Author's Notes: ok here's the next little instalment for you xx
Disclaimer: I own nothing.....shame.....
Shards of a Fairytale
Reflection
Carlisle POV
I couldn't help but feel sorry for Bella being victim to Alice. I could see that Bella was going to be Alice's new doll for the duration of her visit.
I glanced at the parcel in my hands. Then again Alice liked to play dress up with us all...
Bella POV
I came out of the shower and Alice had laid out underwear for me in the bathroom. I picked up the lacy red bra and thong and glared at the door.
"Alice...." I muttered.
"Admit it Bella, you love it!" she chirped from the other side.
"Where's the rest of it?" I murmured to myself pulling it on. I wrapped my hair in a towel and looked around, no other clothes... "Now what?"
Alice opened the door and dragged me out. I blushed but Alice didn't even seem to notice. She sat me door at a dresser and started drying my hair. Rosalie came to stand next to her and started combing through it. She sprayed it with something and combed it through my hair. My hair was mostly dry after a short while and Alice stood me up.
"OK Bella it's dress time." She smiled. I could tell she was excited so I just decided to let her have her fun. She helped me step into the dress and zip it up. It was deep red with a halter top. It clung to my body and stopped just above my knees.
"Sit down Bella." Rosalie told me. She moved the chair so I was facing her not the mirror and started working on my make-up. I felt like a Barbie. Before long she had moved onto the hair again. At least with vampire speed it wasn't taking so long. Rosalie had curling tongs on a few strands of my hair to turn my waves and big curls into a nicer, neater head of dark curling locks. "Shoes?" she asked Alice.
"Here!" Alice exclaimed, appearing in front of me with the shoes she had picked earlier. She went to work strapping them on my feet. Rosalie handed me the earrings, which I put in before she helped me with the necklace. Alice fastened took the bracelet, only now I realised it wasn't a bracelet as she fastened it around my left ankle.
"Done." Rosalie said finally. "Alice is Carlisle done?"
"He should be." She replied. "Oh Bella you're perfect!" She stood me up and got me to twirl for them, clapping to herself.
"Alice?" a voice called from downstairs. "Are you quite done torturing Bella yet? I'm sure she's hungry."
"Yes Carlisle." Alice called back. "We're ready...." Alice turned to me with a big grin and ushered me towards the door of the room and the top of the stairs.
Carlisle POV
Bella appeared at the top of the stairs and for the first time in a very long time I had no words. I couldn't finish a coherent thought. Bella. That was...really? She didn't look up at me, she stared at her feet the whole way down the stairs, which may well have been just to stop her from falling.
With her pale skin and painted lips...it was easy to imagine her as a vampire. She was beautiful now, as a vampire she would be stunning. Not that we would see her any differently. Bella had always been so concerned with appearances, feeling like she was not good enough for us because she was plain and we were so beautiful. But we don't see what she sees. Humans are supposed to find us attractive it's part of the lure although generally once they find out what we are the glamour is broken and they see us for what we are. I didn't see Bella as any less beautiful than Rosalie, Alice or Esme. In fact right now she was more so because she was dressed up with that just for me.
Then she did look up and look at me. Alice had chosen my clothes but that wasn't anything new. I still remembered the first day she turned up and joined our family. She had thrown away nearly all of our clothes and chosen new ones. So naturally Alice just brought most of the clothes to save having to throw them away later.
I wore black trousers and a dark blue shirt, smart but simple Alice had told me.
"Bella, you're beautiful." I told he reaching for her hand.
"You too." She whispered blushing. That one thing that reminded me that she wasn't one of us yet and I loved it, that she was still so adorably human.
"Alice." I told her, smiling and looking at my two "daughters" at the top of the stairs. They certainly looked very smug.
"Now don't get distracted and be late Carlisle, your reservations are for seven exactly." Alice said. Bella snapped out of her daze and looked back to Alice.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"You'll see." Alice smiled. Then she frowned. "Don't Carlisle it'll ruin the surprise." Bella looked up at me confused.
"I was about to say I'll tell you in the car but Alice saw it first." I murmured to her. "Come on lets go." I led her to the car and made full use of my vampire abilities to open the car door for her before she could protest and then appear next to her in the car before she had even strapped herself in.
"So where are we going?" she asked, as I started the car and pulled away.
