Disclaimer: I am not Stephenie Meyer and I do not own the rights to the Twilight Saga, Life and Death, or any of the accouterments in the series.

AN: The opening to this chapter is a little... different, but is necessary for the story.

Chapter 5 – September 13th

1987

Years before, back in the early seventies when Marie had been just a young child, she'd been abused by her father – before her mother had gotten away from her abusive husband and moved to California. After they moved to California, Marie met Renee when she was only six years old. Her days were filled with happiness, cheer, and family. Even though it wasn't a family founded by blood. The abuse that occurred to her when she'd been but a young child quickly became nothing more than a distant nightmare.

It wasn't until much later, late 1986 to be exact, when it became an issue for her. Because in late 1986, she got pregnant to a man. She learned about her pregnancy mid February of 1987. Upon her discovery, she had her first ultrasound. The thing was, her pregnancy was ectopic. Due to the abuse she had suffered as a young child, her uterus had severe scar tissue, and the egg attached to the only spot it could, at the top of the uterus in the outer wall. It was an interstitial pregnancy.

Her doctor had encouraged an abortion stating the likelihood of either her or the child surviving was almost none, but Marie knew she'd probably never get pregnant again and though it had never been something she'd even thought about before discovering she was pregnant, she wanted the child. She wanted to share a life and a family with the man she'd fallen head over heels for.

She told Charlie about her pregnancy but not about the dangers surrounding it, and only a few short days later they were married at a justice of the peace. Over the seven months that followed Marie called and spoke with her best friend Renee regularly. Renee was also pregnant, but her pregnancy was much more normal. They were both due on September twenty-second, but in an effort to make both Marie's and her son's chance of survival more likely, the doctors had scheduled a c-section for her on September fifteenth.

But her pregnancy had plans of it's own and her water broke in the early hours of the morning on September thirteenth as she went into labor. After she got to the hospital, an emergency c-section could have still been done, but she appeared to be dilating normally and so she decided to go through the labor and birthing the normal way. It took almost twelve hours before she managed to contact her best friend only to discover Renee had apparently gone into labor at the same time as her.

Over the next hour of labor, Renee and Marie kept the line of communication open between the two via a conference call option on the hospital phones. Renee's daughter was born a healthy six pounds, eleven ounces at three fifty two post merdiem mountain standard time, while in Washington at the same exact time, Marie's son was born. Unlike Renee's daughter, Marie's precious Beau was stillborn.

The doctors, uncertain how long he'd been deceased, worked to revive him. Through the phone Renee could hear Marie begging the doctors to save her son and Renee, knowing Marie would likely never be able to have another child, did the most selfless thing she'd ever done in her life. She sent up a silent prayer to whoever was listening to take her daughter's life and save Marie's son instead.

Something, somewhere, heard her plea and answered. And so a mere ten seconds later, Beau made a small cry as Renee's daughter stopped breathing. Unlike with Beau though, it took no divine intervention for her little girl to be revived.

Beau, weighing in at only four pound three ounces was rushed away to ICU upon being revived and Marie, who unbeknownst to the doctors had ruptured an artery internally late in the labor, never got to hold her son before she died.

2006

Bella

Three weeks. It had been three long and very disturbing weeks since Edward had decided to... I still wasn't sure what to call it. By his sister's own admission, he probably would have killed me if Beau hadn't showed up and pulled me back from whatever kind of edge I had been on.

Beau had wanted us to drop out after everything was said and done, but I wasn't about to be cowed by some freak. So we continued to go to school, ate outside and away from the Cullens, and I immediately moved up to the front of Doctor Draconus's class. I hated being that close to the teacher who made my skin crawl, but I figured he was safer than the freak.

Today was Wednesday which meant another day in Doctor Draconus's class, as mythology was three days a week. It was also the day for Modern History, a class which was three hours long and only happened one day every week. Another words, it was my single longest class every week.

