(retroactive)

[her_imperial_radiance]

It is after the very first Bellparty.

"Dad never comes to these," Elspeth tells her grandma. "Too many strange Bells. If there were strange Edwards, Mama might have trouble with them too, but there aren't so far. But I can reintroduce you now, if you'd like."

Comments

[prima_sequentem]

"Why the eggs?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Eggs are very popular among the high-metabolism set," laughs Elspeth. "Someone must have stashed them here. You can eat them, you can wait for whoever it was to run out of their own fridgeful and hand them over."

[prima_sequentem]

"Noted."

[alicornucopia]

It's a while later the next time Edward and Lizzie are by themselves together.

"Bella wants to know if I want my human memories stuck back on like she did with hers. The trouble is I don't know what I'd be getting. She did - she had reams of notes on her childhood - I have almost nothing."

[prima_sequentem]

"How much do you remember? I can fill in most of the rest," she says. "Your father didn't have much to do with raising you."

[alicornucopia]

"Almost nothing. Faces, half faded out. I knew your name, and that I was a Junior before I started using 'Cullen'. I could probably find the place we lived, if I went to Chicago. I have - automatic answers to standard autobiographical questions, and not all of them are attached to the various cover stories. Beyond that, nothing much."

[prima_sequentem]

"Well, let's see... you had no grandparents," she says. "At least three of them were dead when you were born, and I wouldn't have known my father if I passed him in the street. Not that I was allowed to tell you that, because Edward Sr. had very definite ideas about which parts of my life were acceptable for polite company. You did have an uncle on your father's side - nothing on mine except Chris, until she died. Is that the kind of information you're looking for?"

[alicornucopia]

"Some of it," says Edward. "Yes." He half-smiles. "Bella is also curious about whether my historical tendency towards 'melancholy philosophizing' is really about being a vampire or if that's just a shape it took."

[prima_sequentem]

"Melancholy philosophizing. Yes, this is a tendency I recognize," says Lizzie, smiling.

[alicornucopia]

"We had an argument about souls, once, that she found very exasperating. I suppose it's all been rendered quite moot; it has been more than demonstrated that vampires and humans appear in the same place and it couldn't reasonably be called Heaven."

[prima_sequentem]

"I never previously believed in an afterlife, but I'm happy to be proved wrong."

[alicornucopia]

"Did I pick up all my opinions on the subject from Carlisle, then? And attach my own melancholy philosophizing flavor?"

[prima_sequentem]

"Your father might have had an influence there."

Lizzie does not approve of Edward Masen, Sr. He had lots of money, which was nice, and he did genuinely love her, which was also nice, but he completely fell down when it came to parenting his child and if the practical considerations (i.e. money) hadn't been so hard to overcome, she probably would have left him over it. As it is, she tried to minimize the damage. It's hard to tell how well she succeeded.

[alicornucopia]

"Hard to tell," echoes Edward. "Yes, I suppose so. I have no special talent at reading my own thoughts."

[prima_sequentem]

"No, that's your wife's area of expertise. Although I guess you could always ask her for tips."

[alicornucopia]

"I have, occasionally. I think it requires more... self-esteem, than I tend to default to."

[prima_sequentem]

Well, now she kind of wants to hug him.

[alicornucopia]

He considers this for an imperceptible fraction of a second, and then holds out his arms.

[prima_sequentem]

Hug.

It's perfectly familiar, except for the change of species. There were a lot of hugs in Edward's childhood, and the majority of them were from his mother.

Is that the kind of information he is looking for?

[alicornucopia]

"Yes."

[prima_sequentem]

Lizzie grins.

"Happy to help," she says, letting go.

[alicornucopia]

He laughs softly.

[prima_sequentem]

Well, she is. She's his mother; it's her job. Hugs and all.

[alicornucopia]

"I have been wondering if I should introduce you to Esme. And reintroduce you to Carlisle. Or if that would be uncomfortable."

[prima_sequentem]

"I don't think it would be uncomfortable."

It has the potential to be, but it's not what she'd expect, going on secondhand information about Esme and Carlisle. She's not competitive. Edward can have as many mothers as he wants. He can start a collection. Just as long as he doesn't start keeping them all in glass cases in his basement, because that would be inconvenient and sort of creepy.