Chapter 8: The Aftermath

"I can't believe they let her get away." Jake said, gripping the steering wheel hard.

"Sounds like she won't be messing with us for a long time though." I said. I had told him the whole story as soon as I was in the car.

"If she ever comes near you again, I'll rip her throat out." Jake promised. I thought he was going to break the steering wheel any second.

"Jake, she will come back someday. Aro is obsessed with me and seeing how I grow and develop. I don't like it either, but we don't want to go to war with them if we can avoid it." I said putting my hand on Jake's shoulder. "But, she won't be coming back for a long time. Aro assured Grandpa that Jane would not be visiting for a few years at least."

"I'll be there with you when she comes back next time. I don't care what Carlisle says, she will deal with me being there and the pack too. I don't want her around you without more protection ever again." Jake growled.

"I don't think Grandpa will fight you on that, and if he does I'll bring out the secret weapon." I replied. Jake raised his eyebrow when he looked over and saw the joking twinkle in my eye.

"And what is this secret weapon?" He asked.

"Puppy dog eyes of course." I laughed. "Works every time. Don't tell him I said that though."

"Those are powerful weapons. I would know." Jake chuckled.

My time at La Push was over much too quickly for my liking. I was sitting in Jake's car in our driveway trying to prolong going inside for a few minutes longer. I knew that everyone would hear what I said to Jake so I pulled out my phone and started texting him.

I really don't want to go in there. –Nessie

Do you want me to spend the night? I can hang out with you until you go to bed and then sleep in the guest bedroom if you want. –Jake

As much as I want to say yes, my brain is telling me that would just put off the problem for one more night. We have to work this out sometime soon. I'm just going to want to die from the awkwardness until we get things back to normal. –Nessie

I am pissed at how they treated you too, but I can see why they thought you were guilty. They should have handled it way differently, but they did what they thought was right because they were concerned about you. I'm not trying to tell you how to feel because I am not in your shoes, but just know that they were trying to do what they thought was best because they love you and they are hurting because they know how you are feeling, Jasper has been keeping them informed. –Jake

I know. The rational part of me knows that they were just doing what they thought was best and I understand and appreciate that they were concerned about me, but I also know that I was making rational arguments in my defense that they ignored. Granted, the evidence against me was hard to live down, but they should have trusted me and not been total psychos about it. That's where the emotional part of me comes in and I'm really hurt by how they treated me and that they all ganged up on me, not one of them believed me, not my parents, not my grandparents, not my uncles, and not my aunts who said they would always be on my side. My family is everything to me, and they weren't there to work that situation out with me like they should have. And of course Uncle Jasper has been telling them, I figured as much. At least I can keep my thoughts private, since nothing else is, ugh. –Nessie

Make them work for it. They put you through a lot and from what you've told me I know that you are really hurt by what they did. Don't torture them, but take your time and make them work for and earn your forgiveness, they owe it to you to prove how sorry they are. –Jake

Thanks Jake. For everything. You are the one person that believed me, and you're always there for me. I really appreciate it. –Nessie

I'll always be there for you, just don't put me on a pedestal. When you do that the person on the pedestal tends to fall hard when you find out things about them you didn't know or they don't live up to that pedestal status. I don't want you to hate me. –Jake

I knew Jake was referring to imprinting when he said that bit about finding things out about people and not living up to a pedestal status. He must be worried about how I'll react when I 'find out', lucky for him I've known for years. I can't wait to see my family's faces when I let them know that I figured it out a long time ago. I really need to start planning when I'll tell them and make sure cameras are all around to capture their reactions; priceless.

Short of you killing one of my family members or doing something horrible like that, I wouldn't worry about me hating you Jake. Don't worry, Mr. Serious, you'll always be my best friend. –Nessie

"Alright I guess I better let you go. You have that house to help Sam build tomorrow. You need to get back home." I said with a yawn, putting me phone in my pocket and unlocking my door.

"Yeah and you need to get to bed there. Your favorite of the Seven Dwarfs must have been Sleepy, eh?" Jake joked.

"Oh Jake, that was such a horrible attempt at a joke. You're tarnishing your reputation for hilarious jokes." I told him.

"Ouch, guess Grumpy is your real favorite." Jake said with a slight push.

