SM OWNS ALL THINGS TWILIGHT.

AN: I know that there are quite a few police stories on FF, but I don't think there are many CXE ones. Pairing these type of police officers together has been done many times in fiction and on TV over the years by more talented than me, but I hope you can spare a few minutes to read and review. This is set in England. I'm making most of the gang English-please give it a try! I'll try and keep slang as general as possible, I'll list any words that may not be general knowledge to foreign or even English readers, especially younger ones, at the end. If I miss something please PM me and I'll try and explain. M rated for language and images at moment.

CARLISLE POV

If I didn't know any better, or hadn't seen just how hard and how fucking bravely my father had fought the cancer which had ravaged his body and taken his life a mere four months after it's diagnosis, I would have sworn that the old man had died when he did on purpose. He knew that to me, society social events were a fate worse than death, none more so than the Cullen Trust Gala Dinner. It was a room that had on one side those who seemed to have signed not the hypocratic, but hypocritic oath and were overindulging in every vice they chastised their patients for and on the other, those doctors who were more concerned about the advancement of their own careers rather than that of medical science.

But seeing first hand earlier that day, the skill and dedication of those unsung hero's and heroines who work at the front line of the National Health Service, not to mention my desire to do what little I could to bring my mother some comfort, had softened my mood a little and forced me into my tuxedo and plastered a smile on my face. However as my mother focused the attention of a particularly loud and overbearing Sloane ranger on me, I felt my patience begin to wear as thin as my jaw achingly tight smile. Managing to excuse myself, I was mid way across the floor of the Royal College of Surgeons grand dining room, heading towards the bar, where I hoped to find a whisky large and deep enough to drown myself in when I caught out of the corner of my eye, two nervous, underdressed figures hovering in the doorway.

"Oh Carlisle no…surely somebody else can deal with it? You work far too long and hard as it is…I know the Met is understaffed and overstretched, but really." My mother scolded as I hurried a goodbye and kissed her cheek.

I wasn't vain, but I liked to eat healthily and keep in shape, it was a necessity for my job, and knowing that I had a four course meal to face that night, I had made my excuses and skipped the heavy lunch that followed a meeting at Scotland Yard. I had retreated to New Moon a little bistro near Rox Hill, the police station or "nick" that my team worked from.

I had just returned to my car and was about to open the driver's door when I was flattened against it by a car speeding past. But before I could call in the number plate, I was distracted by hysterical screaming coming from a little further up the road. I covered the distance quickly and eased myself to the front of the crowd which had gathered round the prone bodies of a mother and a little girl of about three who had been crossing the road.

The mother was conscious and screaming in pain and fear as she tried to reach for her ominously still little girl. With the help of some of the crowd I managed to keep order until uniform officers arrived.

"Pleease…my baby…pleassse." The mother had moaned as despite her own injuries, she tried to fight the hands that were attempting to keep her still. "Kellly…Kelly talk to Mummy…" she pleaded.

"Where the fuck is that ambulance?" I bellowed at the uniform officers over my shoulder as I dropped to my knees by the little girl. We were lucky that the hospital wasn't far away and that there were several nurses doing shopping in their lunch hours. There were two around Kelly, one holding her head still, whilst the other kept an anxious eye on her breathing.

"Come on Kelly…please sweetheart." I had whispered taking a cold little hand in mine. I felt so helpless but the nurses said that she seemed to be responding to the stimulation of my voice, so I kept talking, encouraging never letting go of her hand. And it seemed that my father had heard my frantic pleas as Kelly began to come round, she was groggy and disorientated and she became distressed when I had to move aside for the paramedics. They didn't know if she was genuinely upset or if it was a sign of a head injury, but they were desperate to keep her calm so I had climbed into the back of the ambulance with her.

"Mummmy." She had whimpered in a voice that was barely audible.

"Mummy's alright sweetheart, you'll see her very soon I promise…" I had said as I stared into Kelly's large, frightened eyes. My heart clenched painfully in my chest as I took in her small fragile frame on the large guerney.

