Carlisle was contemplative on his drive home; while the results to the batch of tests he had given Bree wouldn't be ready until his return home, his expansive mind was already full of possibilities. At the very least, he was certain that Bree's condition was extraordinary, and possibly unique, since he had never heard, even in his 400 years of life, of anyone with a condition vaguely similar to hers.

Of course, there were always the standard insane people that cropped up by the thousands each year, but somehow Bree felt different from them, not only in the full display of sanity she had appeared to display, but also in the…presence, that she seemed to have. She seemed to be more than a normal mortal, but not the same as a vampire, and the vague differences interested Carlisle to the point of distraction. He found, to his surprise, that he had arrived home much faster than he normally would have; in his reverie, he had absentmindedly pushed his car to its limits, returning home in just under an hour.

He shook his head at his lapse, but then smiled as he began to hear the faint chords of his son's piano playing through the trees as he finally pulled his car around the last corner and in front of his most recent, but favorite, home.

Ah…he's playing Bella's song.

He smiled again. He didn't doubt that his son would be able to pull things together for the best; no matter what he did, he always did it for what he saw as being the best of reasons, which was one of the reasons Carlisle saw him as the best and brightest of them all.

He paused in the car after he stopped the engine, listening to the last few notes fade away, before he carefully opened the door, making sure not to damage the durable, but still breakable, upholstery, and flitted to the door and inside. Edward had already turned to face him, and smiled, an expression that filled Carlisle's chest with warmth; for so long, he hadn't been sure if his son could ever be happy again. Just to see that alleviated was enough to keep him content.

Edward face twisted into a sort of half-smile, half-frown as he read his father's thoughts, and then shook his head, turning back to the piano and began a slightly faster and less passionate song, leaving Carlisle to shake his head complacently, until his heart skipped a beat as another person, who had been working on her newest project, finally made her way down, and before him.

Even after 80 years, Esme's face alone was still enough to drive him to distraction. Delicately, she kissed him, and then leaned against him, understanding his desire to be away in the way only a marriage of 80 years could, but still grateful for his return.

"Welcome home, dear," she murmured, "How was your day?"

"Fairly normal, for the most part," he said, as he kissed the top of her head, "Mostly just the standard sprained ankles, bumps and bruises. One broken clavicle…" he trailed off.

"Would you like to do anything?" she said, looking up into his eyes, with innuendo clearly apparent, and for a moment he wanted to do nothing else but dash up to their rooms together. But 80 years of marriage also taught temperance, and he sternly reminded himself of his earlier excitement, and smiled gently at his wife.

"I'm afraid not right now, love. From how long it took you to get down here, you must have been incredibly deep into your work." He chuckled softly, "And I did have one patient that might just be extraordinary. Possibly something like Jaspers talents, or Edward's mind reading."

Esme's eyes widened, and behind him the music suddenly stopped, and he heard Edward spin around.

"Another mind reader? Are you sure? Surely you can't mean to…"

Carlisle turned and shook his head, gently disapproving, "Of course, I would never take away the life of a girl simply for the sake of curiousity, but that doesn't preclude me from inspecting her to the fullest of my ability. To answer your other question, no, I don't believe she's a mind reader, but since I knew you for only a short time before you were…changed, I can't be certain." He paused, recalling that time, so long ago. "She does seem to share some traits of your mother, however; your mother was a very dominating woman, I could tell from even talking with her for only a short while. This girl shares that…ability. But, in order to determine whether that is for the same reasons, or merely a coincidence, I need to inspect the CAT and EEG scans, which should be coming in…"he checked his watch, "About now."

He turned back and gently kissed Esme on the lips.

"Now, my dear, I won't keep you from your work any longer."

"Okay. You know where to find me if you might…need me." She smiled with just the slightest hint of passion, and then flashed her way back up the stairs to her blueprints, leaving Carlisle behind, slightly dazed as always.

What an amazing woman…

Behind him, Edward made a quiet *ahem*, as Carlisle's thoughts began to drift towards what might be waiting for him upstairs, and he turned back to him, smiling apologetically.

"It's nice to see you playing again, Edward. Perhaps you could play Esme's song tonight, sometime? You know how much she loves it."