"Whatever Dopey, see you later." I pushed him back.

"I totally walked into that, total shutdown comeback. Nessie 1, Jake 0." Jake laughed. "Remember what I said. Text me if you want."

"I will. Talk to you tomorrow. Bye Jake." I gave him a quick hug and then got out and waved as he drove off.

"Hi honey. Did you have a good time?" Mom asked when I walked through the living room on the way to my room.

"Yes I did. I'm really tired, I'm going to bed." I answered.

"Okay, goodnight." Mom replied with a small smile. I could see that she was sad that I wasn't going to spend any time downstairs tonight, but it was 10 o'clock at night and I was exhausted after the day's events.

"Goodnight." I said, turning and starting to climb the stairs. "Goodnight everyone." I added.

I heard a chorus of goodnights from the living room from the rest of my family, all with a hint of sadness behind it. Good, I thought bitterly, they should feel sorry that I don't want to spend time with them. I didn't want to be petty and hold a grudge or be a total jerk to my family, but I had been suppressing my feelings so I wouldn't get myself in more trouble for back talking and being sarcastic and rude, and now all those feelings were starting to boil over.

"Don't torture them, but make them work for and earn your forgiveness…" Jake's text rang in my head as I lay in bed, thinking about how I was going to go about interacting with my family.

I basically ignored my family for the first week after the truth came out. I wasn't rude or disrespectful to anyone, but I declined their offers to hang out or do activities with them. Instead I spent time with Jake and stayed in my room watching movies and reading books. Uncle Emmett assured me that he was going to die of boredom if I didn't hang out with him. Out of everyone, I was the least upset with Uncle Emmett, followed by Uncle Jasper, Grandma and Grandpa, my parents, and finally Aunt Alice and Aunt Rose. My level of anger with each family member was blatantly obvious so my parents and aunts kept their distance and didn't pester me.

Uncle Emmett apologized so much I had to tackle him to get him to stop. He was caught off guard but quickly recovered and lightly pushed me. I hit the side table in the living room and a vase fell off and shattered on the floor.

"Emmett!" Grandma called from upstairs.

"It was Nessie!" Emmett answered.

"Was not, liar." I yelled and slammed into him full speed. He let out a grunt and we started wrestling.

"Emmett, Nessie, please try not to destroy anything else." Grandma sighed.

"It's all Nessie, I swear." Emmett said very innocently.

"Is this guy spreading vicious lies about you Nessie?" Uncle Jasper asked playfully, appearing at the doorway. Without warning he jumped on top of Emmett and took over the wrestling match. He quickly pinned Emmett and kneeled on top of him. "Now apologize to our niece."

"Alright. Sorry for lying." Uncle Emmett said in a mock sad voice. "And sorry your Uncle Jasper is such a wuss." Uncle Emmett flipped over onto his back, grabbed Uncle Jasper by the front of the shirt and used his feet to launch Uncle Jasper behind him. Uncle Jasper collided with me and Uncle Emmett came in for a body slam. Thankfully Uncle Jasper absorbed all of Uncle Emmett's body slam so I wouldn't be squished. We were all laughing hysterically in a pile on the living room floor when Grandpa came in.

"What do we have here?" Grandpa asked. We untangled ourselves, still laughing a little.

"Just a little wrastlin' Papa." Uncle Jasper said.

"So I heard. I was just going to go out for a hunt, would any of you like to join?" Grandpa asked.

"Sure Pops, I'll come!" Uncle Emmett boomed.

"Me too." Uncle Jasper said.

"I'll come so I can kick Uncle Em's butt in a race." I challenged.

"You're so on kid!" Uncle Emmett cried.

"On your mark, get set, go!" Uncle Jasper counted down.

I beat Uncle Em to the clearing by a few seconds. My uncles and Grandpa split off to track down prey while I hung out on the big rock in the clearing and waited for them to return since I don't hunt. When we were back in the yard and walking towards the house I got an idea. I tripped Uncle Em who fell forwards with his arms out and pulled Grandpa to the ground in his attempt to keep from falling.

"Body slam!" I yelled and then jumped on top of Grandpa and Uncle Emmett before they could get out of the way.

"Great idea Ness! You're going down Pops!" Uncle Em yelled and grabbed Grandpa, rolling around trying to get him in a choke hold.

