GLADIOLUS || FELIX VOLTURI

four - a new friend.

"Dad! Look! See? It's better now!"

A young Rowan Swan, around age 13, was tending to the mini garden bed outside her small cottage home. Her father, no matter how hard he tried, could never keep the flowers alive and healthy. Honestly, if he could, he just wouldn't mess with gardening as a whole. It's not that he didn't enjoy it, he just was awful at it. Though it's important to understand that his daughter came above all else to him, thus leading him to fight with a flimsy garden hose every morning while she was visiting her Uncle Charlie.

The flowers were healthy and thriving the day she was dropped off at her uncle's house. James Swan was confident he could keep his daughter's garden bed alive for a least a week. The first few days were fine, he watered them around the same time his daughter always did when home. It wasn't until the end of the week, when James was walking out of the front door to meet his brother halfway between Forks and Rowan's hometown of Shelton, Washington, that he noticed the sad sight of wilting flowers.

The whole way to pick up Rowan he considered how exactly he was going to break the news that he couldn't even keep her flowerbed alive for a week. The whole way back was spent with Rowan explaining how it wasn't the end of the world, and she could most likely take care of the problem.

That was how James Swan found himself standing next to his daughter, exactly one day after she returned home, a look of amazement upon his face at the sight of a flowerbed full of thriving Gladiolus flowers.

"How did you save them so fast? I mean, they were looking pretty rough," James asked, crouching down on the ground to get a closer look at the flowers. He inspected the flowers, not really looking for anything in particular, just attempting to get a closer inspection of his daughter's work.

Rowan shrugged, crouching down next to her father with a smile on her face. "I don't know, I just watered them like normal and made sure the soil was still fine. I guess it's a gift – you either have it or you don't. Safe to say – you probably don't," she said teasingly.

James rolled his eyes, but the smile on his face made it clear he was joking as well. "Yeah, yeah. I'd like to see your cooking skills live up to your gardening skills. Mind cooking dinner for us tonight, Sweet Pea?" Rowan grimaced at the thought of cooking, throwing her hands up in mock surrender at the thought. She went to stand up, but made sure to raise an eyebrow at her dad before doing so.

"I thought I told you to stop using that dumb kid nickname," Rowan said with a huff.

James stood up as well, stretching his legs for good measure while doing so. "You're still a kid, I don't know what you're talking about," he said, ruffling her hair with a laugh, before walking towards the door. Rowan simply groaned, before following her father indoors.

---

Rowan shot up in bed, a shaky breath escaping her lips while doing so. Her mind was reeling from the dream she just experienced. It wasn't a bad dream – on the contrary, it was actually a very good dream. A dream, specifically – a memory, from a better time in Rowan's life. Her love of gardening started young. Since she could remember, she was playing in the flowerbeds in front of her childhood home. Once her father noticed her interest in gardening, he started planting flowers and quickly realized that Rowan knew more than him – she was a natural at gardening.

Tears slowly fell down her cheeks while she replayed the memory in her head. She bit her lip harshly to keep from sobbing. Most days, Rowan was fine. She grieved the loss of her father quite often, but it was usually in silence. It would creep on her at random moments, often at the simplest of times. Moments like hearing her uncle laugh, and it sounding a bit too similar to her father's. Or moments like reading his favorite order on the menu at the diner in town when they would visit Forks.

Though moments like this, where she was alone at night and waking up from a dream so real she could almost smell the Gladiolus flowers she once had taken care of as a child – those were easily the hardest. Seeing her dad healthy in her dreams but not in reality – that was the hardest.

With a deep breath, she slowly got out of bed. She glanced at the alarm clock, noticing it was only 5 am. "Guess I'll read," Rowan mumbled to herself, grabbing her worn-out copy of The Hobbit from the small desk in her room.

---

Later that day, after working her shift at the local bookstore in town, she drove to Sam and Emily's house. She carried an old tattered bag with her, it slung over her arm lazily. Sticking out of the bag was a notebook filled with possible questions she wanted to ask Paul.

