Chapter Text
During one of his and Damon's off years, Stefan looked for a small town that would discourage his brother from visiting (Damon had always hated small towns). He remembered Forks after a few days of pondering, and when he returned in mid-summer, he discovered it was still a dreary and wet place; the weather gotten so horrible during the last weeks of July that Stefan resigned himself to buying a car. He had left his Porsche in the Salvatore Boarding house in Virginia, adverse to the idea of it becoming rusty by bringing it up to Washington with him, so Stefan had to think of a different mode of transportation. Stefan looked up some different car models, and even looked at a few Italian brands. He debated whether or not to splurge on the blue Ferrari 458 Italia. (He splurged.)
Stefan was staying in an older two story home that he'd bought years ago, in 1946, a scant year after the town had been founded. The house was probably the oldest in the area, though he didn't bother to check to see if that was so. Stefan kept it up, and though it looked quite different from when it had just been built, it was nice. It felt like a home away from home; a place Stefan could relax in. It also never hurt that Damon seldom visited him when he was in Forks. Stefan made sure he had good faked documents from a source in Seattle, and was satisfied that one said he was an emancipated teen of sixteen years. (He did not like dealing with concerned CPS officers.)
Stefan started school the first day off by driving his new Ferrari to school and quickly found that he wasn't the only one who'd spent excessive money on an expensive car. A sleek silver Volvo sat parked in the lot, looking as shiny as something straight off the conveyor belt. Stefan side-eyed it appreciatively before picking up his messenger bag and heading into the sprawling education building. His boots squeaked on the linoleum floor from the rain as he wandered and looked for Brit Lit, his first period. The classroom was easily found, but there was only one available seat in the actual class, close the front of the room and next to a small girl with short, dark spiky hair. She turned her head towards him and Stefan amazed to see that her eyes were a bright, cheery gold that matched her brilliant smile. Her face was as white as a sheet, but she didn't appear to be sick.
"Hello," She trilled, "I'm Alice. You can sit here, if you would like." Her voice sound like tinkling bells and she positively radiated beauty.
"Thank you," Stefan told her politely, and smiled back at her. "I'm Stefan. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Stefan got out his notebook and pencil, waiting for the teacher to begin the class, but Alice shook her head out of the corner of his eye. Curious, Stefan inclined his head towards her. Alice rolled her eyes. "Ms. Bruno doesn't start the class at least fifteen minutes after the bell. She's admitted that she's pretty useless until a good cup of coffee is in her system. See?" Stefan turned to his head to see the Brit Lit teacher, Ms. Bruno, reclined in her chair, the cup the coffee clutched in her hands possessively and close to her chest. Stefan laughed a little and Alice's soft, bell-like laughter joined his.
"Where are you from?" Alice asked him. "Everyone knows everyone in a town the size of Forks, and so you stand out pretty spectacularly, especially with a jacket like that." She eyed his antique leather jacket appreciatively.
Stefan leanedforward and said, "I moved here from Virginia. My parents passed recently."
Alice frowned, a delicate downturn of the corners of her lips. "I'm sorry about your parents. Do you have any siblings?"
"Just one; an older brother, but we don't really get along," Stefan said lightly, and steered the conversation away from Damon. "Do you? Have any siblings, I mean."
"Oh, I'm adopted." Alice waved a hand. "But yes, I do have several brothers and a sister. My parents are Dr. Carlisle Cullen, and his wife Esme. They adopted five of us; Emmett, Rose, Edward, Jasper, and I. It's quite the houseful; hardly any privacy."
Stefan's eyebrows rose in astonishment. "How old is everyone?"
"Emmett, Jazz, and Rosalie are Juniors and Edward and I are Sophomores," Alice said, playing with her pencil. "I'm sure you'll meet everyone soon." She brightened suddenly. "Hey! Do you want to sit with us at lunch?"
Stefan deliberated; he was there to start over, but the idea of accidentally hurting anyone, students especially, made him wary. "I don't know if that's . . ." "Please?" Alice's eyelashes fluttered. Stefan sighed. "That sounds nice, Alice." Ms. Bruno cleared her throat and Stefan and Alice faced the front. "Okay, class, now that I'm fairly certain I'm not going to die of caffeine withdrawal, let's get started."
