Chapter 8

Carlisle and Esme

Carlisle could hear the laughter echo up the long hallway to his office. He was torn between to very different emotions. One one hand, he was extremely happy to hear his son's laughter, he hadn't been sure the boy even knew how to smile, on the other hand, he didn't like knowing that Edward was becoming comfortable with his new siblings. This was not the life that Carlisle wanted for him, the less he knew of the truth, the easier it would be to keep him at arm's distance and send him away to college soon.

The love that Carlisle had for his only human son was made greater by his vampire senses. No creature in the world loved as intensely and as deeply as the vampire. They loved completely with every fiber of their being. They also hated as passionately. As much as he loved his other children, being their father in a different sense of the word, if one of them even dared to lay a hand (or a tooth) on Edward, he would end them. He did not wish this life on Edward, he had only brought him here now because he couldn't stand the thought of leaving him to grieve his mother all alone. His internal war was a battle with wondering if he had done the right thing by moving him here, or if he should have left him alone entirely.

Alice had come to him shortly before Elizabeth's accident, had told him what was going to happen. There was nothing he could have done to prevent it. There wasn't enough time for even a phone call.

"I'm so sorry Carlisle. I wish I could have seen it sooner, but I never knew Elizabeth so I wasn't watching out for her."

"Dear Alice, there is nothing for you to be sorry for. Humans die, I loved her once but I hardly know her or my son anymore. It was a different life that connected me to them, but I will mourn her as well as my son's loss."

"Will you bring Edward here?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you the answer to that?"

"I can't see, you either haven't thought about it at all or you're undecided. You know he needs you now more than ever. If you decide, I can tell you how things will work out, either way."

He hadn't even had to answer her out loud, he knew she could see. Her eyes were glassy looking, shining brightly.

"Excellent! Carlisle, you don't know how much this will mean to both of them!"

"Alice, what are....?" She had bounded out of the room, clapping her little hands in excitement.

He had been to worried about how Edward would receive him to hound her further, but as he sat here listening to the gaiety downstairs, her last statement to him before the move left him puzzled. Both of them?

The smell Esme's lavender perfume snapped him back into the heard her pad softly into the room. She was so very cat like in her appearance and her movement. Her beauty still stunned him, her grace left him feeling slightly dizzy.

"Love, why are you hiding in your study? Listen to them! I couldn't have dreamed that he would take to them so quickly!"

A low growl burst from Carlisle's chest, causing Esme to jump and hiss in reaction. She was stunned.

"I don't want him to take to them! This life is not what I want for him! You know that and I expect you to respect my wishes!"

"Carlisle, there's something that you don't know, something that Alice has seen but hasn't been able to tell you, I feel that it's time that you found out." Esme closed the door softly and turned to face her mate, her lover, her confidante. "Please hear me out before you say or do anything. You need the whole story so you can understand."

If he had been the owner of a beating heart, he was sure it would be hammering out of control. This couldn't be good. He had never known Esme to keep anything from him, quite the opposite, she had always been blunt to the point of emotional abuse. He felt dread creeping up his spine, sending horrible images and voices into his frozen brain.

"You've never asked me why I changed you Carlisle. Haven't you ever wondered?"

Images of that night in his clinic, when he had thought Esme would murder him, bombarded him. She hadn't been cruel or made it more painful than it had to be. She had been efficient at holding him down while she poisoned him with the venom, then had skirted him away to her secluded home. She had tried to soothe him during his transition. Her voice had been constant and reassuring while he burned. By the time the change was complete, he was completely in love with his maker. Her beauty had been undeniable before she had attacked, but with his new senses and keen eyes, he had been able to see the living work of art that she truly was. If he had been able to cry, he would have wept at the sight of her loveliness. So, he had never wondered why she had decided to make him into a vampire, Carlisle had only felt blessed that he would have eternity to memorize every nuance and movement, to count the golden strands of hair on the head of this immortal goddess.

"My dear husband, I don't know how to begin. I have wanted to tell you for so long now but it seemed pointless to worry you with the details of why I turned you. After your change, I was so relieved that you didn't despise me that it seemed irrelevant. Irrelevant until Edward came back into your life. Alice saw it immediately." Esme's voice trailed off, going to a volume so low that mortal ears would never hear it. "Alice loves you so, and now she loves Edward as much. Trust me when I tell you that keeping this from you has been eating us both alive."

"Just tell me Esme, please. I can't bear this."

"Edward is dying."

The silence that followed those three words was deafening. Even though he could still hear the laughter floating into his study through the closed door, the roar of nothingness left by her revelation made his ears ring.

"Carlisle, please, please...." Esme was pleading with him, but he didn't understand why. "Please don't hate me for keeping this from you until now."

"Esme, how, what's wrong with him?"

"The same thing that was going to kill you, the same thing that killed your father."

"How long does he have?"

"Two years before it would have been diagnosed. Alice saw a very rapid progression of the disease. He will be dead in three and a half years time, if...."

"If what, Esme? There is NO cure for it! We both know this!"

"Not a cure, but a second chance. You could turn him."

Her words were like a slap in the face. He had her pinned to the picture window, his teeth at her neck before either of them had time to think. He was snarling like a wild animal and it was her frightened cry that broke into his rage. He had never shown any type of aggression towards anyone, let alone his beloved Esme. He gently sat her feet onto the floor as he heard footsteps rapidly approaching.

Emmett burst through the door, wild-eyed, his thick hands pushing his sleeves up, preparing to brawl.

"Emmett, it's okay. We're fine. You can go." Esme's voice sounded shaky as she tried to soothe the worried look from Emmett's face. He didn't say anything, just backed out of the doorway, his brow still furrowed, and shut it behind him.

"Esme, I'm so sorry. I would never hurt you. I, I know you mean well. But I can't bear to think of it. Edward can't be dying, he hasn't lived yet."

"You know Alice isn't wrong in her visions. He will die in less than four years if you don't change him. I know how much you love him, the decision is yours to make, but please know that I love him too. He is so much his father's son. I want to have him as a part of this family. And he is so important to Bella as well, she just doesn't know it yet."

"Bella? How so?"

"Well, Alice saw another possible future for a brief moment." She paused, looking for the best way to word what she had to say next. "I know that you've thought about changing him since he came to live here."

Shame flooded Carlisle as she revealed what he had hoped no one would ever know. Yes, he had thought of changing Edward, only because he hated to think of losing him again when he had only gotten him back. After those thoughts, he had felt selfish, it would be better to let him go away to college, to never know the truth about his father and new family.

"It was selfish. A fleeting, selfish thought."

"A thought that revealed a very possible happy ending for our family, and Bella. Alice saw Edward and Bella together, soul mates. Like you and I, like Alice and Jasper."

"Like Rosalie and Emmett?" Carlisle wondered why Esme hadn't included them.

"There's more to this alternate future. Some very bad things that will happen along with the very good things."