fifteen, I'm just thankful Pat didn't notice that I haven't changed." Fi gave my hand another squeeze "are you okay?" I asked and she nodded

"I'm great," she replied "I mean I feel fine, even being that close to your friend and his girlfriend I felt fine."

I leaned over and kissed her cheek

"Again there was no doubt in my mind you'd be fine."

"I-" Fi started to reply but stopped, staring over my shoulder at something, slowly my eyes followed hers and I tried to narrow down what she was engrossed in, but it only took me a second to guess, there was a music store across the street and in the window on display were several instruments.

I looked from the window display to Fi and back again

"um, Risse?" I called "Fi what's up?"

"They're beautiful," she breathed

"The instruments?" I asked and she nodded

"Chris, can we…I mean can we just look inside for a moment, please?"

"Sure, why not." I replied, barely were the words out of my mouth before she pulled me to the edge of the sidewalk,

"Come on!" she glanced both ways quickly and dragged me across the street to the store window.

At first she just stared at the display, there were three instruments hanging there, a guitar, cello, and a violin, I couldn't figure out exactly which instrument Fi was staring at, but I nodded to the entrance

"We can go in, look the hours say they're open until 6:30, it's only quarter after." I reminded her and she took a deep breath before nodding.

The bell above the door rang as I pushed the door open and gestured for Fi to go inside, as she did I quickly took stock of the store, it was small, much smaller than any of Edward's piano places, heck I don't think Edward's piano could even fit in this place. The main retail seemed to be string and a few woodwind instruments, no electric guitars, no drums, and no brass.

This didn't seem to phase Fi as she wandered through the store taking in all that it had to offer, until she came to a stop and slowly and timidly reached out to touch a small violin, I could see a change in her body language, a longing, like she was seeing an old friend for the first time in decades.

"Can I help you young lady?" an older voice came from behind me and I admit…I jumped; the musty perfume in the shop, coupled by the cleaning solution the owner must be using to tend to the instruments messed with my sense of smell and I was so focused on Fi, I didn't pay attention to the sound of someone coming up behind me nor my profile telling me such.

Fi jumped a little as well, but recovered quicker than I did, I'm not used to people sneaking up behind me and getting away with it, Fi however was too engrossed in the violin to really care.

"Um," she started to say, her voice shaking a little "yes I was wondering if I could hold this lignatone please?"

Both the owner of the store and I stared at Fi dumbfounded for a second, in my defense I had no idea what a lignatone was, but the storeowner seemed dumbfounded that Fi knew what it was.

"Well, y…yes," she stuttered and carefully removed the violin from its case and gently handed it to Fi. "You know your instruments my dear,"

Fi's face broke into a wide smile as she tucked the violin under her chin and gently stroked the neck of it instrument.

"My grandfather had one, he taught me to play when I was little before he died."

"Can you still play?" the woman asked and Fi winced a little, I'm pretty sure if our bodies were able to, she'd be red from embarrassment.

"I haven't played in a long time," she admitted "I don't want to hurt it,"

"My dear, given the way you are holding that instrument, I doubt you could be anything but gentle." The woman replied handing Fi the bow, Fi looked at me and at the door and I could see she was panicking, regretting coming into the store in the first place, but I gave her a grin and a nod, encouraging her.

Taking a deep breath, Fi tested the strings out with a few gentle strokes, before a soothing tune filled the ironically quiet music shop, I didn't recognize the piece at first, I probably should've given the number of classical pieces that ooze from Edward's piano on a daily basis. It didn't matter though as I just closed my eyes and listened…then it hit me, it was Peter and the Wolf, at least part of it and I chuckled to myself.

Once Fi had completed the quick piece she had chosen she looked at the woman and me and started to take a bow, but stopped herself.

"It's lighter than my grandfather's, but it very similar to his." she admitted, carefully handing the instrument back to the owner. "Thank you for letting me play it."

"Thank you my dear that was a beautiful performance," the woman exclaimed "how long have you been playing?" Fi looked at me like a deer in headlights, she hadn't been asked the 'how long, how old...etc.' question before,

'Just be honest, but keep it vague' I mouthed to her, knowing she would get my meaning, which she did, nodding indiscreetly.