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Lunch arrived sooner than Stefan thought possible and his stomach craved real food – the students' necks were beginning to look appetizing and their thundering heartbeats echoed in his ears. He averted his eyes and admonished himself for only feeding on a rabbit that morning.
A bronze head shot in his direction a moment later and the student scrutinized him. Alice appeared at Stefan's elbow and she towed him to the table where the bronze headed boy sat. Around him were two blonds and a thickly muscled boy with curly dark hair, all who were conversing with each other in low voices about their classes and a hunt they were planning for the weekend.
"This is Stefan, everyone," Alice introduced. "Stef, this is Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper and Edward." She pointed to each of her adopted siblings as she spoke their names. Rosalie gave a derisive snort, but Emmett waved cheerfully. Jasper nodded stiffly and Edward kept scrutinizing him. Alice pushed Stefan into a seat and he felt a moment of confusion that she had the strength to do so. She was only human – Stefan froze. And felt like a total idiot. Really, Damon would be furious at Stefan's obliviousness; the five teenagers around him had no heartbeats.
Edward mirrored Stefan - freezing in place - and narrowed his dull golden eyes at Stefan. Alice bit her lip and Jasper took her hand in his before giving Stefan a wary look of his own.
"You're a vampire?" Edward asked underneath his breath.
"What?" Stefan replied discreetly. "I think you're mistaken." "I don't think I am," Edward disagreed. "I just don't understand your eye color . . . or the fact that you have a heartbeat." Stefan tensed. "I can read your mind," Edward continued. Stefan wondered how much blood and Power he had to have to be able to get into his head so easily. Edward furrowed his brows, indicating that he'd heard that thought as well. "I'm gifted," He explained. "Not all vampires have gifts like I do." Stefan agreed. "You're different from any vampire I've met." "Clearly Edward's mistaken," Rosalie drawled. "No vampire has a heartbeat." She was eyeing Stefan's chest speculatively because indeed, there was a slow but steady thumping softly from there.
Edward's head shot in Alice's direction suddenly and his eyes widened. "You knew?"
"Well, yes, I Saw it, but everything's going to be fine – look and see," The pixie like girl said and Edward's eyes glazed. Stefan shifted uncomfortably; perhaps Forks had not been the best place to settle after all.
"What did you see?" Rosalie's eyes were narrowed, and her fingernails were digging into her palms.
"We'd better have this conversation at home," Edward said. He peered at Stefan. "If that's okay."
Stefan contemplated. It was a dangerous situation, but they could always force him or find him later if he declined now. No, it was better to get the meeting out of the way then, and he could leave town that evening if necessary. So he nodded his assent.
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Doctor Carlisle Cullen was a gentle man with blond hair and kind eyes. His wife Esme had caramel hair that framed her heart shaped face, and her smile was intensely motherly. She greeted Stefan with open arms, delighted at having someone new visit. Introductions went all around and explanations were given to diffuse tension and confusion. Everyone was calm, and Stefan felt content for the first time in a long while; there were others like him, who thought that killing humans was wrong, and they promised to help keep him on the wagon, so to speak, if he accidentally slipped into his Ripper persona.
It was such a relief.
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Stefan found himself over at the Cullen's home more often than not, enjoying their company. He learned that they never slept, which enabled them to do a lot of work at night. They marveled that Stefan had to sleep at all, and that he had a pulse.
He and Edward became fast friends, which Rosalie said was utterly predictable. Stefan and Jasper became close as well; having been both been alive during the Civil War, they found that they had a bit in common and a lot of history they could discuss and debate over. Stefan shared that Damon had been in the Confederate army, like Jasper had been. Alice delighted that she had a new person to help pick out clothes for, and Stefan didn't mind too much. (He kind of liked having more friends than just Lexi). . . .
Stefan hunted with the Cullen's for the first time on a weekend, where they quickly ran through the dense forest to the border of Washington and Canada, where they found more game. Their expedition taught Stefan a few things; one, the Cullen's were faster than him – but not by much. He could keep up with them for the most part, but found that it drained his energy exponentially. Two, the Cullen's did not eat rabbits. They took down big prey; some of the animals were three to four times their size with their brute strength. Stefan wondered how they could keep it all down.
