Chapter 4

Carlisle was at the hospital and the rest of the family was at home. Edward was sitting on his piano bench, with sheet music scattered around him, composing again. Jasper was playing Halo: Reach with Emmett on the Xbox. Alice was designing dresses with Rosalie, and Esme was busy cooking in the kitchen with Bella. Suddenly, Alice stiffened, so did Edward. Edward hissed and ran over to Bella, putting his arm around her. Everyone, confused, gathered around Edward.

"There's someone coming. Someone named Stephen. Vampire." Alice said.

"Is going to be a threat?" Jasper, ever the soldier, was in military mode.

"I don't know. He's blurry, I can't see him properly." Alice was frustrated. The rest of the family was alarmed, what was it about this vampire that Alice can't see?

"He's going to reach Forks in 1 minute, 36 seconds."

"We should call Carlisle." Edward said, drawing Bella closer to him.

"He's headed towards the hospital, he found Carlisle's scent!" Alice gasped.

At the hospital

A man with pale skin and brown hair stood at the entrance of the hospital. He had traced a vampire's scent here and was alarmed. What was a vampire doing in a hospital, of all places? He caught a whiff of the same scent and whipped around. At the same time, Carlisle caught his scent and turned around. The two men stared at each other and finally welcomed the other with a crushing embrace.

In the forest

"My goodness, I can't believe all of us went around for three hundred odd years without bumping into each other!" Carlisle was amazed. "I've missed you three."

"Us too." Stephen said softly.

The rest of the family has just arrived and looked on with confusion.

"Well, I supposed I should introduce you." Carlisle grinned. "Stephen's my friend. We're more like brothers actually." Stephen smiled cordially at all of them, "A pleasure to meet all of you." His English accent was strong.

Carlisle and Stephen took the rest of the day to catch up with each other. However, how do you actually catch up after 300-odd years?

The next day, Carlisle had to go to work. Stephen took the opportunity to learn more about the Cullen family. "So, what are your relationships to Carlisle?" "A loving husband," Esme replied. "A great friend," said Eleazar and Carmen. "An absolutely fantastic and wonderful older brother," the others replied.

"Hmm," Stephen looked down. "I'm glad there are people who care about him." They stared questioningly at him. "Carlisle's always been very shy," the others raised their eyebrows, he chuckled, "Yes, he is shy, and also very private. He did not open up often, and would always hide his emotions and expressions. He's so good at it hardly anyone will notice anything at all. And, well, he's so independent."

Everyone looked contemplative. "Well, I do know that Carlisle's a very private person, and he has an aversion to touch." Edward said slowly. Esme looked surprised. So did Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie, Bella and Alice. The Denali coven agreed with Stephen. "He's been like that since I met him, I never really thought much of this." Tanya said. "Is there more to it?" Irina asked.

"There's more to him than you know, if you really know him very well, you'll find that he's actually a very complex and intriguing character, and very good, kind, compassionate, and…pure." Stephen said, looking pensive.

"Will you tell us more about him?" Esme asked. "Please?" "I can tell you some aspects of him, but the rest you'll just have to ask him."

Jasper and Emmett said, "Well, we know all of us guys always beat him in a fight."

"Yeah, especially Jazz, the rest of us, depends." said Edward.

"And Em beats him in hand wrestling, as he's stronger." Jasper grinned.

"And Edward runs faster than him." Emmett snickered.

"So, well, we beat him in these three things." All three of them looked smug.

However, Stephen looked surprised. "Jasper, you must be a really good fighter then. Carlisle is very fast, lethal, graceful and efficient in a fight. And he was the strongest and fastest of the four of us. All these were when we were human, but these traits are usually brought over."

All of the family looked surprised. "But," Eleazar said, "We always beat him in a fight."

"Well," Stephen drawled, hesitating, "Carlisle may not have shown these traits, as he's usually low-key."

"But you'll know it later, our other brothers, Arthur and Isaac, are arriving at Seattle via plane later today. We're going hunting together." He grinned.

They had found out that all of them were "vegetarians", and were delighted to have some of Carlisle's friends from when he was human. Carlisle truly was an enigma and the family were eager to know more about him.

"We hope to know more about him, as he knows so much about us but we know so little about him." Said Esme.