Don't own anything...sniff sniff. So sorry for the wait.

Chapter 3: Together

December 1936, Chicago.

Esme-

I was humming The Way You Look Tonight to myself as I hung a little wreath on the door. I would never tell Carlisle, but I had developed an odd little crush on Fred Astaire. Edward was doing his best to perfect the tune on the piano in the other room, Rosalie was helping him of course. She loved that they had music and cars in common. Edward still had a little ways to go in the mechanic department but Rose was helping him with that as well, and he was enthusiastic, and very nearly as stubborn as she was.

It was one of those rare, truly peaceful moments where I could practically purr in contentment. We weren't vampires right now, just a family. A family that had grown. This was our daughters fourth Christmas with us. I was proud of her, my girl. She had come so far.

When Carlisle left for that medical conference in New York, I couldn't have imagined that like an innocent little trip to South America, it would change our lives forever. I understood why Carlisle did what he did. He said it was "too much waste". And it was, it really was.

I understood all too well the feelings of betrayal and hurt she must have suffered through and endured. Too have someone who was supposed to love her do such a thing, that it didn't ruin her is a testament to her strength and grit. Grit I admired immensely. This life wasn't easy for her but she struggled through it. Carlisle didn't speak of it often but I know how much he wished he had some of Edwards venom with him when he went to New York. Rosalie would have been able to keep her dream of having a child. At the same time I know he probably would have felt wrong using Edwards venom.

Bringing someone into this life was an almost unfathomable responsibility, to use Edwards venom to create even a half-breed without his knowledge and consent would have felt very wrong to Carlisle. The truly tragic part to my daughters story is how unusually fitted she was for domestic life. She had the world in front of her. Rosalie was immensely beautiful, even as a human. She had a family that doted on her, little brothers. She was young and happy, and everything she wanted seemed to be in reach. Before it was all savagely ripped away, by someone she had put all her faith in. For someone to want such simple, innocent things as married life and motherhood and to have them denied was utterly cruel.

Rosalie worked very hard on her control and she had never slipped up, I was so very proud of my girl. I knew how deeply she felt what she had lost. Having Edward helped. She poured a lot of herself into loving and teaching my son. He would hand her tools and listen with rapt attention when she worked on Carlisles 1934 Chevy Master, she gave him music lessons, and Edward insisted she told the best bedtime stories. Which of course only meant that she would tell the most. I did my best to keep any territorial feelings I had at bay and let her have what she needed. Carlisle was the leader of our home and Edward was a light we gathered to like moths. He grew and learned and astonished us all everyday just by existing. And oh, how he worshiped his father.

Edward watched everything my love did in wonder, and drank up everything he said.

It was practically hero worship. He was so proud of Carlisle. He would ask endless question about his day and his patients, and beg to go on any house calls with him. They had their special hunting trips by themselves, he even managed to get Carlisle to lead a little nature walk and give first aid lessons to the local Boy Scout troop. Edward would hold his fathers hand possessively when they walked through town like he was hanging on to some lottery prize, and ask his opinion on absolutely everything under the sun. I loved it.

It wasn't always easy raising a child it was impossible to lie to. That was Edwards gift, he could hear lies. It made for some fancy verbal footwork with him growing up, but we made it work as best we could. Carlisle was better at explaining things to young ears than I was. We had long, long talks before we let him go to school. He didn't need it academically of course, he was light years beyond any child his age. We just wanted him to have the chance to interact with other children. Of course this involved long, long talks about his speed, his strength and all the things he couldn't talk about with the other children.

I'm sure the lessons must have bored him silly, but he never complained. I felt bad that he wouldn't get to stay connected to his friends when he grew up, but there was nothing we could ever do about that. It was only a matter of time, and not much of it before he would look too old for us to claim as our natural son, and there would have to be a new story.

In early 1935 our lives changed again.

Emmett McCarty, bigger than life was the baby of a large Scotch-Irish brood. He was found by Rosalie after being mauled by a bear. Carlisle was very hesitant but he identified with Rosalie. Had he not found his mate on their death bed? I think he would have done just about anything to make her happy. The only question then was how? Edward had heard everything when Rosalie brought Emmett to the house, and shocked us all by walking up to Carlisle and telling him it was OK to use his venom to help the man if Rosalie wanted to keep him.

Edward could hear the truth in her when she said she loved hm.

There wasn't much time to agonies over the choice so Carlisle used the stock of venom he had from Edward to examine and experiment with to change Emmett. This was nearly a year and a half ago. Emmett fell in love with Rosalie on sight. After everything she had been through I always worried she wouldn't be able to let herself fall in love again, but her gift helped. Rosalie could see relationships, what people felt for each other, what they would do for each other, how strong their bonds were. She could literally see Emmetts devotion to her.

Not that there was much doubting Emmetts word. He always said what he meant, he couldn't help himself. The rest of us fell in love with him fairly quickly as well. He had dimples, a huge laugh and a strangely innocent face. He and Edward were fast friends. Emmet packed Edward around almost everywhere he went, introduced him and Carlisle to the joys of football, and teased him mercilessly. Emmett also had a very protective nature which carried over when he was changed. He could sense danger, it was a strange gift for him to get the hang of, but it fit him.

I would see him look at Carlisle sometimes with a certain expression. I think he knew Carlisle wasn't capable of violence and so he was determined to make sure violence never made it to Carlisle, or any of the rest of us. I felt very blessed with this new addition. He took everything shockingly in stride considering what he had left behind.

I sighed and wondered when he and Carlisle would make it home. They had gone out to Washington so Carlisle could scout some hospitals and see if we might want to make the area our next move. There were some very rainy, cloudy places in Washington that would be very convenient to live.

I listened to Edward hammer out some carols on the piano and smiled. It was going to be a lovely Christmas.

A.N. Thank you to everyone who reviewed. Sorry again for the wait. (Of course more reviews would always spur me on.) Yes I made Edwards power different, but I figured with him actually growing up from a child with the family, that hearing lies would be a lot less awkward than hearing peoples thoughts. So I gave him Maggie's power. And I gave Rosalie and Emmett, Marcus' and Victoria's powers respectively. No worries, it wont be too long before we meet Alice and Jasper, and then Bella.