Emmett was a fan of bears, Stefan soon found out. He and Emmett had branched off from the others accidentally, but Emmett wasn't worried, and waved off Stefan's concerns. "We'll catch up later. I smell a bear – wanna help take it down?"
Stefan found that he couldn't say no to a person like Emmett, who a big kid at heart. So they followed the scent to a large grizzly bear, and Emmett let Stefan try his hand at it first. Stefan sped around, confusing the beast, but the grizzly managed to get in a good swipe to Stefan's abdomen, gouging out his stomach. Stefan gasped, and fell back against a tree as his body began to slowly knit itself back together. Emmett finished off the bear snapping its neck, and offered Stefan a drink worriedly.
"Are you going to be okay?" Emmett's golden eyes were wide.
"Yeah," Stefan choked out. "This? It's nothing, really." But he gratefully drank the bear's blood, and found that he could only stomach so much. Emmett drained the rest, and by the time he was done, Stefan's wound was mostly healed. He winced as he stood up straight.
"Right. Let's get back to the house," Stefan suggested. They took off at a slower pace, Emmett lagging behind on purpose until Stefan regained his footing. The two vampires arrived at the Cullen house to find everyone there, worried.
"I saw what happened, are you alright?" Alice flitted over, and Esme fussed over him, and Stefan waved them all off. Even Rosalie looked a little worried, but her face smoothed over.
"Well, I guess we know who's the more durable vampire then," Was all she said.
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Weeks turned to months, and the months flew by until it was almost a year after Stefan had met the Cullen's. Damon didn't bother him at all, which Stefan thought was vaguely suspicious, but he didn't dwell on it, for Edward always picked up those thoughts and would frown at Stefan. He found himself integrating into their family with ease and grew to care strongly for this bunch of weird vampires; he found it funny that they sparkled, but when he mentioned it, Edward had wryly said, "I'd rather sparkle than burst into flames."
"But I've got one of these," Stefan wiggled his ring finger in Edward's direction.
Emmett plopped down on the couch next to Stefan and wondered aloud, "I wonder if we wore those if we could go out into the sunlight without sparkling."
Stefan and Edward exchanged glances and the latter said, "Let's find out." They couldn't ask Alice if it would work because she and the girls had gone on an extended shopping trip for the first half of the summer in New York. Carlisle was at the hospital and Jasper was hunting alone for the sunny afternoon.
Stefan took off his ring from his hand, and found that he was trembling nervously. Edward noticed, and said to Emmett in a commanding tone, "Close the curtains, Em. Make sure no sunlight gets in here." Stefan's hand felt bare without it; he had never taken off the daylight ring since Emily had put it on his finger. He handed it to Edward gently and the latter slipped it onto his own appendage with great care. Edward ghosted out of the front door and stood in the sun. He called back into the house – "It works!" He laughed with incredulity and flitted back into the house, handing Stefan his daylight ring back.
Emmett's eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "Really?" He turned to Stefan. "How do we get one?"
"I can call my friend Lexi and see if she's knows any witches that can spell your family rings," Stefan said. The Cullen brothers smiled at each other.
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School started again and the faculty found it strange the Cullen's no longer took their extended camping trips on sunny days.
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The Cullen's enjoyed their newfound freedom in the sun, relishing in its warmth. Summer ended and winter passed, ushering in the Spring time, though you could hardly notice with all the rain. But a day in March of 2003 changed the Cullen's and Stefan's lives forever.
Stefan and Edward sitting next to each other in AP Biology when she walked into the room. Stefan found nothing out of the ordinary with her, but Edward's head snapped to attention and he stared at her. His nostrils flared and Stefan put a hand on Edward's arm to keep him from leaping up to attack the human girl.
They barely made it through the class, before Edward charged out of the room full speed with Stefan on his heels nervously. Edward attempted to change his schedule, but the administrator was unable to. Edward pleaded with his eyes to Stefan to compel the woman, but Stefan could not; his compulsion was weak without him feeding on human blood.
At lunch Edward shot the girl confused looks, with his brows furrowed and his breath held.
Finally, Stefan asked, "Do you even know her name?"
Edward responsed quickly and quietly, "It's Bella. Just Bella."