"I've got to get in on this action." Uncle Jasper said before joining the wrestling.

"Just leave me out guys." I fake complained.

"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you." Grandpa said mischievously. He pulled on my leg, effectively dropping me to the ground and pinned my shoulders down. "That was easy." He remarked.

"Like I would ever go down that easily, especially against an old man like you." I replied. I put my feet on the ground and then pushed off using the momentum to flip myself over and land on top of Grandpa. He threw me off and was quickly jumped on by my uncles.

"You better not even think about coming into my house with all that mud." Grandma said, suddenly appearing in the yard.

"Esme, darling, this was not my idea." Grandpa explained.

"Watching you wrestle around is quite funny, but the fact remains, none of you are coming into the house with all that mud." Grandma smiled.

"Why don't you join us Momma?" Uncle Em offered. "We can have a family wrestling match."

"I don't think so honey, I don't want to get all muddy." Grandma declined.

"Aww, come on Momma, it will be fun! The mud will wash off." Uncle Jasper tried. There was no way I was letting Grandma go back into the house and not play with us. Plus this would give me a chance to sort of get back at her. I scooped up a handful of mud and threw it at Grandma. Splat! The mud hit her in the side of her face.

"Renesmee Carlie Cullen!" Grandma cried. My uncles and I were busting up laughing and Grandpa was trying his best not to laugh. "You did not just hit me with mud young lady."

My parents and aunts had come outside at the commotion and immediately started laughing at Grandma. "You are in for it now little girl." Grandma threatened. I thought she was serious until she tried to hit me with mud and I dodged it.

"Bring it on Grandma!" I challenged. An all-out mud war broke out, complete with mud wrestling. We weren't teaming up on Grandpa now. No, it was everyone for themselves after Grandma joined. The backyard was one giant mud pit when we finally stopped messing around, and there wasn't a clean spot on any of us to be seen. My aunts and parents were laughing at us while we messed around and afterwards when we all got to see just how muddy we were. Grandma hosed us down to get all the mud off before we went into the house. Dad handed Grandma and Grandpa each a towel, Aunt Rose gave Uncle Em one, Aunt Alice gave Uncle Jasper one, and Mom handed me one.

"Thanks." Was all I said. She looked like she wanted to say something but didn't. My two aunts also wore expressions that told me they had something they wanted to say but they too kept quiet. They had all been laughing but had stopped when I didn't respond to their happiness when I walked up to get a towel. I was cool with my uncles and grandparents, but wasn't quite ready to forgive my aunts or parents.

Grandma and Grandpa had talked to me for a long time today, just the three of us, while the others were sent out to hunt. I had gotten everything off my chest concerning their betrayal and not believing me, and they had apologized for everything. They were extremely sincere about their apologies and Grandma cried. Uncle Jasper had apologized after he came back from the hunt. He took me up to his room and told me how sorry he was, and how he had misread my emotions and that was mostly why he thought I was guilty, on top of all the evidence that pointed directly to me of course. Uncle Emmett waited until Uncle Jasper and I were done before barging into Uncle Jasper and Aunt Alice's room and throwing me over his shoulder.

"Come on, I've been dying to play this new game with you!" Uncle Em announced as he flashed downstairs. Uncle Em and I played his new racing game for a couple hours. He made sure that we were cool again before I went to get some lunch from the kitchen. Uncle Em is by far the easiest family member to get along with. He's always so laid back, happy, and nice. He's also a guy so it's way easier to get along with him in general, girls are complicated. For example, Uncle Em didn't need a big long apology to be cool with you again A simple "Sorry for being a jerk man" is good enough for him, I've witnessed him accepting such an apology from Jake, Uncle Jasper, and Dad. Not to say that Uncle Em doesn't have feelings or he's simple, he just doesn't hold grudges and doesn't like not being cool with people. His apology was better than just a simple "sorry", but it wasn't as complicated as I knew it was going to be with my parents and aunts. I didn't want to deal with that today, I was too happy and not in the mood to go through any more apologies today.

Now that I wasn't dripping water everywhere I could go upstairs and shower. I ran through the house in an attempt to leave as little water on the floor as possible. I showered, dressed, and came downstairs only to be shot at by a Nerf gun which would have hit me square in the forehead if I hadn't smacked the Nerf bullets out of the air.