She jogged up to the residence, quickly knocking a couple of times once she got to the door. She nearly chickened out from visiting but decided she could trust Paul to be honest with her. Rowan possibly trusted him to be more honest with her than Bella, since she could easily tell Bella was still loyal to her ex first and foremost.

Emily quickly answered the door, a look of surprise on her face upon seeing Rowan on the other side. "Oh, I wasn't expecting it to be you," Emily said.

Rowan quickly became embarrassed. She simply assumed Paul would be at Emily's house with the rest of the pack, but never stopped to think about if he wasn't. "Oh, shit, I'm sorry. I'm here to speak with Paul. I didn't know where else to find him," Rowan said with a sheepish smile.

Emily simply nodded, waving Rowan inside the small house. "It's no problem, I just wasn't expecting either you or your cousin to return so soon after what happened. But I'm glad you did! Make yourself comfortable," Emily said, quickly returning back to the kitchen where she resumed her previous baking project. Rowan did as she was told, and made herself comfortable at the table near the kitchen. "Yeah, sorry about that. I wasn't really my best self the last time you saw me. I'm still not used to the whole Nosferatu thing being real yet, so I certainly wasn't prepared for giant wolves to appear out of nowhere. Oh well," Rowan said with a shrug. While she was half-joking, the reality of her new life still was setting in – that much was true.

"Heh, yeah, believe me, I understand. I don't blame you one bit. It was actually kind of refreshing seeing someone have a sensible reaction to what's going on around here," Emily said with a smile. Rowan stayed quiet after that, allowing Emily to focus on baking her muffins in peace. Once she placed the pre-baked goods in the oven, Emily joined Rowan at the table.

It was about an hour before Paul and the rest of the pack showed up at Emily's. It was nice, Rowan thought, to get to know Emily a little better. It was nice making a friend. While in Forks, Rowan hadn't spent much time attempting to make friends. She mainly focused on working part-time and spending time with Bella and Charlie. She would spare some time for her hobbies as well, but that was about it. She considered Jacob a friend as well, but never spent more than a couple of minutes talking to him one on one. Talking to Emily made Rowan realize she may be lonelier than she once thought.

While in the middle of Emily explaining the very complicated way of her and Sam meeting, which Rowan could barely keep up with due to how messy it all seemed, Sam walked through the door, the rest of the pack following quickly behind. Emily stopped to greet her fiancé, causing Rowan to focus her attention on the rest of the group.

"Hey, Paul, your bestie is here!" Jared shouted with a grin upon seeing Rowan at the table. Rowan only rolled her eyes at the comment. Jacob looked confused at her presence but kept quiet as Paul approached her with a smile.

"Hey bestie, glad you could finally make it," Paul said with a grin, leaning onto the chair next to Rowan.

"Yeah, yeah, let's not get too ahead of ourselves here. I'll be outside, join me when you're ready," Rowan said, quickly walking out to the porch where she and Paul spoke the other day. Once outside, she decided to sit on the steps to the porch, leaving enough space for Paul to sit next to her if he chose to do so.

A couple of minutes passed, and Paul joined Rowan outside, sitting next to her holding two muffins. He offered one to her silently, causing Rowan to raise a brow at him. "Well? You gonna take it or not?" Paul said, already scarfing down half of his muffin. Rowan couldn't help but snort at the sight, but nodded in thanks while taking her own muffin. The two sat in silence for a minute, staring out into the forest that surrounded them.

"You don't have to answer any question you don't feel comfortable answering," Rowan said suddenly, not taking her eyes off the tree line in front of her.

"Huh, I didn't plan on it, but thanks anyway," Paul said, causing another snort from Rowan. "Damn, I was just trying to lighten the mood," Rowan said, though it was obvious it was in jest with the grin on her face.

"That makes two of us then," Paul said, returning a humorous grin of his own. The two laughed amongst themselves, Rowan deciding to pull her notebook out of her bag while doing so.

"You know, I understand that you didn't have to do this. So, thanks, for still being willing to help me understand all this," Rowan said while flipping her notebook open, finding the small list of questions she had planned beforehand.

