"I just don't understand..." He muttered, suddenly feeling the need to sit down. "You're asking me to bring a human child into my home... Where my family of vampires live."

"Isabella is no ordinary child, old friend." The voice replied. "We don't know how she exists, but she does. The girl will stop aging after her seventeenth birthday. She is special, Carlisle. She needs to be protected, and who better than you? She needs someone who will understand."

"I'm just not sure..."

The voice chuckled. "Your girl has already seen the future, and informed the rest of your family. They're waiting for you in the lobby as we speak. Just meet her, Carlisle, and make your decision later."

Carlisle paused. The only thing his wife had ever wanted was a chance to raise a child, though she loved their teenagers dearly. Esme and Rosalie would jump at the chance to bring the young girl into the Cullen Family.

Emmett and Alice would be overjoyed to have a little sister. Alice would have yet another person to dress, while Emmett would finally have someone in the house whose intellectual maturity matched his own. (Carlisle meant that in the best way possible. He loved his son dearly, Emmett just had a tendency to break things... A lot of things.)

The only two people he had to worry about: Edward and Jasper. Jasper, the newest member of the family, would be against Isabella in fear of hurting her because she was human. And Edward...

Edward had been the first to join his coven, his 'oldest' son. But Carlisle couldn't understand why Edward was so against everyone that wasn't like them.

Carlisle Cullen wanted to become a father to a child that needed him. He took a minute to collect himself before heading towards room 111.

Swan, Isabella Marie.

DOB: September 13, 1987

Age: Four 1/2

Relatives: Charlie Swan (Father) DOA. Renee Swan (Mother) DOA

"Hello, Isabella." He greeted quietly. "I'm Dr. Cullen. I'm very sorry about your mom and dad, sweetheart."

The little girl was beautiful, pale, with a heart-shaped face. Her mahogany brown hair fell ended at her waist in ringlets. Her chocolate brown eyes widened at the mention of her parents.

"Car-lisle." Isabella pronounced carefully, concentrating on his name tag.

"Carlisle!" She said again, giggling when she finally got it right. "Your name is Carlisle! Mommy and daddy used to call me Bella... Unless I got into trouble, then I got full named."

He chuckled. "Do you prefer to be called Bella?"

Bella nodded, clutching the complementary hospital teddy bear to her chest. The gash on her forehead had already been cleaned and treated, a cast was wrapped around her left arm.

The door swung open.

"Carlisle!" Alice sang.

Her arms were full of shopping bags, Carlisle grimaced. She'd seen the future, and she'd already begun to plan Bella Swan's life as a Cullen.

"It's a pixie..." Bella muttered thoughtfully. "You're a pixie!"

Alice squealed and ran over to the bed in inhuman speed, grabbing the little girl to swing her around in a circle.

"You're so cute, Bella!" She gushed. "We're going to have so much fun together, I promise!"

Instead of looking frightened by Alice's excitable nature, like Carlisle had feared, Bella giggled again. "What's your name, pixie-girl?"

"Alice." She replied. "Alice Cullen. Carlisle is my dad."

She frowned. "But you don't look anything alike..."

Isabella is no ordinary child.

Caius was right. Carlisle thought. Bella is no ordinary child, she's extremely gifted. She can't go to another family... They'd never understand her.

"That's because I was adopted." He heard Alice say.

In a way, it was true. All of his children had been 'adopted', just not in the way that he would be adopting Bella.

"He adopted all of my siblings. There's five of us all together."

Her eyes widened in astonishment. "You have a big family!"

"I do." Alice laughed. "And you know what? There's always room for one-"

"Alice..." He warned, nodding his head towards the door. "I think Esme wanted a word with both of us... Bella, we'll be back in a minute. Why don't I ask Nurse Johnson about getting you some fresh clothes?"

"Yes, please." Bella nodded. "Thank you, Carlisle. Bye, Pixie-Girl!"

Carlisle had to all but carry his daughter out of the room. His fingers locked around her wrist, being almost two hundred and fifty seven years older, he was stronger. He pulled her down the hallway, his expression unreadable.

"Alice-" He began.

"The Volturi begged you to protect her." Alice accused, yanking her arm back. "Are you really about to say no, Carlisle?"

"I'm not saying no, Alice." He held his hands up in surrender. "I'm not saying no. I agree with Caius, no one else would understand Bella's..."

Carlisle trailed off, not exactly sure of what he should call Bella.

"She's a hybrid, Carlisle." She told him. "The question really is how does she exist, but I don't think that's very important right now."