"Nice try." I smirked at Uncle Em. "That same thing is going to happen to your team tonight too!"

"Yeah right! Your team is going down!" Uncle Em countered.

"As if. My boys are going to stomp yours into the ground." I told him as we sat down on the couch and he turned on the TV.

We played football, basketball, and baseball video games for a few hours and ended up being tied in wins. Uncle Em was surprisingly fine with not doing a tie breaker. Uncle Jasper joined us in the basement where we played pool and ping pong for the next two hours until I told them I was going to bed.

The house was quiet when I got up the next day. I could hear my grandparents and parents talking in their rooms, Uncle Em and Aunt Rose were in the garage working on their cars, and Uncle Jasper and Aunt Alice were sitting on the porch talking. I decided to go play my dad's piano in an attempt to get a song out of my head. I had woken up with Chopin's Impromptu No. 4 in C sharp minor, op. 66 playing over and over in my mind and I was tired of it. I hoped playing it would bring my mind peace. Dad had taught me to play piano when I was very young, and while I do enjoy playing, I don't do it very often. In fact, the last time I had played was about two months ago. Not having played for two months didn't hamper my ability to play one bit. I sat down and let my fingers do the thinking and just listened to the music as I played.

Chopin's Imromptu No. 4 in C sharp minor, op. 66 is one of my favorite songs to play and listen to. It is definitely one of the top five songs that I play when I do play piano. I finished and waited for the song to begin again in my mind, but thankfully it did not. Instead I heard clapping from behind me. I turned to find Dad leaning against the doorway clapping and smiling.

"Beautiful playing as usual, baby." He said.

"Thanks." Was all I said in return.

"I think we have put off this talk long enough, don't you?" Dad asked as he sat on the couch.

"You could have talked to me at any time." I pointed out.

"Your mother and I didn't want to push a talk on you if you weren't ready. I don't think we need to wait anymore though. Do you?" Dad said.

"Whatever you want." I replied. Mom entered the room a few seconds after I spoke.

"I know that we put you through Hell when we didn't believe you Renesmee and you have every right to be mad at us, but we can't go on the way we are now with you not talking to us. We are a family, and we need to get through this." Mom said.

"Good to know I have your permission to be mad." I said sarcastically. Normally Mom and Dad would say something about a comment like that, but they let it slide this time.

"We never should have doubted you, but look at it from our side, the evidence was overwhelmingly against you. You were in possession of a cooler of stolen blood, found next to a body that had teeth marks that matched yours, and Jasper was reading a lot of guilt and other suspicious emotions when you were confronted about both incidents. We wanted to believe you but the way you acted combined with the evidence made us think the worst." Dad explained.

"I was feeling 'suspicious emotions' because you were accusing me of something I didn't do. No one believed me when I said it wasn't me and that's when I knew I was screwed which only made me feel worse. Excuse me for being scared and worried about being falsely accused of theft, lying, and murder. What was I supposed to feel when my family turned their backs on me and betrayed me?" I yelled. "See things from your perspective? Yeah it looked pretty bad, no it looked exactly like what you thought, but you know what, you should have still given me the benefit of the doubt instead of instantly condemning me and closing your mind to the possibility that I was innocent. Why don't you all stop trying to justify your actions and own up to what you did, and see things from my perspective. What I went through was a new level of Hell. Betrayed by my family, punished multiple times for things I didn't do, and treated like a criminal by the people that are supposed to always have my back and take my side. Think about that and then talk to me about how sorry you are."

I was channeling a lot of rage towards them and my aunts. I still had a lot of anger in me about what I had gone through. Mom and Dad were silent for a moment, waiting for me to calm down, and thinking of a response. The rest of my family had gone quiet as well, but I knew they were listening, just like they always were.

"We have been thinking about what you went through ever since we found out that you were innocent. Your father and I can't even begin to describe how sorry we are about what we put you through. The rest of the family feels the same way as we do. Sorry doesn't even come close enough to the apology you deserve. We don't know what else to do to make this right with you other than apologize until you accept it. Just tell us what you want us to do to help you and we will." Mom pleaded.

