Emmett took a big breath. Peter followed his actions, and they stared at each other eagerly as each tensed their shoulders and continued:

"44 bottles of beer on the wall! 44 bottles of beer! Take one down and pass it around, and 43 bottles of beer on the wall!"

Yep. This had been going on for way too long. I gently massaged my temples with a grumpy sigh, looking to my mate who was faring no better. His face was carefully composed into an expression of bored weariness, though I could see the annoyance and beginnings of actual anger flaring up underneath. Considering they had been making stupid, sexist jokes that were infuriating all the women before, we had let the singing of '99 Bottles of Beer' go on for much longer than we should have.

Especially considering this was their third time through.

Rosalie had just given up, propping her chin up on one arm and just about falling asleep. Charlotte was silently fuming, sitting at the very edge of Peter's lap, giving Peter the silent treatment for telling her to get in the kitchen and make him a damn sandwich (even though he didn't eat, so…the joke really didn't make much sense). I don't think Pete – genius vampire with gift of 'just knowing' – had truly realized the hole he'd dug himself into. He was still a good example of 'clueless male', and as such, he had failed to connect the dots between Char ignoring him, to the fact that she'd also be withholding sex. Well, for as long as she could, because let's face it – that girl was horny-crazy about her man. After all, he was her mate, and she was a woman with needs.

I shook my head at myself. Why was I suddenly spending so much brainpower on my sister's sex life?

As for everyone else…they were mostly just trying to tune the two raucous little boys (in full grown man-bodies) out. Though, every now and then they'd sneak a peek at the people around them – especially Jasper, whose temper could be legendary – to see if there was any snap coming.

I should probably have been offended on his behalf that they were all looking sideways at Jasper, but it was the truth. His temper could be quick and vicious, or slow and building, just like mine could be. Really just depended on our moods, but then again, doesn't everyone's?

To tell the truth, I wasn't far from snapping, either. And I didn't miss the looks they gave me either – anticipatory, like they were waiting at the edge of their seats. (Though they still looked as if they were leaning more towards Jasper snapping first). God, I must've been a nun at some point, or something like that, because I couldn't believe it myself that I had that much patience. I yawned widely, feeling the fatigue really setting in after the adrenaline and novelty had faded and left us stuck in the car on a long road trip.

I reminded myself that it could be worse. I mean, we were all still alive. And Pete wasn't driving.

Carlisle was. And though the speed of his driving was fast, like most vampires – the normally sixteen hour drive would probably only take us nine, at most – the style was smoother and more comforting. Pete had the tendency to jerk the wheel from side to side so harshly that his passengers often feared he would simply yank it off.

" - thirty-six bottles of beer! Take one down, and pass it around, and thirty-five bottles of beer on the wall!"

I swear, they were intentionally raising the volume just because I was actually starting a conscious thought process.

Okay, other pros. Um…we almost magically found a place to live. We haven't picked up any new vampire tails, because apparently the whole 'attract ways for the Change to happen until it does' has been temporarily deactivated. We aren't Changing right now. We're all still together. We sti-

" – THIRTY TWO BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL!"

Ugh! No, no, gotta keep calm. We sti-

"- AROUND, AND THIRTY ONE BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WAAAAAALLLLL!"

Damnit!

"WILL YOU JUST SHUT THE HELL UP ALREADY?" Looks like my temper got the best of me, after all.

I let out a big sigh of relief. That had been a long time coming, though by the expressions on the faces of each of 'The Deadly Duo', you'd think I came in wildly out of left field. Em's mouth was actually wide and open, gaping like a demented and overgrown fish. Yep, it was actually hanging wide open. As in, he hadn't thought to shut it after stopping mid-word.

Peter was at least a little more subdued in his visible reaction. His eyes were wide, and an eyebrow raised, but at least he'd had the common sense to close his jaw.

The silence ringing through the van was both welcome and suddenly awkward.

"What?" I asked, genuinely confused. We were all thinking it.

Jasper laughed a little under his breath. "It's just that they were betting which one of us would snap first. Apparently, I was the favorite, by far."

Wait, when had they – oh. When they had first started singing, everyone had exchanged looks. I'd been pretty sure that I'd just see the same frustration and 'boys will be boys' expression we always exchanged, so I'd let myself tune out a little. Just in order to preserve sanity and patience for later, but that had been my downfall. I knew I was going soft. This just proved it.

The end of an era. Oh, well. All that's good does not last.

Edward must've read their thoughts of wanting to place the bet, and subtly been their mode of communication. I'd let down my shield to conserve my own energy, seeing as all we had to eat was the gas station snacks.

Alice would've seen the decision being made, then it was just a matter of covert gestures that I hadn't been paying attention to during my time in Thoughtsville.

Dammit, again. I'd really missed way too much.

Jasper must've felt my overly-dramatic mourning emotions, because he chuckled again in my ear again – and might I just say that man is still way too sexy for his own good, chuckling all low and deep and gruff, sending his hot breath to fan out against my skin.

"Don't beat yourself up, darlin'. Apparently, Ed's got a new part of his gift he wasn't sharin' with us, 'tween his last life an' this one." He was mostly amused, but I could hear his sincerity. He knew that sometimes my inner drama queen – God, I hate that bitch – sometimes took over. I could also hear just the tiniest bit of bitterness.

I was feeling a bit of bitterness too. We all knew each other so well. I mean, lifetimes spent together will do that to you. So, to hear Edward (especially being Jasper's first brother in this life) wasn't telling us things kind of made us more hurt than it should've. Maybe it was just our inner control freaks.