Vampire hybrids had both human and vampire traits, and they were immensely beautiful children. They had a functioning heart with blood flowing through their system. A hybrid's beat faster than a human's, they were capable of sleeping like humans and of eating. At some point they would stop growing/aging altogether, reaching the same unchangeable state of vampire.

Bella Swan was about to become Isabella Marie "Bella" Cullen, adoptive daughter of Carlisle and Esme Cullen, and adoptive sister of Edward, Alice, and Emmett Cullen, and Jasper and Rosalie Hale.

"Are you nuts?" A very angry voice demanded. "Carlisle? You can't be serious... She's human. Tell me you're not that stupid!"

"Edward-"

"She's a hybrid." Alice corrected her royally pissed off brother. "She's half human, Eddie-kins. Why don't you grow a heart?"

"You know I hate it when you call me that." Edward replied coldly. "Carlisle? A word?"

"I'm sorry, Edward." Carlisle said, not sounding very sorry at all. "But my mind is made up. Why don't we go see what your mother, sister, and brothers have to say about this."

Alice grabbed Edward's arm, yanking him down the hall before their father could even finish his sentence.

Carlisle chuckled and followed them.

Rosalie sat on the edge of an uncomfortable waiting room chair, springing to her feet as she saw the three come into view.

"When can we meet her?" She demanded, her eyes sparkling. The only thing Rosalie had ever wanted was to be a mother. "When can we bring her home? Please tell me that it'll be within the next day or two."

"Easy, babe." Emmett slipped an arm around her waist. Beneath his tough exterior, he was bursting at the seams. "Oh... When can we meet the little squirt?! I wanna meet my new little sister!"

"Emmett." Jasper sent a wave of calming emotions his way to no avail, he was just too wound up. "Why don't we hear what Carlisle has to say, and then take a vote after that?"

Esme moved from her place in the corner to grip her husband's hand. "What's her name, honey?"

Esme possessed an unparalleled capacity for passionate love for those around her, the members of her adoptive family considered her as the greatest maternal figure in their lives. After Rosalie and Emmett were transformed by Carlisle, and Alice and Jasper had joined the family, they had become her surrogate children, though she always held a special place in her heart for Edward, because he was the first of her adoptive children. She wanted to be a mother again.

"Isabella." Carlisle told her. "She prefers Bella."

"Isabella." Rosalie repeated with a smile. "Isabella... What's her middle name, Carlisle?"

"Marie."

Still smiling, she turned to her husband and siblings. "Isabella Marie Cullen... It sounds like it was always supposed to be her name, doesn't it?"

Carlisle chuckled. "I almost wondered if Isabella Marie Anne Hale-Cullen would be a good fit..."

Jasper and Rosalie shared a look.

"Hale?" He asked hesitantly, he could feel his twin's excitement from a mile away. "Are you sure?"

Esme too, looked hopeful. "Anne?"

Anne was her own middle name, handed down to her by her beloved grandmother. She'd always thought, during her human life, had she had a daughter, her middle name would have been Anne. Carlisle had remembered.

"I think we should do it." He said. "But Jasper is right, we should take a vote. Alice?"

"I already consider her my sister." Alice replied, moving to stand beside her father. "Yes."

"I vote yes." Jasper voiced quietly, slipping his arm around his wife's waist. "What about you, Rose?"

"Yes." Rosalie answered without a doubt of hesitation in her voice. "Bella Hale-Cullen... I just... Yes!"

"I vote hell yes!" The only thing Emmett wanted was to grab his new little sister and swing her around in a circle. "If the Volturi wants Bella to be protected, then hell yes, she's joining the family!"

"She's my daughter." Esme mused, a small smile gracing her lips. "Yes."

Carlisle started towards Edward, an unreadable expression on his face. "I know how you must be feeling-"

"She really has no one else?" Edward demanded, reading his father's thoughts. "Truly, no other family at all?"

"None."

A tight, forced smile appeared on his face. Alice beamed at her 'older' brother as she got a vision: Bella opening presents with them the following Christmas.

"Then I guess my vote doesn't really matter." Edward muttered. "Welcome to the family, Bella Hale-Cullen, I promise I won't let anything happen to her."

Rosalie did a very rare thing, moving across the room to throw her arms around her brother's neck.

He patted her back awkwardly for a moment, before his arms relaxed and snaked around her waist to hug her back.

"Thank you." She whispered. "I know you think this isn't a good idea, but-"

"It's all gonna work out." He finished, reading her mind. "Yeah, yeah, I know, Rose... Whatever. When can we meet her, Carlisle?"