"My name is Carlisle…I'm a policeman…I'm going to look after you till we find your Mummy…"I had told her.

Two hours later after receiving profuse thanks from Kelly's mother Rebecca, who had sustained a broken arm and leg and being assured that Kelly who had a fractured pelvis was stable, I had swept through the doors of the unit barking out the registration number of the car.

"W288 CBW…I want it and whoever was driving it found…NOW!" I had barked.

It had been stolen a week ago. I had put a bulletin out for it, but I didn't hold out much hope. All I could hope was that little Kelly would be okay.

"Please tell me it's not Kelly." I said as I approached Detective Inspector Jasper Whitlock my long time friend and colleague and new boy on the team Detective Constable Jake Black.

"No sir, she's still stable…" Jake began nervously.

I noisily let out the breath that I hadn't realized I was holding

"Walk and talk." I said clapping them both on the shoulder as I guided them from the room. "Well whatever it is you're here for…you timed it perfectly." I said as we stepped into the cool night air

"Is the old ermine and pearl cloak weighing a little heavy on your shoulders tonight your Lordship?" Jasper teased.

"Bloody thing was practically strangling me…" I huffed as I folded myself into the passenger seat of Jasper's car.

"You okay Jake?" I asked catching sight of the younger man's face in the mirror. Jake still couldn't quite get his head round the fact that by day I was Detective Chief Superintendant Carlisle Cullen, head of the Metropolitan Police Force's Serious Crime Initiative and by night and at other usually really inconvenient moments, I was the new Lord Cullen of Harrowview. A title I had never wanted in the first place and one that I hated even more now that it meant that my father Aro, the eighteenth Lord Cullen, was gone.

My father and his grandfather before him had insisted on doing more with their lives than living off the money collected from the various farms and small holdings at Harrowview. My grandfather had become a surgeon during the First World War but it was during the Second that his skills came to the fore. He had been one of the surgeons that had helped Archibald Macindoe, pioneer the treatment of burned fighter pilots. My father had become a noted cardiologist. He had set up the Cullen Trust as a charity for surgical research. I on the other hand did not possess the stomach for medicine and much to my mother's horror had joined the Metropolitan Police after graduating from Oxford. I joined on the fast track graduate scheme and it was hard but I worked hard and earned the respect of all I worked with, even holding myself back from promotion when I thought I wasn't ready or experienced enough. Not for me a career spent pen pushing, I worked drugs squads, vice, child protection, serious crime, all the posts that would let me do real police work. I had feared that once I had reached my current rank I would be forced behind a desk, I was all ready to resign my rank before I even officially received it, but the Comissoner and the Home Secretary who had co founded my unit, had said that with large amounts of resources being diverted to protecting London from terrorist activity, there was a real need for a unit that would focus on protecting London from criminal threats closer to home. I had the experience, the drive and was as an old school copper had once told me "a bloody good thief taker". The ultimate compliment.

"Um yes your Lordship…sir…"

I smiled at him. I knew how he felt, I still couldn't take it what had happened. Was it really only six months since the force of nature that was my father had been taken?

"So?" I began casting a glance at Jasper.

"Explosion at a crack den on the Lowry Estate."

My SCI unit dealt with the drugs trade obviously, but we usually dealt with the bigger players.

"And…don't keep me in suspenders?" I urged. I had known Jasper ever since he had turned up at Harrow Public school, effectively dumped by his American diplomat father and socialite mother. We had become great friends. It had been on a weekend at the family country house that Jasper had met Alice, an American post grad student friend of my younger brother Edward. Jasper was Texan by birth, but you wouldn't know unless he was tired or played up his accent. He was however more than happy to allow Alice to "save horses and ride a cowboy."

"I wouldn't dream of it…the thought of your legs in suspenders is a truly awful thought." Jasper shuddered. Jasper and I played on the same five a side soccer team. I growled. "The three occupants were not killed by smoke, flame or the large cloud of crack cocaine that is floating over London."