Edward cleared his throat awkwardly, looking a little ashamed. Alice glanced at him, a tinge of reproach and the same bitterness to her eye. So, he hadn't told her either, presumably until he'd used this new aspect of his gift to…somehow communicate with them?

Wait, did he develop into a telepath? I asked this aloud, and he nodded sheepishly.

"No frikkin' way! That is so awesome!" I exclaimed, annoyance and anger forgotten. Temporarily.

Everyone agreed, but it just made his cheeks redden. Which was adorable. It was times like these that I remembered that he was technically the youngest in our little family.

Jasper smiled and contorted his body somehow through the packed van and gave Edward a noogie.

"Look at that! Little Eddie's growin' up right before our eyes!" He crowed, while dodging Edward's weak retaliation punch. He mimed wiping away a tear, and the guy in question just rolled his eyes. Peter laughed and joined in the ribbing, alongside Emmett. Even Carlisle laughed along. This went on for a good five minutes before it died down. During that time, Edward got a whole lot redder, and I laughed so hard I started tearing up.

But mostly, as always, I was looking at Jasper. It really hit me, then, you know? That, despite all the weight thrust upon him – the future of the world and all that – and despite the years he had accumulated under his belt, he was still just a teenager. We all were. In not one of our lives had any of us grown up the normal way – it was always too fast, sped up by things like destiny and prophecy.

It was a little sad, when I thought about it.

Then again, it was hard to be sad when Edward was even redder than ever before. So red I honestly worried about his health. I mean…couldn't you pass out from too much blood to the head? Or is that just when you're hanging upside down?

Either way, I stepped in with an 'alright, that's enough' before we could find out first-hand.

"Yeah, uh, I just realized it was there. I was wishing I could communicate the whole bet thing without tipping you guys off, and I just kind of…felt it in the back of my mind. As if I had left a sort of mental conference call on, and I just had to reach for it and I could talk to Alice and everyone else, all at the same time or in different combinations. And then they were talking to each other using my gift, and it was…it was weird." He ran a hand through his hair and gave a sheepish crooked grin. I thought about his explanation, and felt genuinely proud that he'd developed such a cool and useful power.

"So…is it just like, words, or can you share pictures or you know, memories, too?" I asked, very interested.

"Uh…I have no idea." He looked at me blankly, as if the idea had never occurred to him.

"Well, which was it before?" I asked patiently.

"Uh…" His eyes started darting around wildly, as if looking for the answer. Did he really not know? I mean…it wouldn't exactly be a secret. Hm. Maybe he just didn't know how to say it. I knew that whenever I tried to explain my gift, the best I could do was nowhere near actually articulating completely the absolute naturalness of it.

"Hey, relax, man. Easy test. Just read my mind and tell me what you see or hear, 'kay?" Emmett interrupted. He flashed his easygoing smile, and Edward instantly relaxed, turning slightly to face Rose's 'monkey man'.

There was maybe a fourth of a second of intense focus, and then Edward was – for lack of a better word – pouting. Emmett responded instantly, laughing his ass off, while Ed just sat there with his bottom lip jutting out.

"What? What is it?" Peter asked excitedly, eager to get in on the 'inside joke'.

Ed quickly interrupted, blushing.

"Nothing! Nothing, nothing at all." We all eyed him doubtfully. None of us was buying that for a second.

Jas got a gleam of recognition and mirth in his eye. I turned, anticipating the answer.

In a conspiratorial stage-whisper he asked Emmett, "Was it that one thing with the chinchilla?"

Emmett's guffaws and Edward's ever-deepening blush was answer enough. Jas, Alice, Rose and I all joined in with Em's mirth, causing Pete to be the one to pout (although his was decidedly more vampiric and would've been menacing had I not known him as I did).

"Hey! In my defense, I was newborn-crazy! And a little bit regular-crazy!" We did not care. We kept laughing. I noticed Pete looking continually put-off as even Carlisle and Esme began sending questioning glances at us.

"Doesn't change the fact that you came in your pants while draining that poor little girl's pet in the science fair! You're lucky that you at least had the decency to hide in the bathroom - though, chinchilla-napping isn't much of an improvement." Emmett, as always, seized the opportunity to tease his most introverted brother.

Edward was practically bursting of embarrassment, despite Alice's attempted comfort (though the effect may have been diminished by the fact that she was trying to keep in her peals of giggles).

I tried to keep tears of laughter from running down my face. And failed.

Yup, this was much better than 99 Bottles of Beer.

AN/: Okay, so…very much filler/fluff -y. And way too short after way too long of a break. But as much as I (like apparently every author) told myself I would never leave a story unfinished….I dunno. I think I might put this story on hiatus. As cheesy and stupid as it is, I just kinda lost interest. I think I'm at a different stage of writing, and I don't think I could regain the initial interest without doing a complete overhaul of a rewrite. I at least wanted to hang on to the last shreds of my integrity by not putting this AN as an update, so I dredged up a bit of stuff I had written already.

I've actually been trying to put this off for some time now, but I got a great review and - bam! - realized I was kinda stringin' ya'll along. Which is unfair to both of us, I mean, this was my first published story, and my first fanfic. You guys favoriting/following/reviewing gave me the motivation to go on to write more, and...wait, am I actually trying to break up with you guys? Haha, sorry about that, too.

This is horrible of me, I know. And I'm sorry. Thanks to everyone who stuck by this story and me, but I think that this story is definitely gonna be put on an indefinite hiatus.

*ducks and winces* I hope you don't all hate me now.

- SGS