Stephenie Meyer Owns Twilight
Chapter 1 - Favors
CPOV
Is was another typically slow day at Forks Hospital - one case of a stomach virus, a fishing hook extraction, and the birth of a child. I was going about my duties as the attending physician, finishing up paperwork in my office, when my telephone rang. The voice I heard on the line was one I hadn't heard in decades. Demetri Bollai, the man to whom I owed my life.
It had been decades since we last spoke. One of the last encounter burned into my memory for an eternity. It was then that he gave me the gift for which I would forever be indebted to him.
"Hello, Carlisle," he greeted me solemnly.
"Hello, Demetri. It has been a very long time. Too long, old friend," I replied.
"Carlisle, I need your help with a situation and I have nowhere else to turn," his tone was lifeless.
"Of course, Demetri," I responded. "You know I will help you in anyway I can," I added. I owed everything to Demetri and I could refuse him nothing.
"Carlisle I need you to come to Italy. My family needs your help," Demetri continued.
"Family? Am I to assume you finally went and made an honest woman of Heidi?" I questioned jovially, trying to lighten his mood.
"I suppose you could say she made an honest man of me," he chuckled.
"What is it with these women? Ah, Brother, the things we men do for love," I replied.
"Yes, I suppose you know as well as I do what we are willing to sacrifice for those we love," his reply was ominous and sent a shiver through my body.
"Indeed I do. I also know what it's like to owe a brother my very existence, to be indebted to him for what he once gave me in the name of love. So please tell me what you need Demetri, as I suspect this isn't a simple call between two old friends. Whatever you need, you know I will give it to you without question," I told him.
"That's exactly what I am counting on, Carlisle," he replied.
"It is a complicated story, one better explained in person. I will tell you now that the Volturi are involved. They suspect, rightfully so, that I am hiding something very powerful from them. I cannot go into details right now on what that is. Just understand that I have a very serious proposition for you and your family. I assure you that I will do everything in my power to make sure the Volturi never find out that your family is in anyway involved. That secret will die with Heidi and me," his words came out rushed.
As I was trying to process it all, his final words struck me. "Demetri, what do you mean, die with you and Heidi," I questioned.
"Please just come to Italy, Carlisle. Bring the rest of your family, as they have a say in this matter as well. It will affect you all in a way you can never imagine. I am not asking you to agree here and now to accept responsibility for what I want to give you. All I request is an audience with your family. I ask nothing more of you than to hear what my wife and I have to propose. Once you hear our story, then you can decide if you wish to help us. I will not fault you for any decision you make once we are heard," he explained.
I had no clue as to what he was referring to but I knew the sound of desperation in his voice. Yes, this was bad, very bad. Regardless, I could not refuse his pleas.
"Consider it done, Demetri. We will leave as soon as possible. I will call you back with the travel arrangements," I informed him.
"Thank you, Carlisle. You are the only one I can trust with this, Brother," he said before he hung up the telephone.
I was stunned, confused, and had so many questions. What could he be hiding from the Volturi? What could he have to give me that would be worth dying for? Should I subject my family to any type of possible danger?
How could I possibly refuse Demetri? I owed him more than anyone can imagine. I owed him everything I held dear to me. He was responsible for the decades of happiness I had experienced as a husband and a father, for restoring my faith in God, for saving my soul. He was the man that had risked his own existence so that I could hold on to what was dearest to me. Esme, my wife, my angel.
/
Esme was the mother of an infant patient of mine many years ago. Esme had lost her husband during the war and the baby girl was all she had left. But the child was dying.
I immediately fell in love with Esme. I watched her with her daughter every day for a month. I saw her depression grew daily and I wanted to take away all her pain. I knew it was wrong to become so involved with a human. No good could come of it. But I couldn't help myself. She had effected me like no other person, or vampire, ever had. She was all that was good in the world and she made me want to be a better man. I wanted a future with her. I wanted a family with her. Could there be a way? Could she ever want me in the same way I so desperately wanted her? It was foolish to wish for these unobtainable human things.
I had foreseen the coming events. A human heart can only handle so much pain before it breaks. She had decided to take her own life. I could see the hopelessness in her eyes. I couldn't allow her to do it. I had to stop her. I had to show her she could go on, that she could survive this.
The night of her daughter's death, I watched as the last flicker of life left Esme's eyes. I knew what would come next; she would end her own life. Standing in the hospital hall outside her daughter's room I tried to convince her, that she still had a life to look forward to. I tried to convey my feelings for her without saying those three words. And then it happened. She smiled at me.
Stunned, all I could do was stand there as she walked away from me to go and greet her inevitable death. That single, frail, lifeless smile had sent my long dead heart soaring. No, it was not foolish to want a life with this woman. After centuries, I realized, with that one smile, the reason for my existence. I was put here to cherish this woman for all eternity.
After that realization, I finally came to my senses, but she was already gone. I rushed back to the nurses' station searching for her daughter's medical records. Having found Esme's address, I rushed out of the hospital to find her and stop her from taking her own life.