I took a deep breath and thought over what she said. What would get me to forgive them? What is it that I wanted from them. Everyone had already apologized, more than once in fact, and they were excellent apologies, but I was still mad at my parents and aunts. Perhaps I was still mad at them because they were the four that I hadn't sat down with and had a talk. I wasn't mad at my grandparents or uncles because we had talked it out, but they had also been the four that I felt had a part of them that believed I was innocent and they were the four that tried the hardest to get me to talk to them when I was still in trouble. My parents and aunts had lost all hope in me very close to the beginning of this whole fiasco.

"I need for you to listen to me, for all of you to listen to my side of the story. No interrupting, no questions, just me talking and you listening. I can't do it if all of you are sitting here looking at me, but if you all just listen from where you are now, I can do it." I said.

"Of course. You have our word that we won't interrupt." Dad promised and Mom shook her head in agreement.

I started from the very beginning, from the day when Grandpa asked me to pick up the cooler. I went through the first accusation and its punishment, finding the second body and the fight that happened with the family when I was found next to it in the woods, and the rest of my punishment. I covered everything up until my family apologizing to me when my innocence was proven. My thoughts, feelings, why I acted the way I did, everything. By the time I finished, my voice was a little hoarse from talking and some crying. I was exhausted and feeling very vulnerable, but I did feel so much better that I had gotten all that off my chest. My parents looked like they would be crying if that was possible.

"Renesmee, I can't even imagine going through that. You are such a strong young lady and I am proud of you for not letting our doubt and actions keep you from trying to get through our thick skulls and prove your innocence. I promise that I will never doubt you ever again when it comes to a body or stolen blood. We should have known that you would never be involved in something like that because of your views on hunting and preference for human food. I am so, so very sorry baby. We love you and never meant to hurt you." Mom said, choking up.

"Renesmee, I swear that I will never doubt you if a situation like this ever arises again. You are my most precious gift and I love you. I am sorry from the bottom of my heart for what we put you through." Dad apologized.

I ran over to Mom and hugged her as tightly as I could. Dad hugged me from behind and the three of us stayed like that for a few minutes because I was not about to let go just yet.

"I'm sorry for the things that I said when we fought and for being so disrespectful, and for punching a hole in the wall." I said into Mom's shoulder.

"Shhh baby, you don't need to worry about that. We know why you did it." Mom said.

"Just don't make a habit of it Ness." Dad said with a small chuckle.

"I won't." I promised with a smile.

"We know that even though you have accepted our apologies, you still have some negative feelings toward us and the rest of the family as well as some trust issues. We, along with the rest of the family, promise to give you as much time as you need to trust us and have a good relationship with us again. We will all try our best to make things up to you." Mom pledged and Dad nodded.

"Thank you." I said gratefully. They were right. Even though I forgave my family for their mistakes, part of me was still very hurt and angry with what they had done and it would take time to fix that.

"One more thing." Dad said.

"Yes Dad?" I asked.

"Your aunts still want to apologize to you. Jasper has informed them of your feelings towards them, so they really want to make this right with you." Dad said. "We are going to go on a hunt and give you three some privacy. We'll be back very soon."

I took a deep breath before answering. "Alright. I suppose we do need to do this." I said.

"Don't sound so thrilled kid." Uncle Em yelled from downstairs which made me smile.

"We'll be back in a half hour Renesmee." Mom said and got up to give me a hug. "Don't go easy on them. You were far too nice to your father and I." Mom whispered in my ear jokingly. Dad gave me a hug after Mom and then they flashed downstairs and I watched the rest of my family join them outside as they ran into the forest.

Aunt Rose and Aunt Alice didn't come up immediately after my family left. Instead, I heard a knock on my door two minutes later. I assumed they were as nervous as I was about our talk. "Come in." I said and took a breath to calm my nerves.

I let them talk without any interruptions, and held back my anger at a few remarks. They each talked for ten minutes or so, apologizing and giving their sides of the story as to why they didn't believe me. For Aunt Alice it was simple, she didn't see Jane because Jane was exploiting the holes in her visions and she knows I also know how to do that so she concluded that was how I was getting away with murder (literally). The vision that she did get when I ran into the forest just showed me standing over the woman's body, a pretty open and shut case to her considering Jane had figured out how to mask her scent. As for Aunt Rose, her lack of abilities led her to go with the evidence and she trust her siblings' abilities completely. She was also swayed by how convinced the rest of the family was that I was guilty. Both admitted that they should have had more faith in me as they have known me my whole life and know that I am in no way interested in any type of blood, especially human blood, and not a murderer or thief.