"I started learning when I was four, like I said, my grandfather taught me." she explained "but I haven't played in a while."

"Well dear, I would highly consider getting back into it, you have a talent young lady."

"That's actually why we came in," I spoke up and now it was the woman's turn to jump, apparently she had forgotten I was there. "We heard your store was the best place in the state to find high quality older style violins." I paused, Fi was eyeing me suspiciously "how much is the lignatone?"

"This particular model is $750," the woman explained "normally would go for three times that, but this one has a slight nick in the base, drops the value considerably."

I gave Fi a half grin and she covered her eyes, she was timid about me buying her something like this, but at the same time there was a small hint, a small piece of her that was excited that the violin would soon be hers.

"We'll take it,"

The woman looked me over like she was studying me, trying to determine if I was being funny or was serious, apparently she was going the funny route, though I don't think she was amused in any sense of the word.

"Young man, as I just explained, this violin is a very valuable instrument that is $750, are you able to spend that amount?" she added.

I sighed

"Do you take credit cards?" I asked, not that it mattered, I had a thousand dollars in cash on me, if credit cards were an issue. Rose had asked me to swing into the Beemer dealership in Olympia and pick up a couple of things from their service department, I knew for a fact I could use my card there if need be.

"We do," the owner replied "however I cannot allow a child to use it without permission from a parent."

"Ma'am, it's my own card with my name on it, I have a license to prove that I am the card owner. But if you feel you must contact my parents by all means," I countered, I reached into my wallet and pulled out both cards and handed them to the owner. She studied the license carefully in particular before nodding.

"If you are sure Mr. Cullen, I will run this through, please come with me I will need your signature."

"Absolutely,"

"Chris," Fi whispered so softly the owner definitely didn't hear her, she grabbed the sleeve to my sweatshirt and held on tight "Chris you can't be serious."

"Do you want it?" I asked

"I…"

"Fi, it's a beautiful violin, you obviously enjoyed playing it and I want to get it for you." I paused "but only if you really want it, I don't want to buy you something like this just because, I mean I do, but I also know what it's like to have something bought for you and even though you're grateful you're not happy that they did something you asked them not to." I paused again "if that made any sense."

"It makes perfect sense," she paused "I…I" she nodded and gave up trying to hide her insecurity as she nodded.

I grinned

"You got it," I replied and followed the store owner to the counter. My card went through with no problem and just as the shop was ready to close, Fi and I walked out of the store, Fi cradling the violin case close, like it was a stuffed animal. She hugged it as we walked back to the car and I darted ahead to open the door for her.

"Thank you," Fi whispered as I got into the driver side and we headed for Olympia to get the part of Rose. "really…this is amazing."

"You're very welcome." I grinned "so your grandfather taught you how to play?" I asked

Fi nodded

"He started teaching me when I was four, I was such a wee little thing I couldn't even hold the violin up properly, grandfather had to help me support it." she paused "when he was a boy he dreamed of playing with the London Symphony Orchestra."

"Did he make it?"

Fi shook her head

"He wasn't even allowed to try out."

"Because he was Irish?" I guessed and she nodded

"That was one reason, the other was the Troubles."

"Oh," Was all I could really reply. I knew of the 1916 Irish Rebellion, but I only knew it from history books and documentaries, we of course never learned about such things at school when I was a kid other than condemning the Irish for their supposed insurrection.

As a Scot I felt for the Irish's plight in that sense, my father talked about it sometimes, he was sixteen when it had happened and it was something he was generally unsure about, kind mixed feelings about the whole situation, torn loyalties I suppose, I remember my grandfather hoping Scotland might get the itch to try our hand at reclaiming our home from the English, but my actual understanding was from listening to him discuss it we certainly didn't get it from school and in my American schools I don't think the Irish Rebellion was even thought about until recently I suppose.