I left the hospital and had begun running with vampire speed towards her apartment. It was only five short blocks but it felt like a thousand miles. As I ran towards my love, I tried to sort out exactly how I planned to stop her.
Declare my love like an insane person? She would surely end her life right then and there just to escape me. There was no time to plan this. I decided I just had to act and stop her from ending her life and, in effect, ending mine. For I knew, I could not exist in a world in which she did not.
I found myself standing in front of her apartment door. I knocked but there was no answer. I opened the door and walked through the dark, still apartment. I could smell her scent behind a closed door. I heard her quiet sobs. I wasn't too late.
I opened the door to find her lying on the bathroom floor, crying. A small caliber handgun only inches away from her hand. I gathered her into my arms. There was no fight left in her. She was a mere shell, empty and lifeless. I stroked her cheek as she looked into my eyes. Then I whispered to her, "I love you. There is another way. I want to give you a chance at a new life, with me. Please trust me." And again, she smiled at me.
From that moment on I never left her side. I protected her, I eased her pain, and I loved her with all my heart and soul. Yes, vampires do indeed have a heart and soul. Esme taught me that.
But it almost all came crashing down around me after five years of happiness with Esme. I should have known five minutes with my beautiful angel was more than I deserved. God was cruel and this was his punishment for what I was. If only I would have changed her in the beginning. But I loved Esme too much to damn her to this kind of existence. She had begged me more and more towards the end of her human life to change her. But I was hardheaded and stubborn.
I had been visiting Tanya Denali and her sisters in Alaska to make arrangements for Edward, Esme and me to relocate. During a visit from one of their friends, I learned that the Volutri had discovered that I had revealed myself to a human. The decree was that Esme be put to death. I also learned that Demetri was the chosen guard to rectify the situation. Demetri, my dearest friend.
Demetri had been ordered to seek out Esme and to end her life. Edward and mine as well, should we interfere. Demetri and I had been the best of friends, more like brothers, in another lifetime. But he did not share my views concerning our lifestyle and so we went our separate ways; Demetri staying in Italy and eventually becoming one of the Volturi guard and me starting a family in America.
I soon found myself again racing to save the woman I loved. As I ran towards home, the only thing I could do was pray. Pray to a God that had forsaken me, beg for forgiveness for all the sins I had committed-centuries worth of sin. I bargained with him and offered the end of my existence in exchange for her life. He wasn't listening.
When I arrived at our home, the front door was slightly ajar. A sense of deja vous overtook my senses. Would I be too late this time to save the woman I loved? I entered expecting the worse. I found Demetri and Esme standing in the middle of the room. Tears were streaming down Esme's face. Her beautiful face racked with horror and fear. I was the cause of those tears and the cause of her impending doom. God had indeed condemned me. For an existence without her would be an inescapable hell.
Demetri turned to me. I saw in his eyes remorse, anguish, and love.
"Brother, now is the time. You must change her. I cannot bear to take her from you. They ordered me to relieve the world of this human woman. I vowed to them that I would not leave here until the blood ceased to flow in her veins. She must become one of us. It is the only option. I give this gift to you, Carlisle, because you are my brother and I love you. I will deal with the consequences but this is the only way," he pleaded with me.
I gathered Esme in my arms, just as I had done five years ago when her life was at an end. She stared lovingly into my eyes as I carried her into our bedroom. I laid her gently on our bed and leaned in to deliver the condemning bite.
"I love you. There is another way. I want to give you a new life, with me. Please trust me," I whispered to her, as I had done years ago. Then she smiled at me and I knew in that moment I had not been forsaken by God. God had given me the most precious gift in the form of the angel lying before me, sent here to save my soul, to love me for an eternity.
/
I picked up the phone and dialed Esme's number. After two rings, the sweetest voice I had ever known in all my 400 years, spoke.
"Carlisle, dearest, you aren't calling to say you're going to be late again? You promised. The thought of having the house all to ourselves tonight has had me missing you terribly all day. Wait until you see what I have planned for you Dr. Cullen," she said coyly.
I sat there trying to think of an explanation.
"Carlisle? Is everything okay? What is it, dear?" she asked. Her flirty tone had turned to one of concern.
"Esme, please call Edward and Alice. Let them know I will need them home as soon as possible. There is an emergency in Italy we must attend to."
"Carlisle, I don't understand? What type of emergency?" she questioned.
"Esme, I don't know all the details right now. I believe it may be a matter of life and death. We all must leave as soon as possible," I explained.
"Then you go attend to it. What makes you think I would involve my children in something that is a matter of life and death, as you so grimly put it?" she asked, her previously concerned tone turning to one of anger.
"Esme, please. All of us must go. Please, my angel," I paused before continuing, "Demetri has requested this."
Silence. It took her a few seconds to respond
"Demetri," she stated with reverence, "Yes of course, Carlisle. I will call Edward and Alice now."
"Esme, I love you," I whispered.
"As I love you Carlisle," she responded.
She hung up.
EsPOV
I hung up the phone. Carlisle's words terrified me, the urgency in them. I was frightened for my family. But what could I do? Demetri needed us now. Carlisle and I could refuse Demetri nothing. We owed him too much to abandon him in his time of need. We owed him our very lives.