"Just a small Italian place in Port Angeles." I told her. "Alice thought it was funny since you never got to try the Italian we attempted to make when you first visited our family."
"Oh..." she looked thoughtful. "I remember Edward laughing at me when I said was worried his family wouldn't like me."
"You were going to meet a houseful of vampires and your biggest fear was that they wouldn't like you?" I chuckled.
"That's why Edward was laughing at me." She smiled. "And in Rosalie's case I was right."
"She was worried Bella." I told her.
"I know." She replied.
"And not everyone felt like Rosalie did. Alice immediately wanted to be your best friend and Emmett was so excited about having a human around he was like a five year old for days." I smiled remembering the day Edward truly brought Edward into our lives. Esme was the only one she hadn't seen before that day but she'd not truly met us before then. That was the first day she met us all knowing what and who we were.
"Emmett always acts like a five year old." Bella laughed. I chuckled to, she was right Emmett was ever youthful and between him and Alice family life was never dull. I noticed Bella's sad expression.
Bella POV
As I sat remembering my time with the family I found that I missed them more than I realised. It wasn't just Edward and Alice I had missed. It was all of them. I remembered Emmett giving me a huge bear hug on my birthday. I glanced at the stereo in Carlisle's car, remembering what I had done to mine. I felt guilty....Emmett had been so proud of himself for fitting that.
"I miss Emmett." I whispered. I felt Carlisle's hand squeeze my knee reassuringly.
"Then as long as your father agrees I'll take you to visit them." He told me.
The car stopped and he got out before I could reply. He opened the door and led me towards the restaurant.
As we walked past the windows something caught my attention. I looked closer at my own reflection. Alice and Rosalie had worked a miracle. I didn't look like plain old Bella anymore. I looked sophisticated and even stood next to Carlisle I didn't look plain....I look pretty. Infact between my dark hair and the red dress making my skin look paler than ever I could almost pass for a vampire myself.
Carlisle noticed what I was looking at and stopped to look straight into my eyes. I felt like I was going to melt.
"You really do look so beautiful tonight." He told me, before he leaned forward and kissed me lightly on the lips. "I can't believe Alice didn't even show you a mirror."
In my mind I was wishing that actually we could forget dinner and he could just kiss me like he had done this morning, but in reality my stomach was growling and I knew he could heard it. His smiled dazzled me as we went inside.
"Cullen." He told the man at the door.
"Of course Sir, follow me." The man replied, leading the way through the restaurant. We sat and the man handed us menus before leaving.
"Carlisle are you actually going to eat something?" I asked him.
"Of course." He replied as if a vampire eating human food was the most normal thing in the world.
"But Edward said that human food tasted awful." I protested.
"Actually it's down to what you eat. We can physically eat human food although it doesn't offer us any form of replenishment. The taste however varies. I think Edward would find that he can in fact eat and enjoy red meat, since we do live off of animal blood we're used to that taste and so red meat is still enjoyable." He explained.
"I guess that makes sense." I replied.
"Although it does sort of limit eating to rare steaks most of the time." He mused. "How do you have your steak?"
"I've never had it." I replied honestly.
"We'll have to rectify that. How about we do this again somewhen and I take you to a steakhouse...in fact if you can come and visit us I'm sure we can make it a family outing. It'll be a novelty for the whole family to sit down and eat a meal." He laughed.
"I'd like that." I replied. "Thank you Carlisle...for staying, for helping me."
"I didn't need to help you very much Bella. It's all been you." He replied.
Our food arrived and I couldn't help but laugh at Carlisle trying to look like he was enjoying his Bistecca Fiorentina.
"You don't have to eat it Carlisle." I told him. "I don't mind eating while you sit and talk, I'm used to it remember."
"I would like it much better if it was just plain steak." He replied, managing a few more mouthfuls before putting down his knife and fork. "How's the Risotto al gorgonzola?"
"You wouldn't like it." I grinned. "But I do."
"That's all that matters then." He smiled back.
"Carlisle...." I started, I needed to know what he thought about me, about us. I just didn't know how to ask.
"You want to talk about it?" he asked. I just nodded. "I didn't know quite how to approach the subject myself either."
Author's Notes: hope you like so far. Again I'm updating as I write so as soon as I feel that I have enough to make a chapter I'm uploading so you don't have to wait, hence the chapters not being very long.
