Again, another great chapter. I really do love this story. :)

Author's Response: Thank you!

I cant wait for the next installment. Your story is so rich with detail its an absolute joy to read.

 Thank you.

Author's Response: And thank you! :-)

such interesting dynamics! keep going!!

Author's Response: Thank you!

Another wonderful chapter. I'm so happy that you have given all of them a purpose beyond attending high school and college ad nauseam (a very bleak prospect for an immortal). It's a very hopeful outtake to have the implosion of the Cullens resulting in personal growth and not in total failure. At the center of all, as the catalyst for both their fall out and coming together, is Bella. Just brilliant!! I want to thank you for taking the time to answer every single one of your reviews. I feel like I'm having a conversation with you and I love that. Thanks for your thoughtfulness.

Author's Response:

And thank you for reviewing!  My Mama taught me to always say "thank you." Ha.  Although I don't get hundreds for a chapter, so answering them isn't that hard.  I'm just so tickled people are reading and actually enjoying this!

And yes, Bella is very much a catalyst.  It seemed to me, while reading the books, that there's really only so long the whole high school and college thing could go on before somebody loses his/her mind and commits mass murder. LOL!  High school was bad enough the first time around, and none of them are really kids.  Talk about stagnation!  SMeyer seemed to imply that "living for love" was enough of a purpose, with Alice and Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie, and eventually Edward but I just can't buy that.  For the first few infatuated months, sure.  And even if vampires might undergo a longer infatuation period -- still.  After a while, whispering sweet nothings IS nothing and they're going to get bored.  I thought they needed a *project*. :-D

I love how they all have a direct purpose and involvement in the shelter. I am curious about Edward being a neurosurgeon. Did he learn that specialty AFTER finding out about Bella's accident, or was this a degree he got before he ever met her?

I'm not gonna lie- the thought of waiting a week for an update is causing me to pout like a three year old. But I know it will be totally worth the wait.

Author's Response:

Thank you!  And the background for his neurosurgery degree will be revealed in a chapter to come, so I don't want to say too much here.  There has been a hint earlier in a previous chapter (I don't remember exactly which one).  Yes, I'm mean like that! :-D

But I'm glad that you liked how each of them has a role to fill.  More as soon as I have time to write it!

Brilliant, beautiful, and haunting.  I am throroughly enjoying this story!

Author's Response: Thank you!!

oh, wow, I love that part with Esme at the end. In fact, i love this entire story.

Author's Response: Thank you!  I'm glad!

Hmm. That's certainly a different take on Esme than I have ever seen before. I like how you make them more realistic, more human, rather than all sugary-sweet perfection. It's a much more mature look at the Cullens than we saw through Bella's young eyes in the books.

Author's Response: Thank you!  And yes, I think even Esme and Carlisle must have their share of faults and issues.  They become, for Bella in the book, the Ideal Parents, but nobody is ideal, when seen from the inside. :-)  Even as they may have reasons for how they act.

The stuff about disabled access, SO TRUE! I’m an interior design student and the ergonomics corse we take requires us to spend a day around campus in a wheelchair. My god, the heavy doors! And there is this one "disabled access" toilet that is at the end of a narrow corridor full of sharp turns, it is impossible to reach in a chair.

 In is incredible what people will design, do they not think!!?

 on and great story so far. 

Author's Response: That's exactly it -- they don't think, I'm afraid.  And then sometimes get really annoyed when somebody IN a chair points out the problem.  My sister found a restaurant once that had a bathroom with disabled access at the bottom of a flight of stairs!  When she told the waitress it wasn't disabled access, the waitress was actually confused, until she realized that -- duh! -- chairs *don't go down stairwells* very well!

Wow.  Wow wow wow.  I am pretty much blown over.  And totally impressed.  I just finished reading all you had posted for this story in one sitting and man, I almost feel overwhelmed.  The depth to which you have plumbed the original Twilight story and the issues you have flushed out are incredible.  And they seem so right to me.  There were many important and legitimate issues that I felt were merely glossed over in the Twilight saga.  This is understandable to a degree - an author can does have to deal with restrictions in book length and plot tangents.  I was continually unsettled, however, in regards to Bella's youth and her almost flippant attitude to giving up her mortality.  And I never felt satisfied as to why Edward loved Bella as instantly and wholly as he claimed to.  I think you bring up a valid point in noting he was likely more attracted to Bella the mystery and not necessarily Bella the person.  It has been immensely gratifying to see them begin to approach their relationship with a better knowledge of themselves and a willingness to really get to know the other person in all their 'ugliness' instead of the almost frantic affair years ealrier that appeared to be driven almost entirely by insatiable curiousity and 'hormones' as your Bella says.  It has been so nice to see Bella really come into her own as an adult and see how she relates to her past relationship with Edward.

 I appreciate your choice to have Bella no longer be in love with Edward.  That feels...appropriate to me.  Meyer portrays Bella as a fighter; 'diamonds and steel' I believe were your words.  Her life would not have ended with his departure.  She would have suffered immensely, probably have changed a good deal with the knowledge she gained from the ordeal, and then kept on living.  I like that you didn't have her waste her life away pining.

 It also caught my notice that yet again Bella appears to be bringing others together.  I noticed in the books that while maybe not always the sole reason, Bella often served as a catalist to join people and groups that would otherwise have remained separate.  The Cullen kids and the other high schoolers at the lunch table, the La Push pack and the Cullens, vampires from across the world in BD.  The list goes on.  Bella is a unifier, a binder of people.   Whether conciously or not, it is interesting that you have her doing the same thing in your story.  The ragged Cullen coven is already being bound back together, in many thanks to Bella, in a roundabout way.

And honestly, I found your choice of the whole disfunctional Cullen family mess rather brilliant.  They had always been presented as a united front, and yes, nearly perfect, but I think your take is deliciously intriguing.  Of course they wouldn't be perfect.  Of course there would be deep, unresolved issues.  The idea of bringing the imperfections of human family over into the vampire universe is so obvious and simple, and yet so genius for its simplicity. Kudos for that!  It makes their world so much more believable and tangible to us mere mortals!

Whew!  Long review.  But your intriguing choices for both plot and characterization were just so damn juicy, I was able to really sink my teeth in and chew it all over.  And these were my thoughts while utterly engrossed in your story.  So, I await with great impatience to see where you take this.  I have no doubt you will continue to surprise my preconceived notions and stimulate my sluggish thinking. You are just that kind of writer!

 Write on, Twilight Lover!

AboveTheWeather

Author's Response:

Wow back!  Thanks for such a long and thoughtful review!  And yes, Bella is being used as a uniter/repairer.  She and Edward will eventually wind up back together, but on -- hopefully -- more mature grounds.  I wanted to "unidealize" all the Cullens because I think it makes them more interesting, ultimately.  Plus, it strikes me that there would be some pitfalls of being a vampire beyond just the constant hunger, things SMeyer didn't explore (either because she didn't want to, or didn't think that far).  So this will give me a chance.

Thanks again for the wonderful review!  I hope you continue to enjoy the story!

Another great chapter, I'll be waiting for more!

Author's Response: Thank you!

 "I plan to kick the hell back and start taking names."

 It makes me so happy to see fanfiction writers fleshing out what is only hinted at in the books about Rosalie. I think this endeavor of Rose's really put her on the map for me, as far as her personality goes.

Author's Response: Thank you!  As you'll see, the return of Rose is a pivotal plot point. :-)