He nodded, "Of course. And you...you wouldn't mind including me in any discussion of this new patient, if she might turn out to be interesting? Meeting a human mind-reader could be enlightening. It might allow me an insight into…" he trailed off, and Carlisle chuckled.

"Still trying to find a way into Bella's mind, Edward?" he nodded, "Yes, I don't see why not, but I should she turn out to be special, I will need to ask her if you might be allowed to be present at our next meeting."

Edward nodded, and turned back to the piano, playing the first few notes of a song that rightfully shouldn't be playable by one pianist.

Carlisle shook his head at his son's continuing attempts to get into the head of his love, he finally made his way to his study, and waited a few seconds for his computer to boot up, before watching impatiently as his e-mails loaded. Finally, the first images of a human cranium appeared on his screen, and he leaned back and began to click through them, one by one.

Hmm…This is interesting.

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"As you possibly know, common knowledge is that the average human being only uses about one tenth of their total brain capacity. Of course, this is complete nonsense; while there are still small portions of the brain of the function is still unknown, the vast majority of it is well mapped, and to some extent, understood."

Carlisle paced back and forth on front of a diagram he had put up in a small borrowed office in the same Seattle clinic he had med Bree in for the first time; Bree hadn't wanted to worry her parents, and Carlisle, interested as he was, had offered to pay for her flight to Seattle in order to have a second meeting.

"A plane flight just to get to seattle?" Bree had looked at him strangely, and then had politely informed him that she was quite capable of arranging to get to Seattle on her own, thank you very much. Nonetheless, Carlisle had insisted on picking her up from the bus station, not wanting the cost of a taxi to discourage her from coming. Which lead them both to here, with Carlisle having to force himself to move at only human speed from his excitement, something that he rarely had to do, and Bree watching, impassively.

"You, however, are still significantly different from an average human," he continued, "While it's true that human's do use most of their brain at some point during an average day, the origin of that particular urban legend is the perfectly true fact that humans rarely use more of 10% of their brains at once. You, however…" he rubbed his eyes, even though nothing could irritate them; all part of the act. "You, are significantly different. Special."

He turned to look at her directly.

"You, it seems, are constantly using 100% of your brain at any given time; the EEG readings were so far off the charts, some of them actually reset to their base values!" he turned, a little too fast, and typed a few words, bringing up the results of her brain-scans on the screen. "See here? And here?" he pointed to several separate parts of the brain shown on the screen, "They normally don't show anything over a 100 part per thousand activity reading, but yours are showing over 900 parts per thousand! Your brain seems to be working at many times that of a normal human!"

Suddenly, his face grew thoughtful.

"In fact, some of the sections of your brain seem to be…overclocking. Similar to the fashion in which some computers can be pushed past their limits, your brain seems to be overtaxing itself. I'd like to take some more tests, if you don't mind…?" he faded off inquisitively, and Bree finally spoke for the first time.

"I see. Is it possible that this might be harmful to us in the future? In addition to this, what service would additional scans with the same equipment serve? It would seem that such a pursuit would be futile."

Carlisle looked at her for a long moment. "Would I be correct in assuming that a Bree other than One or Thirteen is in control at the moment?"

Bree nodded, a short, jerky movement. "Correct. Bree Three is currently in control of this body, I serve as the logical and mathematical focus. And my questions?"

Carlisle nodded, "I see. The first question, I honestly cannot give you an estimate until you undergo further testing, which leads to the second question…" he smiled, "This clinic received an unexpected donation of a brand new, top of the line EEG machine just a few days ago. Normally it wouldn't be in operation until an operator capable of handling it could be hired, but since I happen to have the necessary qualifications…" he held out his palms face up, with a smile on his face. "So, if you don't mind…?"

She nodded, jerkily. "This course of action seems adequate. Now, please excuse me; my muscle coordination is inferior to that of Bree One's, so I shall return control to her for the time being. Thank you for your assistance, Doctor Cullen."

In an instant, she flashed back to 1, and Carlisle watched with interest as she stood, steadily. "Shall we, Doctor Cullen?"

"Of course, right this way. Also, you may call me Carlisle, if you wish."

Bree smiled slightly. "Thank you…Carlisle."

O

More to come, in a few days to a few weeks. Thanks for sticking around.