/
My first husband had died in Germany in the early days of World War I. I barely knew the man I had married. Like so many love struck children during the war, we meet and married within two weeks. It was a whirlwind romance. We loved each other for the most basic of reasons – he loved my smile and I loved his touch. What more was there? The other things would grow in time, we were certain. For now, we simply vowed to live in the moment.
I became pregnant a month later and he joined the army to provide for his impending family. He was deployed to the front lines immediately. Two months later I received the news that he had been killed. Eight months later I sat in a hospital room watching the only thing I had left in this world, slowly die in front of me; my infant daughter.
I was 20 years old and had already experienced a lifetime of hurt. How much pain can one person endure? Exactly this much it would seem. Once my baby daughter was gone, I knew I would follow right behind her. There was no longer a reason to continue on, no future to be had, no more love to experience. I prayed to God. It was all I could manage. I prayed for him to take me instead of my child. He just wasn't listening.
Dr Cullen had been exceptional and had been doing everything in his power to try to save her. He grew more and more frustrated with each passing day. My daughter was dying. She had been for the past month. I knew that and I had accepted that. Dr. Cullen however refused to give up. Truth be known, he was the only reason I had held on as long as I had. Something was always there, in his eyes, begging me to be strong and to survive this. But I already knew the outcome.
During the last days of my child's life, Carlisle seemed to be coming to terms with the fact that my daughter was not going to survive. He began to focus on comforting me instead of healing my already doomed child. He would utter words of encouragement and hint of a life yet to be lived. I supposed he saw in my eyes that I didn't plan to outlive my daughter by long. Who knew that he was trying to convince me to live on because he had fallen in love with me over the last month?
Finally the day came for my daughter to leave this world and my life to end. My sweet baby took her last breath and drifted away peacefully. She would experience no more pain, no more suffering. For that I was gratefully. It was finally over.
As I made my way down the hospital corridor, Dr. Cullen grabbed my shoulders and turned me around to face him. He had taken my face in his hands and held me there for what seemed like an eternity. His eyes were filled with pain, longing, sympathy, and love.
"Esme, please, continue on. Be strong. Live again. Love again. For me. Love again," he quietly pleaded. I looked at him and smiled. The first time I had smiled in God knows how long.
"Thank you, Carlisle for all you have done. Its time for me to go now," I whispered to him. And with that I turned and left the hospital, headed to my small apartment to finally be done with this life; to end all my pain and suffering.
I should have known that hardheaded, stubborn, annoyingly optimistic, wonderful, handsome, loving doctor wouldn't have left it at that. Carlisle apparently followed me to my apartment. He found me at my lowest, lying on the floor, sobbing. He pulled me into his arms.
"I love you. There is another way. I want to give you a chance at a new life, with me. Please trust me," he whispered in my ear. Those were the words that saved me, the words that had restarted my dead heart.
Over the next few years Carlisle healed me, he made me whole again. He was my rock. He taught me how to mourn. He taught me to smile again. His compassion and strength overwhelmed me at times, but always, he was there for me. Never leaving me.
We were inseparable friends for the first two years. Then our friendship began to grow into so much more. I finally told him I loved him one evening while we strolled through a park. That's when it happened. That's when he told me the secret he had been carrying for centuries. Yes, centuries. My love, my angel, was a vampire.
Shock wasn't exactly a strong enough word to describe what I felt. At first, I thought it was some kind of joke. Then I began to realize he truly believed his own words. At which time I had to resign myself to the fact that I was in love with an insane person.
Eventually Carlisle convinced me of what he was. He explained his convictions in regards to his chosen lifestyle. I accepted him and I loved him. He was the reason that life now went on for me. He was the reason I was able to stand again, breath again, and love again. He had restored my faith in God. For how could God not love me when he chose to bestow upon me this angel of a man who saved me in everyway that a person could be saved? To give him up due to a small technicality was inconceivable.
Life went on. Not long after, Edward joined us and became the son we thought we could never have. Life was perfect. Then came "The Volturi Decree" which threatened to end our happy existence.
I'll always remember the night that a vampire with crimson eyes showed up at our front door. Terror gripped me as he explained that he was there to end my life. A life I was so desperate to end five short years ago, a life, that now, I couldn't bare to give up. All I could do was beg. Tell him how much I loved Carlisle, how I would never reveal their secret to anyone. Then it happened, deja vous, my angel came to save me once again. My angel, Carlisle.
"I love you. There is another way. Please trust me," he uttered the same words to me that had saved me years before and I knew once again that it was not my time to die. God had other plans for my existence.
Crisis quickly averted. Carlisle turned me into a vampire, after months of pestering him myself to do it. All it took was Demetri showing up to kill me to convince him. What is it with men?
In all honesty, immediately following my change, it took quite a lot of willpower not to look at Carlisle, stick out my tongue, and say to him "I told you so."
/
There it was, the reason I could not bring myself to refuse Demetri's request. He had saved us both and I would forever be indebted to him for my life. I resigned myself to trust my husband with the fate of my beloved family.
I picked up the phone and began calling my children.