That had my attention.

"Execution style bullets to the back of the head…"

"Okay, interesting but still not really our business, surely it's local Drug Squad…"

"They found a body in what was left of the flat upstairs…" Jake burst out before blushing. I couldn't help but grin at his enthusiasm.

"Eight including our junkie friends. Two firemen" Jasper said to the question about casualties he could see in my eyes.

" Shit…this fucking day just gets better. And this body is important because…?"

"They found a very well done forged passport and driving license on him plus, ammo for some serious hard wear. So what was left of him was dumped on me…Alice is not happy…it's her birthday."

"I'll make it up to her." Alice was born on February 29th in a leap year, so whilst her "official" birthday was only once every four years, she chose a different day every other year to celebrate.

"Oh I know that, but I don't think a trip to Harrods will cut much ice with Emmett…Hamley's maybe…he finally got the balls to ask out that actress.

"Bella Swan." Jake stammered.

Bella Swan was a hot American actress who had been researching her new role as a pathologist at Emmett's lab. But instead of falling at her feet drooling over her beauty and killer curves, Emmett had rigged a cadaver she was looking at to move as she touched it. Her "people" had thrown a fit, but Bella had laughed and insisted that Emmett become her main technical advisor. He had finally taken the very large hint she had dropped and asked her out.

"What's he found?"

Jasper shrugged. "Won't say over the phone, he wants us all to suffer his pain."

"I'm a fire starter…twisted fire starter…"

The music was deafeningly loud as we stepped into Dr Emmett McCarty's pathology lab, but the three of us were dissuaded from complaining straight away, by the sight of Emmett who was six foot three in height and just as wide in muscle, heavy handedly slapping around some internal organs.

"Took your damn time." He growled finally looking up at us.

"Down 23." He called out, Emmett loved his gadgets and one of his favourites was a voice activated sound system. The music's volume fell.

"So, Bella Swan…how long are those legs?" Jasper asked. There was apparently a great debate in the gossip magazines as to just how long and gorgeous Bella Swan's legs were. Emmett glared at me.

"Do you expect me to talk?" I asked. I was wearing a tux, Emmett and several other people often commented that I bore more than a passing resemblance to Daniel Craig the new James Bond. I had to try and lighten the mood somehow!

"No Mister Bond, I expect you to all shut the hell up and listen, so I can get the hell out of here and maybe actually find out how far up those damn legs actually go!" he huffed, but he was smiling.

"Right…the gentleman they found in flat 4E…his paperwork says he's Ian Oliver, but his DNA…" Emmett began as he yanked out a shelf from his body lockers. Jake, Jasper and I all flinched at the noise and the smell. I hated looking at dead bodies at the best of times, but burnt ones, even ones that had only been slightly singed like this one always made my stomach lurch.

Emmett looked at us, rolled his eyes and muttered something about barbeque, which sent Jake running from the room. Emmett's chuckle which seemed to echo off the tiled walls was truly sinister.

"Alright Doctor Lector…can we get on?" I snapped as I fought to keep my chargrilled lamb from earlier in the evening in my stomach.

"Of cour…ssse." Emmett said drawing the end of the word into his Hannibal lector liver and chianti noise. "There were no fingerprints, they were taken off before this fire, so I checked the DNA database and it started screaming at me very loudly in a Langley sounding American accent."

"CIA?" Jasper queried

"What? Who the fuck is he?" I demanded.

AN: Okay, so

Sloane Ranger= a wealthy often aristocratic society girl. They tended to live in or around Sloane Square in London. This term is a bit old fashioned now, but it would be one Carlisle at his age (35) would use.

A "nick"= a slang term for a police station. Criminals also often say that they've been "nicked" instead of arrested.

Thief Taker= that's what old school coppers(policemen/women) call an officer with real skill who works hard and has a good, high arrest rate.

Fire Starter is a song by the Prodigy.

Hamley's is THE biggest and best toy store in London.

Anything I missed just ask.

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