Life sucks, I still don't own Twilight, more at the bottom, no visual aids because I just don't have the time at the moment. Sorry for the wait.

Bella's POV

Who the heck is Maggie? My jealous mind—that was in lust with the hot brother—demanded.

"Who's Maggie?" Rose asks my question out loud.

"Edward's very spoiled Maine Coon Cat. She's bigger than Alice's little dog, which happens to be a Chihuahua, Boston Terrier, and some unknown breed mixed dog," Jasper explains.

"Maggie deserves it." Edward glares at his brother then turns to Rose and I to explain, "Maggie was a rescue from a pet hoarder. The cops got a call from neighbors that something wasn't right at this house; and they went to check it out. The elderly woman who owned the place lived there with twenty-five different cats, some dogs and some birds. From what they could tell she wasn't up to taking care of them, but any stray she found she kept. Anyways, the woman died and the pets weren't being cared for, for at least a month. There were all kinds of mess all over the place. They were able to save the majority of the pets; a few were too old or too sick and didn't make it. Maggie was about a year old, her fur was matted and she is blind in one eye." He shakes his head, looking sad, before he continues, "I saw on the news about the pets, so I brought some pet food down to the shelter to help out. While I was there, the shelter director came out to see me. He's an old golfing buddy of my Dad's." Oh God he's hot and he loves animals, kill me now.

"Greg Firth, good man, he's a veterinarian. About twelve years ago, he opened a no-kill pet shelter. He also does low-cost medical care for people of lower income families," Carlisle tells us.

"Anyway," Edward gives his Dad that universal I'm-trying-to-tell-a-story-but-my-parent-is-filling-it-in-for-me andraises an eyebrow, in annoyance, "Dr. Firth and I were talking, and he took me back to see the animals that had just been brought in. When we got back there he was pointing out this one cat that only had three legs. They had to amputate, but he was so happy that one of the shelter volunteers was adopting her when her recovery was done. In the crate beside her was this large ball of orange fur. When I went to ask him about the other cat, at the sound of my voice her head came up and I was gone. Maggie came home with me that day."

"Some men fall in love with their wives at first sight, our son fell for his cat." Esme laughs, giving Edward a warm look.

"I picked up Bo from the same shelter. He was with a group of puppies that some asshole brought in. His pure breed Chihuahua got out; and the little Boston Terrier mix that lived next door got her in the family way. Well, the asshole waited till the pups were barely weened and dumped them at the shelter. He breeds his dog; and since the pups couldn't be sold he wanted nothing to do with them. Asshole!" Alice growls out that last word, and I can't help but agree with her. "Excuse me, I'll be back in a minute." She stands up and walks away.

"Alice gets very protective of those she believes have been harmed or mistreated." Liam smiles after Alice. "She probably just needs a moment or two to pull herself together."

"I should probably go check on her." Jane frets.

"Janie, my love, let her be for a moment." He pats his wife's hand and they share a look.

"Anyone else excited about football season starting up again?" Emmett asks into the silence that follows, and soon the table begins to chat about the Seahawks chances at another run at the Super Bowl. A subject that clearly excites both the McCarty's and the Cullens from the amount of animation they are all showing. All I could think about was how my Dad would love to be in this convo. Sometimes I think he loves the Seahawks more than my Mom and I. Though not more than he loves Trixie. I'm not sure he loves anything as much as his Trixie girl.

The conversation is oddly interrupted with Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch blaring out the early 90s gem of a song, I Need Money. I'm a bit shocked to see Jasper, aka the one with the faux fro, take out his cell phone. Clearly, bad ring tones run in the family. Rose's own has a variety of Spice Girls and NKOTB. Not that there is anything wrong with NKOTB, but Rose personalizes hers. You wonder how? She uses the audio filter on the computer to add in words to the songs and then uploads them into her ringtone files. Whenever Emmett calls, I get to hear You've got the right stuff, Emmy.

"Oh, hey, I have to take this call. It's about a sale," Jasper informs us all as he gets to his feet.

"Go ahead, son." Esme waves him off. "We are just glad he changed his ring tone from The Humpty Dance." She shudders. "Imagine dinner with the Governor and that song comes on."

I hold back the shudder that reminds me of Carlisle's little threat, and try to pay attention to the conversation around the table, which quickly goes back to talking about the very spoiled Maggie and how Edward treats her better than some men do their wives. The cat even has a booster seat to go on rides in his car with him, on top of having her own bedroom or as Emmett calls it, "Kitty Disney Land".

When my bladder can't hold it any longer, I excuse myself to the ladies', which Esme directs me to use the one on the second floor since Alice is most likely hold up in the one on the first floor. I say my thanks and take off to try and find the potty in this big-ass house.

Following Esme's instructions isn't too hard, but I'd have loved a 'You are here map' right about now. Finding the door I knock gently just in case someone is in there, but get no response. So, I let myself in to the biggest damn bathroom I've ever been in. And the only one I've ever walked into that had two people having sex in the shower stall with no water going. I walked in once on Rose and Em when they had water going, but it was not my fault. It was 4 in the morning and they left the door open. Early am pee runs when you are half asleep clearly see open door as empty room. I haven't made that mistake ever since.

