Carlisle
I finished the last page of paperwork, and stood up to walk back to my wife. I had heard her walk to the door several times before turning and walking away again. When I went downstairs, she wasn't there, so I went back up to our room, where she was pacing back and forth.
"Esme?"
"I cannot believe you." She stopped and turned to me. She looked exhausted.
"Sweetheart, I—"
"No." She cut me off. "Do you not remember a single thing about why I left? I can't keep doing this Carlisle."
"Esme, please listen—"
"Why is paperwork so much more important than mending your already wounded marriage?"
I appeared in front of her and placed a finger on her lips. She knocked my hand away.
"Esme, I had to do the paperwork so I could take another week off."
She thought in silence for a moment, "Oh…"
"Mm, it appears you were too quick to judge." I traced my finger lightly around her lips before grazing them with my own.
"I know what you are trying to do, and it is working, but sex won't fix everything." She spoke softly as I kissed down her neck.
"Yes, but it's all we can do at this very moment." I claimed.
"Talk?" She pointed out.
"And have the others hear?"
"They'll hear either way." She placed her fist on my chest and pushed me backwards.
I stepped back and stared into her eyes for a few seconds. They suddenly swelled with desire as mine had already done.
"Talking can wait." She breathed before our lips crashed back together.
We had been lying for hours before Esme sat up. "I'm going to have a shower."
"We haven't even been laying like this for long."
"It's been 3 hours, and we need to start our day sooner or later. Don't you have to take your paperwork in?"
"Oh, right." I realised.
I waited for her to finish in the shower before I had a quick one and threw on the first outfit I found.
When I walked downstairs, Alice smiled at me. "What?"
"It's that time of year again…" Her smile lingered.
I was confused, so I stood there for a few more seconds in silence thinking about what normally happened around this time.
She rolled her eyes, "We get to buy you a new wardrobe."
"Oh, no Alice. It's fine now."
"Ah, no it isn't." Rosalie disagreed.
"Even I know it isn't." Bella agreed with them.
"When do you want to go?" Alice asked.
"Never."
"Okay, we'll work a day out with Esme."
"No, you won't." I argued.
Esme appeared at my side and placed a finger on my lips. "Don't even try. Do you remember last time?"
"When they literally forced me into the car and took my money? Yeah, I remember. You three are lucky I didn't press charges for kidnapping." I said to them.
"Oh please, you had fun." Bella said.
"Do you have fun?" I raised my eyebrows.
"It's grown on me." She defended.
"Yes, after decades of being kidnapped and forced to go."
"It was no different to when you all used to kidnap me when I was human. Do you remember those times? I believe you were the kidnapper several times, Carlisle." Bella smirked.
"That was not my fault; Edward had me under strict orders."
"Who is the fatherly figure here?" She asked.
I rolled my eyes and kissed Esme. "Bye."
I got another successful week off, and picked up flowers on my way home.
"Esme, my darling." I called as I walked through the front door.
She appeared at the bottom of the staircase will a big smile. Her eyes lit up when she saw the flower bouquet in my hand. She walked over and kissed me lightly.
I handed the flowers to her and she walked into the kitchen to get a vase. I followed her.
"Girls!" She called.
Alice, Rosalie and Bella all appeared in the door way. "Are you ready?" Alice asked me.
I looked back at Esme "This is cruel."
"Thank you for the flowers." She smiled again, smelling them as Rosalie pulled me out of the room. I got out of her grasp and returned back to the kitchen. "I thought we were going to talk now."
"It can wait until tonight." She insisted.
"I won't survive that long!" I said as Rosalie and Bella both pulled me towards the door.
"Have fun!" Esme called from the door. I glared at her as I was forced into the car.
Rosalie got in the driver's seat. "You break my car; you're buying me a new one."
I did end up having fun. Not from the shopping, but from seeing my daughters joke and laugh and have their own fun. It was very rare that I would see Bella and Rosalie like this. There were a few times we walked past a small group of guys who would whistle at my daughters.
This was the third time. "They're whistling at me." I joked.
Rosalie snorted, "Yeah, okay."
We had moved from shopping for me, to shopping for them.
"Oo, Bella that would look really good on you." Alice said, pointing to a mannequin in a lingerie store.
"Ah, no it really wouldn't."
"Go try it on."
"I'm not really up for it today, Alice." Bella shook her head.
"I am not going in there with you." I said to them.
"Fine, we will go. We won't be long." Alice said, pulling Rosalie with her.
Bella and I sat down on a bench outside of the store. "Having fun?" She asked, smiling.
"I'm having fun watching you guys have fun." I admitted.
A small smile lingered on her face, but she didn't put anything into it.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Hmm?" She tried to buy herself more thinking time. I repeated the question, despite knowing she already knew it.
"Nothing." She shook her head.
"Bella, you know I can see through that, right?" I asked.
She rolled her eyes, "There are a lot of things to hate about you, Carlisle."
I smirked, "I'll take that as you accepting that there is something wrong. Now what is it?"
She didn't say anything.
"Is it withdrawals?"
"No." She answered confidently. "That's all over with."
"It's hasn't been long…"
"I wasn't addicted, I just liked being occupied." She claimed.
"Are you positive?"
She nodded, and I knew it was sincere.
"So, what is it?" I asked again.
She sighed. "Do you ever feel like you need to leave?"
"No… I know where I belong. Why? Do you?"
"Lately, sort of. It's like, no one really notices if you're around or not, and you feel kind of inferior and useless and that maybe if you left, things might change." She was looking away from me.
"How many times have we had this conversation in the past decades? Bella, we love you. We notice when you are gone, and you are no less important than the others."
"Maybe not to Edward, but…"
"Not to Esme and I either. Bella, they all started somewhere in the family. They all started as the newest member, and none of them ever felt as strongly as you do about this. Well, Jasper was close, but Esme and I love you just as much as we love Edward or Rosalie. It doesn't matter how long or little you've been with us."
"If you had the choice to become a vampire when you did, would you still have become one?"
I thought about it, "No."
"Why not? It's like none of you understand my decision I made years ago."
"You already knew Edward, and loved him. You knew that you would be with him forever. None of us had any idea what was going to happen to us. We didn't know our other halves yet. We didn't know that this life would have led us to the love of our life."
"If you were to make a decision now, already knowing Esme and what she was, would you choose yes or no?"
"Yes. I would choose yes, just like you did. And I bet if you asked Alice or Emmett, they would say the same thing."
"Rose?" She raised her eyebrows.
"No, I think Rose would give up everything she has to be human again, but that's just a guess."
"I'm not going to ask her. Who knows how that will go down."
I shook my head, "I wouldn't either."
The girls walked back out with another bag each. "We got you and Esme something, too." Alice said to Bella. We stood up and kept walking into the next store they wanted.
