Bella scurried out of the room and down the hall into Carlisle's office. She closed the door and tried to be as quiet as possible. She was extremely thankful for his patience in that moment, as he didn't fight her at all when she excused herself from the room. He actually looked carefree and at ease with no worries about having to wait a little longer to go on with the rest of his intentions that evening.
I hope he can wait another hour, she thought to herself. She punched in her own phone number and waited as the phone rang several times. When Esme answered, she felt relieved.
"I have a solution I think," Bella said quietly, "Carlisle thinks you are having a crisis and he seems more than willing to allow me to help you through it. Tell Edward the same thing. Tell him I'm overly emotional or something and that you need a few minutes to meet with me. Hopefully we can kill enough time for the day to run out so we switch back to our own bodies."
"Okay," Esme said, "I don't know how I'm going to get by him. He's been very persistent tonight."
"I'll send your a 9-1-1 text in a minute. Leave it where he can see it, then he'll insist the way Carlisle did that I go see you."
"Alright," she agreed.
The two of them hung up their respective phones. Bella gave Esme a few minutes to get from point A to point B before sending a text message saying she needed to speak with her right away.
They agreed to meet out by the river near the Quileute territorial line.
As she suspected, Carlisle was easy to convince and he let her go without much questioning on the matter. He laid a few light kisses on her, pulling her to him once more intimately before he let her go.
"When you get back..." he looked at her with a smile.
Bella smiled back, enjoying her last moment of flirting with him, "I'm yours for the rest of the night."
Carlisle pulled her back to him once, "And the morning and part of the early afternoon..."
She laughed, still finding humor in the secret side to Carlisle that she knew he would never show her on his own, "Sounds good to me."
He kissed her once, "Go help the kids with... whatever it is they need."
"Just Bella," she said, then disappeared out of the house.
She darted through the woods as fast as she could, stopping to check her phone once as Esme gave her a final confirmation that she would be meeting with her. Before she knew it, they were both standing together by a short cliff that looked over the rustling water.
"Okay, we don't have much more time," Esme said. She looked down at her phone to read that it was well past eleven.
"What do we do?" Bella asked.
"Wait here until midnight, I guess. They both think we're meeting with each other so we should be alright."
Bella nodded and held her hand out. Esme looked down and took her hand in her own.
"Carlisle asked you to renew your vows," she said, "I wish you could have been there."
"Edward told me," she said with a nod, then smiled, "You said yes right?"
They both laughed and Bella nodded, "Of course."
"Did he try to..."
She laughed again, "Not as actively as Edward because all of his clothes were on, but I convinced him to go out onto the balcony to look at the stars."
Esme smiled then hugged her, "We're going to get through this last part of the day. Was Carlisle disappointed when you left?"
"Yeah," Bella said, "But he was smiling and I made him some promises that you'll have to carry out." She looked at Esme and chuckled.
Esme laughed, "I think Edward will be anxiously awaiting your return."
Bella smiled, "Was he... mad?"
"No," Esme shook her head, "But he made it known of his disappointment."
She sighed.
"He'll be there when you get back," she assured her.
"What if we don't change back?" Bella asked.
Esme shook her head, "I don't know."
"I don't know how long we can go on like this. I'd be all for trying to tell them the truth, but Carlisle would know what happened when we first switched."
"Gosh, if for some reason we don't switch back, we'd have to tell them," she looked at Bella, "We could just lie about the time frame so he wouldn't know."
Bella nodded, "I'm sorry, Esme."
"It's alright, it's not your fault."
"I told Jacob."
"You did?" Esme asked, "Did he believe you?"
"After I started rattling off the Quileute secrets, he believed me."
Esme raised her eyebrows.
"He won't say anything... ever," Bella assured her, "I have plenty on him, believe me."
They both stared at each other and shared a little conversation to pass the time, even finding humor in their current situation. Before they knew it, midnight was approaching and they shared a hug.
"Good luck," Esme said.
"For both of us," Bella added.
They looked at each other before heading back to where they came from.
When Bella got back to the Cullens house, she looked down at her phone. It read 11:57.
Three minutes, she thought.
A loud sigh left her mouth and she quickly went inside. Carlisle sat on the edge of the bed, flipping through the television stations.
"How did it go?" he asked, genuine in his question.
"Fine," Bella said, "Just some... girl talk." She smiled at him and looked at the clock on the nightstand.
Carlisle smiled, "Well, I'm glad everything's alright."
"Me too," Bella said with a nod, then thought to herself, 11:58.
She and Carlisle looked at each other before he let out a light laugh and muted the television. Bella walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, "Thank you for the ring, Carlisle."
"You're welcome," he said, "I love you."
"I love you, too," she said back, initiating a long kiss.
Less than two minute in all of eternity to do this, she thought. Why am I so enamored with him? I hope it fades when I'm back in my own body.
Carlisle carefully picked her up and laid her down toward the head of the bed directly in the center. He switched off the light by the bed, leaving them with only the television as lighting for the room. He sighed and moaned quietly as he kissed her and easily maneuvered each of her legs to the side.
11:59, Bella thought, able to glance toward the clock in the middle of their moment of passion. She closed her eyes as he aggressively kissed her neck.
"Carlisle," she whispered, urging him on.
He moaned and brought his lips back to hers, trying to undress her.
In that moment, everything stopped for a brief second and the similar whirlwind feeling from before returned. The surroundings changed on the drop of a dime and Bella was unclear of what exactly was happening. She was convinced that she and Esme were in the process of switching back.
