-Laughs sheepishly- Eeeeh, what does one say after a half-year absence?

I'm sorry. Yeah, that's it. Muse is sluggishly coming back to Twilight. Thank you, all, for the lovely concrit and reviews! I'll be editing this story and adding in details as I update with new chapters (although I'm not sure how quickly those will come…), so keep re-reading if you'd really like to see what happened during the timeskips.

Also: Because this was started/last updated before the release of Breaking Dawn, the rest of this fanfiction will not take into account the events of said book. I really don't feel like re-writing everything to include certain parts, although it might be fun to later… Anyway, I might be incorporating some of the mentioned characters (e.g. some of the extra vampires, etc.) but no major new ones.

Look at another chapter for the disclaimer. Warning: somewhat short chapter.

Your new chapter (23) – Debates.

"So, what you're saying is you think that Piggy's the cause of all the problems? You're just twisted. It's completely irrational. He's not the aggressor here, Jack is!" I fumed. "Sheesh, just totally undermine the poor kid."

"No, I didn't say that. What I said was that Piggy made the problems worse because Jack's jealous of him. It would have been better if Piggy hadn't been on the island at all." Colin crossed his arms and leaned back with a grin, thinking he had bested me. Emmett and Jasper were playing a furious game of Halo 2 on the widescreen in the background; Emmett cursed as Jasper obliterated his player. He wasn't used to playing at semi-human speed, and since we'd asked him to do so (as we didn't want to scare the cheese out of Colin just yet), he was ticked that Jasper was winning by strategy rather than by brute force.

"Do you have evidence to back that up?" I asked, turning my attention back to the discussion Colin and I had begun after he'd asked my opinion on the book we were reading for English, Lord of the Flies. He wasn't in my English class, so I jumped at the opportunity to hear a perspective that wasn't one of my classmates'… and to get his mind off the "OhmygodI'minahousewithsevenvampires" track Edward said it'd lodged on. We'd decided to wait until Esme and Carlisle got home to open the envelope.

"Well… no. I don't." He jumped as gunfire sounded from the speakers as Emmett wrought his revenge upon my blond brother with an evil cackle, followed by Jasper's incensed swearing.

"Well, then, that's just your opinion. I think it wouldn't have mattered. Seriously, Jack is just a crazed maniac. Once he set his mind on having the power in the first chapter, he was going to get it one way or another. Piggy was just an excuse for him to undermine Ralph."

"Are you sure about that?"

"As sure as I am that Esme and Carlisle will be home in a few minutes." I smirked – that could really confuse him, poor kid.

"See? Wait, what?" His face scrunched up adorably, trying to figure out if that meant I was unsure or not.

"Well, the car's engine is pretty distinctive, considering it works better than ninety-eight percent of the cars that go by here. And Carlisle is playing Beethoven."

"How do you know that?"

I knocked him gently –ever-so-gently – on the side of his head. He was so fragile, so human… so tempting, that treacherous part of my mind injected silkily. I ruthlessly squashed the thought beneath my interest in keeping him alive. "Silly. I've got nice ears, remember? I can hear the cars on the road… and Carlisle's coming down our driveway now."

He stiffened. "That's really creepy. That you can know all that, just … poof. You know? I guess you don't, but it's still a little weird that you can say 'oh, yeah, my dad's coming down the driveway' when your driveway is about a half-mile long."

"Uh, sure. If you say so. It's actually closer to a third of a mile long, though." Colin scowled at me.

"Picky, picky, picky. Hey, I just thought of something. Vampires are dead, right?"

My eyes widened. "Yes… technically… I mean, I don't have working organs right now except for my brain, and I'm not sure about the scientific explanation of why I'm still animated, but for all intents and purposes medically, I'm dead. I think?" I should really work up an experiment or something, to see how it is that I can be moving, talking, thinking… doesn't thinking require oxygen to the brain, and oxygen requires a beating heart to move the blood to the brain?

I'll have to look into that, or do some research in the library of books my family has amassed.

He raised an eyebrow. "I take back the hearing comment. I think that's just about the freakiest thing I've heard of. You being dead."

"Well… moving on. You're not screaming, and that's a good sign… what about me being dead?"

He blushed a little, and I swallowed hard at the gentle pooling of blood below the easily breakable skin. Must not think of Colin as food… must not think of Colin as food… Jasper got up and poked me hard before sitting back down, so fast that the human sitting opposite me wouldn't have seen my empath brother bringing me out of bloodlust. I snapped back to attention, focusing on the sound of the words, rather than the scent of his breath and blood. My attentions went a little overboard, though, and I could hear the steady thud of his heartbeat.

Pay attention, self. I almost said, "I'm sorry, Colin, I was on Mars for a few minutes. Could you repeat that?" but caught myself as I realized he was still forming his question: "Is Dr. Cullen your father?"