"He was twenty-three and some of his friends were members of the IRA, he wasn't. But it didn't matter, before the troubles there was a possibility that he might be able to try out and I know he wanted that more than anything, after it was impossible. He always regretted that and tried to convince my sister or I to follow in his footsteps and go further. My sister had no love for classical music, not to mention she couldn't carry a tune to save her life and I…I fell out of touch with it when he passed away, I was eight. I think I would've eventually gone back to it after I mourned, but my uncle…he stole the violin and other pieces from my grandfather's house while he was in hospital and sold them. At least that's what my older cousin told my sister and I. I don't think we were supposed to know about that."

"That's awful," I replied dumbfounded "on both accounts." I paused, unsure what else to say. "When my father went to University he was kept out of a lot of clubs and events, because he was Scottish, some of his peers wouldn't even let him sit near them during lessons. When we moved to London, I was nine years old, I spoke fluent English and Scottish, even though we mainly spoke Scottish at home, but I was immediately ostracized by my classmates the moment they heard me speak, I was miserable in London to begin with, I missed my mates and cousins in Scotland, the teasing didn't help the situation."

"What happened?"

"I stopped speaking for a while, at least in front of my classmates, I practiced every chance I was alone, trying desperately to lose my accent. My teachers would rap my knuckles when I refused to answer a question aloud, but I bit back my tears and took it, being teased was worse than sore knuckles." I paused "it never completely went away, but by the time I turned ten things had gotten better with my classmates to the point where I was generally accepted and even made some friends. I used to get so embarrassed when my mum would speak to me in Gaelic in front of my mates, even though my closer friends understood and didn't care."

"I don't remember my friends…I know I had some best friends but I don't remember them t'all, I mean, I remember what they looked like, sort of, but I cannae remember their names or anything about them." Fi admitted softly, she seemed almost ashamed of this and I took her hand in my own and gave it a gently squeeze

"I wish I could tell you that it'll come back, but sometimes it doesn't." I sighed "of all my mates, the only ones I really remember was my friend Mikey, but I don't remember much else aside from playing cricket and football with him…" I paused and chuckled a little to myself "and the fact he was the first friend I made in London, when no one else wanted to associate with a Scot, Mike did."

We drove in silence for a few minutes, as I turned off the highway and down the ramp, heading for the BMW dealership to pick up Rose's parts. As I pulled to a stop at the light at the bottom of the ramp, I glanced over at Fi and the violin, she was still holding it tight, memorized by the case.

"Fi," I asked carefully and she looked up at me smiling

"What?"

"Can I ask you for a favour?"

"Of course," she replied, obviously confused "

"Would you teach me how to play?" I asked nodding towards the violin. I was serious, music in my life had always been chorus, my mother played the piano as a child, but never kept up with it and we never had a piano in the house so that was out, my father, well he could sing and play an instrument about as well as Emmett can play cricket. My great uncle on my mum's side, whom I met once in my life when I was four or five, played the bagpipes for the military, or so the story goes, but on my father's side it's a given that all Callaghan's are musically inept. My interest in the choir and the fact that I could sing was an anomaly to anyone with Callaghan blood.

Fi didn't laugh, instead she gave my hand another squeeze and nodded

"Do you really want to learn?" She asked and I nodded

"Edward's been trying to get me to play piano for decades but the piano isn't my thing, but maybe the violin is," now Fi gave me a sly smile "what?" I asked

"Oh we'll see" she replied and playfully punched my shoulder "I can be a pretty demanding teacher."

"We'll Miss Nickelson," I shot back "I'm a pretty disruptive student, didn't you know?"

We both chuckled at that, heading to finish up the errand for my sister before heading back to Forks.

A/N:

Hi everyone, so yes I'm back! This is a new fic that as you saw picks up about six months after Breaking Dawn, this was just kind of a starter to get everything rolling but this will have many more chapters to follow, I have some special moments already written and I'm hoping to take this pretty far including a few spots in the future with Bella returning to school with the others, including Fi as well as the possibly of much further in the future parts that were suggested to me by a couple of awesome readers! Anyways, be on the lookout for more chapters and as always please leave a review and suggestions are always welcome.

Take care everyone and thanks in advanced!