While I was doing an overloaded semester with nineteen credit hours, Beau was signed up for a measly thirteen credit hours. Of course, he also got a credit for the Sprint Football he was in. At least he did as long as he kept his grades up.

I knew we had another day of classes to go to at the school but I didn't want to do anything so I closed my eyes and laid back against the pillow of our bed again.

Generally we woke at the same time, but today I rose earlier than Beau because of dreams that often plagued me which still didn't make sense. For as long as I could remember I'd been plagued with dreams of darkness, swooping wings, words in a language unlike any I'd ever heard before and the sudden cold feeling of death. It was the only thing I hid from my Beau, because I knew it would concern him.

I was the daughter of Renee – the flighty and loving woman who would believe things like aliens and fairies actually existed just by reading the most fantastical of fictions – but it was Beau who tended to believe in things like myths more than me. And if I ever admitted I dreamed about shadows and death than I knew he would certainly claim I was predicting my own death. It was all bullshit though, it was just a nightmare – a recurring one, but still it was nothing more than that. So I locked it away in the recesses of my mind where not even Beau's telepathy and empathic abilities could get to it. And though I hated it, hated keeping anything from him, I supposed that any healthy relationship had some hidden skeletons.

Of course... most healthy relationships didn't share a psychic connection like ours. In fact, neither Beau nor I had ever met anyone even remotely like us. We were the only two who shared everything from thoughts to emotions to sights and sounds to even our dreams.

And before we'd met the Cullens I'd always convinced myself that we were just humans with deeper access to our brain than most – as was the typical belief with anyone who had psychic abilities. But now I couldn't help but wonder if perhaps we weren't both something far different than human. And if so, how was that even possible? Renee and Phil had been human. Marie had been human. Charlie was definitely human. So how could Beau and I be anything but human?

I reached up and felt the tips of my ears almost subconsciously, but they were as smooth and round as they always were. Even though I'd never been one to put any faith in myth and fiction, I still knew all of it, so I was familiar with stories of beings like darklings and changelings, but neither Beau nor I had anything such as wings, tipped ears, pointed noses, sharp teeth, or anything else which would mark us as have being born as some species of fair folk.

Beau and I could scream "bippity boppity boo" until we were blue in the face and we still wouldn't have whatever we secretly wished for. Even the idea of one of us being the angel and the other being a demon – as the myth of every angel having a dark twin, such as Michael and Lucifer, Gabriel and Abaddon, Rafael and Azrael, or Uriel and Azazel – would be impossible for us to be, because we weren't actually twins.

It left the questions of the who and what we were swimming in my mind with no firm answer to give.

You're thinking too much. Go back to sleep.

The mental grumble in my head – not mine, but Beau's – made me stop my internal musing as I curled up against him, resting my head on his chest.

…

When I woke up again, Beau was no longer in bed with me. Instead he was in our bathroom standing in front of the sink staring at the mirror – ass naked, I might add. I could tell because he'd left the bathroom door open so I could see him. I could also hear him.

"I was wondering if you wanted to play hooky today?" Beau asked his reflection in the mirror and then shook his head. "No, that isn't right. She'll think I'm being strange if I ask it. I need to be more assertive." He gripped the sink as he leaned in closer to the mirror. "We will play hooky today." He nodded his head in a self-assured macho play that made me want to laugh.

He had to know demanding me to do anything would just end in us both not getting anything we wanted for days. I bit my lip to keep from saying or doing anything to make him realize I was being a voyeur and watching his naked ass.

"But that comes off all pigheaded and shit. Dammit! I just want us to spend the first birthday we've actually been together for having fun and being together. Not fucking figuring out why black powder leaves a fucking residue on fingers or whatever the hell else my criminology class is going to be talking about today."

I couldn't help it, I threw my head back against the pillow and laughed. I was too busy laughing to see it, but I felt Beau's eyes on me when he turned to stare at me.

