'The Brady Bunch Come Undone' outtake. Esme P.O.V Twilight AU.
I had had a strange feeling all day as if everything was going to change and it would be sudden. I also knew Jasper would be at the root of it, maybe indirectly but yes he would be the trigger. I knew like me he wasn't happy, hadn't been for a while. I also knew my family would be split asunder. Not that we really were a family, just a group of vampires pretending and I was getting fed up with the whole charade.
Carlisle didn't love me, he cared deeply I knew that. But he had me playing the role of mother to the rest of them and they didn't need a mother, friend maybe, sister even yes, but no, not a mother. I had tried to tell him but he had this perfect image in his head of the great vampire family. They weren't children any of them, well maybe Edward, but not the others. Don't get me wrong I do love Carlisle, but I'm not in love with him. He was kind, gentle and loving in the beginning and he needed me as much as I needed him. But we should never have married, that caused more problems than not, when Edward returned to us, after his rebellion he said he wouldn't come between us and so we were at an impasse. Rather than face the situation we pretended everything was fine. Then the family expanded and three became five and then seven. But the underlying problems were still there, we just skirted around them.
Edward, he was the cause of most of the grief we put up with. He was Carlisle's mate, but couldn't accept it. Maybe it was his age, only seventeen, or the fact he was a product of the time he was born into. But no the rest of us had adapted, to the ever-changing times we live through. He refused, not that he couldn't change but he wouldn't. He is a naturally selfish and spoilt boy, both as a human and now as a vampire. We enabled him to hurt us and Carlisle is the worst offender, Edward plays on the guilt Carlisle feels and uses it as a weapon against him. If only he had accepted the love and devotion he had for him, then maybe we would never have started this sham of a marriage, that we had.
Rose was such a tortured soul when she came to us, she found accepting what she had become very tough. Coping with the manner in which she died, was very hard for her and a long slow process to recover from, not that one ever truly recovers from being raped. That all thankfully for her changed for the better when she found Emmett. He was her salvation, she still had her moments now and again. But mostly she is happy and content, she was not really the Ice Queen she liked everyone to think she was.
Emmett is a joy to be around, an overgrown lovable child. But behind that facade is a strong intelligent vampire who loves deeply and wholeheartedly. He takes joy in others happiness and enhances it tenfold. He was a blessing for Rose and he loves her beyond all reasoning. The ability to understand and deal with her demons is no mean feat.
Jasper, as I said, is very unhappy, when he came to us he was a broken shell of a man. The horrors of his past were hard to come to terms with, he could never forget, but has learned to accept what was, cannot be changed. So he became more outgoing and showed the fun side of himself to us more and more. His empathy has been a boon to the family as a whole, without him I don't think we would have lasted this long, he kept us sane more than even he realised.
Alice, what can you say about someone who remembers nothing, not her human life or her beginnings of this one either. It has turned her into a control freak and her gift just makes it ten times worse. She interferes in everything no matter how small it is. Like if I maybe wanted to move a vase she points to the place it's to go and says, "You didn't like it in the two other places you tried first" well that fine but I want to be able to try them out for myself anyway. That's just the tip of the iceberg, she has them all convinced she knows what's best because she sees it. But best for who? Alice I think.
The phone rings breaking me out of my musings and it's Carlisle telling me we have to move immediately, Chief Swan's daughter has just arrived and she is way too perceptive for the family's safety. Okay, this happens every so often and we have the whole moving thing done pat. How did Alice miss this? She usually sees this kind of thing in advance. By the time everyone returns from school, the juggernaut is already in the drive and I have started to load up our furniture. Everyone disappears off to their own rooms and starts their own packing.
Jasper is first down and sits on the swing on the deck playing his guitar. Everything goes smoothly until Rose asks why he hasn't put his things on the truck if they were packed. All he said was "Cause it's not goin' to Alaska, it's goin' to Texas," and I knew that's it, that's the straw that broke the camel's back. I was the first to speak saying "You're not coming to Alaska with us?"
Alice was starting to go ballistic demanding to know how she didn't know or see this happening? Jasper just blew us all away with his revelations, telling her he was divorcing her and I quote "Papers are arrivin' with the truck Oh and Alice, you will sign them". I hurried off to phone Carlisle at that and he rushed back as quickly as he could. So we could have a family meeting as it turned out it was our last one ever. Everything came out then, Alice and Edward's strange affair. How could she not know he was gay? I think her gift is seriously on the blink, she's been missing things all over the place.
Carlisle's reaction was expected, to Alice and Edward's goings on. "What crap with Edward? what are you talking about?" he demanded. So that lead to more confessions all round about Edward being Carlisle's mate and us only being lovers in the beginning and mainly just companions now. Then Jasper said to me "But you knew that didn't you Esme?" and I dropped my own bombshell about being second best to Edward, "But his shouting, Edward's name as he cums, is starting to wear a little thin," I told them.
The funniest thing of all was Emmett reaction and when he blurted out "Shit! it's like the best ever episode of Jerry Springer, fuck me this family is crazier than I thought" Rose, Jasper and I couldn't help but burst out laughing at him. Then Jasper offered the lifeline I so desperately needed. "So I have a place near Peter's and I'm headin' down there soon. Any of you three who want to join me are more than welcome. It's a big spread so we won't fall over each other and it could sure use some Esme magic" he said.
Well, that was it for me, freedom from the lies, pretence and the angst, peace and quiet in Texas sounded really good and I was going. By the time Jasper was finished talking to Alice and getting the papers signed Emmett, Rose and I were in the jeep after transferring our stuff to the truck for Texas, which would be coming on later. Then Jasper again shocked me with his insight saying . "It's time for you to let your hair down and just be Esme," he told me "You don't have to play the mother anymore, I'd be honoured and privileged to have you as a sister. What do you say?" I laugh telling him that sounded like a really nice change.
Now it was going to be my turn, I always wanted to have an interior design business, so why not ! It's going to be me first, just for once and I can't wait. I would be Esme Platt again, not Carlisle's wife or Edward's mother, but me, the me I wanted to be.