Paul simply shrugged, "It's not a big deal. Like I said before, I had Sam, but I was still pretty confused and had to figure out a lot on my own. It would've been nice to have someone offer to answer every question I had. Well, I may not be able to answer every question, but you get the gist."

Rowan nodded, then quickly went over her questions. She didn't want to bombard him with too many, so she decided to pick the ones she deemed most important and would ask those.

"So, the Cullens. Good guys or bad guys?" Rowan asked, a genuine look of curiosity upon her face. Of course, if she was to take Bella on her word, the Cullens seemed like nice individuals. But literally everyone else she had met seemed to think otherwise.

"Damn, asking that right off the bat, huh?" Paul said with a laugh. "I mean, to answer your question, I don't consider any bloodsucker to be a "good guy". I'm sure your cousin likes them plenty, but they're just as dangerous as any other bloodsucker. Just because they drink animal blood doesn't mean they aren't still dangerous," Paul said with a shrug.

"Oh, they drink animal blood and not human blood? That's good I suppose," Rowan still wasn't thrilled about the idea of her cousin once dating a vampire but beggars can't be choosers. If her cousin was going to date one, at least they weren't targeting Bella for her blood.

Paul laughed at her response, "Yeah, I guess. They know if they break the treaty, it's game over for them," he said smugly.

Rowan wanted to ask more about the treaty, but decided she would save that question for another day, "So, the guy we ran into in the meadow, do you know why he was here?"

Paul's expression seemed to harden at the thought of Laurent. "Yeah, for Bella. And I don't think he's the only one either. I don't know how many, but we've found evidence of at least another bloodsucker around the area. Just stay alert and be careful. Call one of us if you see anything weird."

A grim feeling washed over Rowan at the thought of more vampires targeting her cousin. "It's not like it'll matter anyway. I couldn't put up much of a fight if they wanted me dead," Rowan muttered. "Hey, listen to me," Paul quickly grabbed her shoulder. It wasn't harsh, but still firm enough to quickly grab her attention. "You're safe here. We won't let anything happen to your family. That includes you too."

Rowan was touched by the sincerity of his words. She couldn't fully believe it, mainly because she knew how dangerous vampires could be, but she trusted that Paul and the rest of the pack truly wanted to keep her and her family safe. That much meant a lot to her.

"I know. Thank you for that. It brings more comfort to Bella and I than you all know," Rowan said softly. Paul only nodded in response, moving his hand from her shoulder.

Their conversation continued. Rowan learned a lot from Paul that she was grateful for. She learned about vampires, Quileute history, the Cullen's, and even a little bit about Paul himself, including giving his phone number and Emily's in case Rowan ever needed to get ahold of someone in an emergency situation. Eventually, though, Rowan decided he had answered far more than he needed to, and decided to call it a day.

"Well, I know I've said it plenty before but, thank you again. For not only answering everything but for being patient with me while doing so," Rowan said,

Paul simply shrugged, "It's no problem. I honestly admire you for how well you're handling all this. It's not like this is all easy to take in."

Rowan went to stand up, and Paul soon stood after her. "I'm optimistic this will all calm down soon enough," Rowan said, a slight smile on her face while doing so. She didn't fully believe what she said, but thought the more she said it – the more likely it may come true. Paul had a weary look on his face upon hearing her words, but smiled nonetheless, "Well, I hope you're right."

Paul walked Rowan the short distance to her car, giving her a nod and a wave as she opened the door," Don't be a stranger. You know where to find us. Plus, we're just a call away," he said with a smile.

"Thanks. Same to you. Stop by if you're in town," Rowan said, smiling back, before climbing into her car and eventually driving away.

The whole drive back to Forks was one spent in silence. She didn't even think to turn on the radio as her mind raced with everything she just learned. While she didn't feel safer in Forks after learning about another vampire possibly in the area, she did feel less alone due to the friendships she was building, and that alone was enough for her to consider her day a decent one.

---

a/n: thank you for all the support so far on this story, i hope you enjoy it so far! as always, comments and kudos are appreciated so thank you to everyone who has done so! and we are getting close to the end of new moon, which means the visit to the volturi soon. i can't wait to share it with you all!