I finally turned my head to stare at him, instantly appreciating the front view as much as I had the back. "What happened to 'you can afford to miss things but I can't because I'm here on a scholarship?'" I asked teasingly in a very poor imitation of his voice.

"Clearly I hadn't realized how dull college could be."

Even if I couldn't hear his thoughts and sense his emotions I'd know that was a lie. I frowned at him, sobering completely.

He looked away, sighing. "Fine, I wasn't expecting that we'd have to deal with freaks we can't trust and shouldn't want. But we both seem to have a hard-on for... mine more literal than yours."

"Maybe the psychic is right... Maybe he was just having a bad day or whatever."

"Bella, we don't even know what they are!"

"The fact that they are a what and not a who means we need to accept the reality that we don't know what we are even," I pointed out.

"You mean what I am," he grumbled

"No, I mean what both of us are. We read each other's thoughts, see through each other's eyes, sense each other's emotions. It's not a one way street here. Therefore it's both of us."

"Not according to the psychic. And if we're putting credence into the other things she said than we need to put credence into that as well."

"I'm... not discrediting anything she said. But look at them. It's obvious that their whole family are the same creature. Whatever that creature is. Dryad or possibly elf being my own personal guesses given the amber eye colors, pale skin, and practically flawless features. And yet only Alice is clairvoyant, only Jasper is empathic, and only Edward is telepathic. So maybe like them you have something more than what I have." I wasn't a hundred percent sure he understood everything I was saying, my words had sounded convoluted in my own ears even.

"Maybe, or maybe she's just insane and that brother of hers is genuinely sociopathic." He crossed his arms over his chest.

I snorted. "I admit, I tend to go for that type, but you certainly never have. Well... There was Jessica. But if you'd touched the skank in our three year separation than I'd have castrated you. Jacob and Julie were a healthy relationship for you."

Beau's nose flared and I instantly felt his censure over my casual comment towards myself. "Your relationship with Royal was a necessity. You had no choice."

"I did though and we both know it."

"There was no choice!" I'd have gone out of my mind if you'd been raped, he finished his thought in my mind.

I flinched. I could have handled it, I was sure, but the idea of him being unfortunately privy to it and knowing how helpless it would have made him feel... I shook my head.

"What are we going to ever do if the other of us is ever hurt?" I finally asked, my voice so soft that if we didn't share our extremely special connection, I knew he wouldn't hear my question.

"Don't go there," he ground out as he stormed out of the bathroom heading towards me.

But... I couldn't help it, because the truth was neither of us had ever so much as had a cold. I couldn't remember ever having a single paper cut or scraped knee, and I knew, purely by coincidence, that I had the antibodies for chickenpox even though only Beau had ever had the vaccine. It was small details that – before meeting the freaks – I'd always been able to ignore as being strange misnomers and nothing more, but I no longer could. The truth was, I strongly suspected that if one of us died it would kill us both. Which once again brought forth the question of what the fuck we were.

Beau straddled me on the bed. "I want us to go out. Find someone hot to bring home for a night of fun. I don't care who. I want us to forget about Edward and the rest of them. I want us to not worry about school, about my dad, or about anything else. At least for one damn day."

I smirked. "You do realize we are seriously co-dependent, right?"

He leaned forward, kissing me soundly. And you love it.

I knotted my hand in his hair. I do.

AN: So a bit of a long end note here. What are they? Really? It's sort of your interpretation. But the inspiration behind them is one of the oldest and most common folktales in the world. Throughout mythology, fables, myths, etc there are myths of a parent or a village elder giving up their life, their very soul even, so that a young child with no will of it's own could survive. Working from that idea, what if the life that was give was another child instead? If Bella's soul was used to revive Beau, than is she the spirit-self (or shadow-self) or is he? So there's some open ended interpretation here, but you can decide whichever way you wish. I will say this, that though they share a spirit, they are both in fact human in one way at least – wherein they both bleed, age, and can potentially die.