I didn't realize I cycled through inner monologues that quickly.

"By biological standards, no. I was born in Chicago, ironically enough, but my parents and I moved to Michigan when I was two. Carlisle changed me, though, so I guess he's my father in that sense. He's the best thing I've got now, and I have to say, I've never met anyone so compassionate."

"Why thank you," Carlisle said as he entered the room. He laughed as Emmett jumped a foot off the floor – Emmett had apparently been too in the zone to hear our parents enter. He indulged in some creative cussing under his breath before Esme reprimanded him quietly, "Emmett, language."

"Who's this?" asked Carlisle, focusing on Colin. His sharp golden eyes took in the scene: Emmett and Jasper nearby, Edward, Alice and Bella in the "dining" room doing who-knows-what (I think Edward and Alice were playing chess. She swears she'll beat him someday) and Rosalie out tinkering with the Lexus.

And me, sitting on a cream sofa, explaining my life story to a human.

I can safely say Esme and Carlisle were a bit confused.

"Esme, Carlisle… this is Colin Adams. He's the one we were telling you about." Both sets of ochre eyes widened, and Esme smiled – a bit unsure, but ready to play the human mother.

"Esme, it's not necessary," Edward called as he strolled into the room. "He knows already. We've got… something to show you."

"All right," she said with a soft smile. "If you think it's important." She turned to Colin. "I'm Esme, the children's mother. It's lovely to meet you, Colin."

He grinned back, visibly charmed. It's impossible to not like Esme – she makes everyone feel safe. "It's nice to meet you too, Mrs. Cullen. And Dr. Cullen… you gave my little sister stitches after she slipped on the ice last month."

Carlisle smiled too. "Is she all right? Not tearing around the house on ice-cube-littered linoleum anymore, I hope…?"

"No, she got scolded by Mom. She's taken to jumping off the couches now. I think she's going to be an extreme sports addict when she gets older."

Alice coughed lightly, sounding more like a waterfall than a throat being cleared. "Esme, Carlisle, we do have something urgent to show you." Both of our parents turned toward Alice, who continued to explain: "Colin is the one who first triggered Courtney's suspicions, and we've backed up these suspicions with the video that he's brought. We thought you might want to see the video before we open up the envelope."

"What envelope?" asked Carlisle.

"Perhaps we should just show you the video first," suggested Jasper. "Can someone go get Rosalie?"

As he said his supposed twin's name, she strolled in the door. "No need. I'm here." With a toss of honey hair, she settled herself onto the couch. Any fashion magazine would love to have her as a model, I reflected. Even in the beat-up, greasy jeans and the torn T-shirt with Rochester, New York screen-printed on. The thing looked ancient, thirty years old at least. I wondered why she kept it.

Esme squeaked. "Rosalie Hale, get those greasy jeans off my couch! You're ruining the upholstery. It's bad enough I had to replace it altogether last month with Emmett ruining it!"

"Sorry, Mom," Rose said. She dashed up the stairs and reappeared two minutes later in a pair of bright blue jeans and a matching blue top that showcased her perfect collarbone.

"Better," Esme allowed. She sat in the wide leather armchair – large enough for two – and waited for us to tell her what was going on."

"We can't keep furniture," I whispered in Colin's ear. "Emmett destroys it."

"Jasper provoked me!"

"I took your Jeep out. I hardly think that counts as provoking if I informed you first."

"Well, you returned it all muddy! And it smelled like skunk cabbage! It was nasty." Emmett stuck his tongue out. He's such a child sometimes.

The entire room went dead silent as the occupants turned to give Emmett our individual Odd Looks. Even Colin raised an eyebrow. Emmett turned, tongue still out, to see his family and an unrelated human staring at him.

"Uhhhh… You know what, I'm going to shut up now."

"It's not possible," I muttered. Emmett chose not to respond.

"Let's look at the movie, shall we? I think Carlisle and Esme would like to see it…" said Bella from her position at the DVD player. "Emmett! Come unplug your violent shooting game."

Emmett whined from his spot on the couch, twined around Rosalie with his feet on her lap. She delicately picked them up and placed them on the floor. "Emmett, you big baby, go unplug the Xbox. It won't kill you."

"Already been done," he cracked. I rolled my eyes.

Edward finally lost patience and unplugged the console himself. "Esme, Carlisle… the person we knew as George Davis sent this to Colin with instructions to give it to the TV stations. He hasn't, and he's said he doesn't think he's going to."

"He also threatened to… oh, what was it? Get the church down and perform an exorcism as well." I laughed.

Esme and Carlisle focused intently on the screen as the movie started…

To Be Continued in Chapter 24.