Happy Monday! Sorry for the late post—friends were in town this weekend, so I didn't get much done writing-wise until yesterday, and by the time I went to bed last night, I still wanted to edit everything once more before posting. But today, I have three new chapters for you. This first one is something I really like—I didn't start it until after midnight last night, but when I finished, I was still surprised to look at the clock and see that it was almost 1:30—it's rather cute (too cute perhaps?), but I couldn't resist the idea of this conversation . It also suggests the origin of Isle Esme—I've read other stories where Alice had a hand in it, and I've always thought that it was a very plausible theory…
Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own "Twilight," Stephenie Meyer does. However, this weekend I made cookies and watched "Twilight" with a friend, so I do possess some measure of the joy that "Twilight" generates. Hooray!
1972: Memory
Alice's POV
Jasper was out hunting with Edward and Emmett, so Alice, who wasn't really thirsty at the moment, stayed home and started to go through her clothes. It was a chore she always enjoyed, because it was usually followed by a shopping expedition to buy more clothes, so for a while, she made steady progress. But then she paused halfway through the project to recall one of her first visions. A shirt had triggered the memory—Esme had given it to her—and Alice remembered the moment, years before she'd ever met her family, that she first saw a vision of the Cullens.
It was just Carlisle and Esme that she saw in that first vision: they were in bed, which was something Alice saw enough of in visions to not be particularly embarrassed by, and anyway, they were only talking. They were worried about their son, whose name was Edward: they were afraid he was lonely, angry, and they were afraid that he was going to leave. And then Alice saw him leaving a few days later, and she felt sorry for the pair of immortals she quickly recognized as her future parents. They would be her parents, and she and Jasper would go and join their family, just as soon as she found Jasper.
Alice was folding the shirt up again when she saw something, a new vision: it was something fun, something she would do and be glad she'd done, because it would make her parents happy, and that would make her happy. Grinning, she ran out of the room and went to find Carlisle.
He was in his office, bent over a book, but he looked up and smiled as soon as Alice entered the room.
"You have something you're thinking about, and something you want to ask me," Alice explained, seating herself in the chair that faced Carlisle's desk and wrapping her arms around her legs.
Carlisle nodded—the whole family was rarely surprised by her visions anymore. "Next month is our fiftieth anniversary, and I have no idea what to give her."
"It's the gold anniversary, isn't it?" Alice said, knowing he knew that.
"She has gold," he said simply, and Alice grinned at the fact that her father thought her mother deserved much better than gold. Then he looked at her sheepishly. "You already know what I'm going to tell you."
"I knew you needed to tell somebody and that I was the only one at home," Alice said, smiling at him. "And even though I know it already, I'd still like to hear you say it. Now, the first time she kissed you—" she prompted.
"Was long before we were married," Carlisle said with a sigh, leaning back in his chair and telling her the story she'd already seen him tell in her vision. "Esme…a few months after the change, was feeling very bad about…well, she didn't like that I was spending money on her, buying her things when we weren't married and weren't really related in any way. A few months before her son was born, her parents died, and her husband spent all her inheritance. At least, that was what she thought. After she'd been immortal for a few months, she started to wonder. She told me later that she had the idea very suddenly, and that she left before she could second guess herself…"
"She went to Columbus to see if there was anything left of what her parents had left her," Carlisle continued. "She ran there—she couldn't drive yet, and running was faster anyway—and she went to her father's lawyer's office. When I got home from my shift early and found she wasn't there, I left a note for Edward, who was out hunting, then followed her scent all the way to Columbus and got there just before dawn the next day.
I found Esme sitting outside the lawyer's office building—she was surprised to see me, but more than that, she was…embarrassed. She told me that at first she hadn't wanted to go inside for fear of hurting the man—she was still getting used to being close to humans—but then she said she'd thought about it, and had realized that she had no idea what she would say to the man. She didn't want to introduce herself as Mrs. Charles Evanson, but she couldn't very well go in as Esme Platt, just in case Charles had told people she'd run away. In the end, she'd stayed there all night, trying to think of what to do. So, I suggested we go inside together when the building opened, and when we did, I went up to the lawyer's secretary and introduced us as Mr. and Mrs. Cullen."
Alice grinned. "I wish I could have seen Esme's face."
"I had no idea what made me do it," Carlisle said, shaking his head and laughing. "As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I looked at her, and she looked…as shocked as I felt. But I stuck to the story, and since Esme was trying to breathe as little as possible, I told the lawyer, when we met him, that my wife was very distraught, her first husband having died soon after her parents did. The man was suspicious at first—I realized he must have met Esme before, and he could see that she'd changed. But he couldn't explain everything that was different about her, so eventually he told us that there was, in fact, money left from the sale of her parents' estate. So, when we left the office, Esme was a few hundred dollars richer, and she seemed…very relieved. At first, I thought she was just glad to be outside, away from the smell of humans, but then she turned to me, and…kissed me on the cheek."
Alice giggled. "That's my favorite part of this story. That you were so surprised."
"I was…sort of frozen for a few seconds," Carlisle said, sighing again but still looking amused. "I was stunned that she'd done that, without even thinking about it. Esme thanked me, told me that now she wouldn't feel like such a burden to me, and then, she noticed that there was something sort of…off about me. And she looked a little embarrassed again, but she laughed, and said, 'Hasn't anyone ever kissed you before?' And I told her, no, and she looked sort of amazed, and then embarrassed again. Then we ran home, and we never talked about that day again until after we were married."
"And now you need a gift for her that shows her she still stuns you like that, every day," Alice said eagerly.
Carlisle nodded. "She's…the biggest surprise of my life." Then he smiled at her. "She sort of appeared and astonished me the same way you did with Jasper."
Alice grinned. "Well, Esme likes surprises too, and it just so happens that I already know what you're going to get her, and it will be a huge surprise. I'm not going to tell you exactly what it is, but it's going to be big, and you're going to see an ad for it at work today. Another doctor's going to show you, and he's going to laugh and say what a crazy thing it would be for someone to actually buy, and you're going to come home and buy it. Today."
Carlisle closed his
eyes for a moment, looking relieved, and Alice beamed at him. He
worked so hard, he did so much for their family and made Esme so
happy that it was nice to be able to help him like this. "Okay,"
he said nodding. "Thank you, Alice. For your help. And for
listening."
"Any time," Alice said brightly, hopping out of
the chair. "Just promise me you'll let me and Jasper borrow it
sometime."
Carlisle blinked. "Okay," he said, looking confused but pleased with the result of their conversation. "I promise."
"Have a good day at work then," Alice called, skipping out the door and back to her room. Jasper was home, she could smell him in the house, and she'd just seen them closing the door to their room and making a new memory.
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