"But you still went against me." I started. "I begged for someone to take my side and no one came to my defense. I looked at both of you and I saw that part of you believed me yet you both shook your head. Worst case scenario, you took my side and found out that I was guilty. You could have saved me from everything I went through but you turned your backs on me."

"Renesmee, it wasn't that simple in the moment." Aunt Rose said.

"It seemed really simple to me." I snapped. "The aunts who said they would always have my back and be on my side were nowhere to be found. Actually, they were around, just part of the jury that convicted me instead of at my defense. You broke your promise for circumstantial evidence when the blood packets were found. I can overlook the murder, that looked really bad, especially after the blood packets, but I never should have gotten in trouble for the blood packets. Your brains saw the evidence and formed the wrong conclusion, I can understand that. But your hearts knew the truth, and instead of trusting your hearts and trusting me, you betrayed me."

"You're absolutely right Renesmee." Aunt Alice agreed. "We did have a moment where we knew that we should side with you, and we should have. But Rose is right, it isn't that simple in the moment and we made a terrible mistake. Our judgment was clouded with circumstantial evidence and few details to go on and we made the wrong decision. There are no excuses for our betrayal. All we can do is apologize, now that we have explained ourselves, and ask for you to forgive us and ask that you let us gain your trust back."

"If you need space, then we will give you space, until you are comfortable with us again and want to build our relationship back. Whatever you need, we will do our best to give it to you." Aunt Rose offered. "And while it won't mean much to you right now, seeing as we broke our promise and betrayed you, we do promise to always have your back no matter what, and to never turn our backs on you again. You will have the benefit of the doubt every time from now on, like you should have had before. This promise is not going to be broken ever."

"I swear on everything I love in this life and to you that we will uphold our promise from now on." Aunt Alice promised.

"That doesn't mean that you can lie and manipulate us into believing you are innocent for something you actually did do, but we will believe you until it has been proven otherwise, no matter what the situation is." Aunt Rose explained.

I contemplated what they had just said while I clenched and unclenched my jaw. Part of me wanted to punch them both in the face for swearing to uphold the promise that they should have originally because I wouldn't have gone through the hell I had if they would have kept their original promise. The other part of me wanted to put the past behind us and start building the relationship I had with them back to what it was before Jane ruined it. I waited until I knew that my voice wouldn't betray me and cause me to be rude to my aunts.

"I forgive you for the decisions you made and not taking my side. I understand why you went against me, but I am still very hurt by your betrayal and I am angry that you didn't keep your promise." I said in an even tone. "I want to put this whole thing behind us and get back to my family and the relationships I had with you all before it all fell apart. It's going to take time for me to trust you all and let go of my anger, but I want to move forward. Just know that I am not going to be able to let this go quickly."

"We understand Renesmee." Aunt Rose said. "Thank you for forgiving us, I know that I wouldn't have forgiven that easily if I was in your position. You deserved so much more from all of us."

"I may be pissed at you two, but I really just want my aunts back." I said and got up to hug them.

"We know there is a long road ahead of us, but everyone is on board for the journey back to the family unit we had." Aunt Alice said. "We're all in it for the long haul."

Aunt Alice was right about that, I had a feeling it would be a long road before we finally got back to normal as a family.

There you have it folks! I finally finished it! Total coincidence that I posted the ending one year and one day later, I didn't even know that until I looked right before I posted these. I updated the earlier chapters because I found some spelling and grammar mistakes. I'm sure I didn't catch them all, but oh well. I apologize for the long, long overdue update. I have many excuses but I won't bore you with them. I have a couple stories I am working on, (one with Renesmee that would be a continuation of this story and Renesmee Sneaks Out and another that would be a separate series but still Twilight and still involving Renesmee, and then a few other stories as well), but I am always open to any new ideas you have for me. If you have any ideas, feel free to PM me or leave your ideas in a review. Thank you all so, so much for reading and reviewing my story. Please review! ! :) Hope you enjoyed it.