So, back to the dry 'humpers'. Little Alice's legs are wrapped up around Jasper's waist, he's pumping and they are both panting up a storm. There is this intense eye lock they have going on. I'm frozen in shock for a second before a "Holy Shit!" slips out my lips. I gather my composure with that and I try to quietly leave the room. Unfortunately, Jasper's head turns and he sees me, his face goes into this comical shocked look. Think teenage-boy-getting-caught-by-his-Mommy-looking-at-porn, or something along those lines.

"Oh shit! Bella!" He says and Alice hits him.

"What the hell, Jasper!" She demands then follows his gaze to me. "Oh shit! Bella!"

"I uh… knocked, I guess you umm… were busy and didn't hear me. Um… yeah, I have to say you are a lot quieter than Rose and Em, so I didn't… yeah, um… didn't hear anything." I sputter out, all the while trying not to break into the peepee dance that is so well know by Mother's of toddlers everywhere. A quiet wet pop sound makes me internally go eww, as they pull apart and Alice turns towards me, as Jasper discreetly turns to get his junk put away. And sadly the thought of didn't he bag that thing up? Pops in my head, while he is busy turning around to start looking at me so intently, it was giving me the creeps. Uber epic creeps.

"Bella, you can not tell them what you just saw," Alice says, as she's straightening her clothing while Jasper is still statue-like and is still staring at me. "This… they just can't know, not yet," she says, sadness in her voice.

"Ali—" Jasper breaks out of his state of shock; and pulls her to him.

"I wasn't planning on it, this umm… yep, it's none of my business," I mumble out, trying to look anywhere but at the pair I just caught doing the—. Well, the damn 'humpty dance'.

"Please, Bella, don't tell anyone," she begs and I nod.

"Yep. Me no talk-y," I say and finally give up. "I really, really have to go pee." I tell them and they nod before giving each other a nod and walking out the bathroom door. I turn and shut the door, hitting the lock that the two before clearly should have used, before finally, finally getting to sit on the potty.

Edward's POV

"I wonder what is taking Bella so long?" Rose mumbles and Dad gives her this fond look.

"She may just need a few moments to pull herself together. It's probably not easy for her." I tell the blond with what I hope is a nice smile.

"What's not easy for her, bro?" Em asks, looking at me like I've grown two heads.

"Well, dealing with the family. Meeting Dad as her Dad for the first time..." Before I can go on to how it looked like at the party when she didn't get the best impression of him, Rose starts laughing.

"Wait! Hold up, Bella's Dad's name is Charles Swan. And she looks like the female version of him. Trust me, my baby cuz is in no doubt of her paternity."

"Oh my! We never..." Mom looks a bit shocked and then she and Jane start laughing.

"Never what?"

"Son, Edward my darling son, it just hit me we never, ever mentioned which of the girls is your sister; and we never introduced you properly. Darling, please meet your sister, Rosalie Hale. Bella is her cousin."

My mind reels at what my Mom just dropped on me. She's right, I was never introduced and in all the times my parents talked about Dad's new daughter, they never said her name. In my own mind, I went to the worst possible choice—that the girl that I found attractive had to be my sister. My luck with women often sucks, so this was where I went, back to my sucky luck. Or, as Jasper would say, I'm one pessimistic dude; always thinking the worst when it is something I really want.

"Edward, I thought you read the file..." Mom looks at me again, her eyes puckered a bit like she gets when doing the crossword puzzle; and trying to work through a hard one.

"What file?"

"The other day when you came over and I was in the morning room reading over some background on the girls. I left the file to take a call, didn't you…" I hold up a hand to stop her.

"Mother, please you raised me better than to go through someone else's personal papers. No, I didn't read the file you are taking about, I accidentally knocked it on the floor, then picked it up and put it back together without going through the contents. I had no idea what it was about."

"It was missing a page though," she tells me.

"The one on Bella?" Alice asks, coming back into the room, looking oddly flushed and pale at the same time. At Mom's nod in the affirmative, Alice keeps going. "Gina found it under the sofa in there while vacuuming the other day. I put it back in the folder when she gave it to me."

"And I haven't looked at it since the first day I went through it." Mom rolls her eyes.

"Well, son, looks like you get your 'jumping to conclusions' from your Mother's side of the family," Dad jokes.

"Ha, ha Carlisle." Mom gives him a raised eyebrow to which he blows her a kiss.

~0~

Bella comes back into the room maybe ten minutes late, looking everywhere but at any of us. Whenever Jasper says something she seems to be trying to stop herself from laughing. It's odd, and while scary, I'm still contemplating knocking the food off the table and showing her how happy I am, that I am not her brother. A few times.

"So, Rose, how is the new job going?" Jane inquires of my new sister who thankfully doesn't make my dick hard, or make me have porno fantasies about taking her every which way I can.

"It's been great so far. I love actually being able to work on code again instead of selling computers to people. While I didn't mind the selling, my passion is actually working with computers."

"Edward works in computers as well." Dad gets this hopeful smile, like he finally has something that might bond his kids and himself to this new daughter of his.

"Really?" Rose politely asks and I nod.

"Yes, not that everyone agrees that computer game programming is actually working with computers." I laugh thinking of some things I've heard over the years about my company.

"Rose works for EC Games," Bella tosses in, as she munches down on her pecan pie.

"Really?" Comes from not only myself, but the majority of the table in the know.

"Yes, and even though I haven't been there long, it has been great."

"It's nice to know that my company is nice to work for. I don't normally know if I can trust the company feedback cards. Computer nerds and geeks can be paranoid that 'big brother' is watching them," I say smoothly with a smile.

"Hey, Rose, why didn't you tell me you were working for Edward?" Emmett gives her an odd look.

"Probably because I had no idea that I was," she tells him with a look that would freeze most men's balls off, but only seemed to have turned Em on going by the way he was grinning and wiggling in his seat.

"So, literally 'big brother' is watching you," Jasper jokes with a laugh. Though that didn't seem like the right thing to say since Rosalie jumps up and quickly exits the room. Everyone but Bella seemed to be in shock.

"So, umm… yep, I guess it has been fun, and I'd better go before… thank you." She waves and rushes after Rose.

"Maybe we shouldn't have shared the fact that you are her boss with her right this moment." Mom states the obvious as Emmett looks torn between staying and going after his new love.

A sheepish looking Bella comes back into the dining room and looks at Emmett. "She left me here, just drove off while I tried to flag her down. If I'm not mistaken she flipped me the bird and aimed at me." She looks bewildered.

Mom, being the best Mom in the world, sees a cub in distress and quickly rushes over to Bella's side, embracing her and giving her comforting words.

"I'm sure she was just in shock, sweetheart, and I'm sure she wasn't aiming at you. She probably was flipping you the bird, though, she gets that from her Father who has done that to Uncle Aro, many times. Of course, Aro generally deserves it. Why don't we go into the sitting room and have some tea?" They walk away and Dad stands up.

"She shouldn't be driving if she is angry and in shock. I'm going to go after her. If nothing else, I can follow her and make sure she gets home safe. Perhaps Bella should spend the night, giving Rose time to come to terms with things?"

"Carlisle, I'll go after her." Emmett looks at Dad with a serious expression on his face. "I'll call you and update you on the situation." With that our usually fun loving Emmett walks out towards the front door with a determined stride and a grim look about his face.

"So, is there anymore pie?" Jasper asks, looking at his empty dessert plate.

"Only you could think about pie at a time like this," Alice growls and tosses a napkin at my younger brother's face before heading off towards the sitting room, Jane following behind, mumbling about whiskey and chocolate.

"Well, that went better than it could have. All things considered." Jasper deciding that since he couldn't find pie. He was going to put his two cents into the matter. "I mean, we lasted what? Two hours before anyone ran off screaming?"

"Jasper..." Dad gets out in exasperation before heading towards his study.

"I should probably go talk to him, stress and my darling wife mentioning whiskey have to be hard on a recovering alcoholic." Liam tells us softly, going after Dad.

Miguel and Alec who had been quiet for the past couple of minutes excused themselves to go play video games, clearly both of them uncomfortable with the turn this evening.

"Do you think she really tried to run over Bella?" Jasper whisper-asks.

"Hell if I know, but if she got any genes from Uncle Aro, there is a good possibility that she did."

"Oh shit! A female Uncle Aro would suck. As much as I love the old guy and as nice as he can be when he gets pissed, it is all going to hell. And think as a female, one week a month she would be like Aro, without being able to calm down. Like super evil powers or something."

"Really, Jasper? You've lived with Mom, and know Alice and you still hold close to that stereotype that women are raving bitches once a month?"

"Hell yes, I do, brother. Mom almost keyed Brianna's Mom's car during that time of the month, years after Bree and I were over."

"Special circumstances, Jasper."

"And the time Alice tried to beat you with her tennis racket when you pointed out that white wasn't her friend at the moment?"

"Jasper, you idiot that was you, she did that to."

"Oh yeah, it was." He laughs. "Well, anyways, shit has just gotten a lot more interesting around here. I wonder what happens when big sis's Mom shows up at Christmas or something?"

"We'd better hope it doesn't hit during that time of their months," I mutter.

"Dude, see for all your political correctness you think the same damn way."

"Just shut up, Jasper, just shut up." I stomp off towards the sitting room to see if I can comfort my future wife.

Umm… yeah, I did just think that.

No I haven't abandoned this story. My Mom has gotten worse is all and I have little to no time. I am holding a fundraiser for personal family friends that I have known for a long time. The details are in full on my blog, but basically you will get the 1st 3 chapters of Homecoming: The college Years and some can even get the 1st couple of chapters of my original (not p2p) book. The blog is .com or there is a link on my profile if you are like me and to lazy to type it out lol. The fundraiser is for a wonderful lady who passed away last night, a month and a few days before her life insurance would have kicked in to pay for her funeral. Sadly now the family has been tapped out paying for her medical care (all co-pays due at time of service type deal) and can't even afford cremation and make a thousand bucks to much a year to qualify for help with funeral cost. www gofundme com LindaTaylorMF I will try and link it on the front page to, but if not it is on my blog.