A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry it's been a long time since I've updated. I want to say thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter and I am going to try and get better about replying to you guys but either way just know I really appreciate the endless support. So here's a longish chapter for you. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Twilight Saga, but the characters and ideas I have made up I do get to call mine, so please don't copy without permission.

CHAPTER 10:

CARLISLE'S POINT OF VIEW:

Moving faster than humanly possible Esme and I ducked under the covers to hide our naked bodies. If I could blush, I would be right now. Angel stood in the doorway with a very confused and slightly frightened expression on her face. Fortunately because of the way the bed was angled from the door Angel wouldn't have gotten full view of my private parts, but it was painfully obvious that the two of us were naked with our bodies pressed very close together. Slowly we lowered the bedsheet to just below our chins and faced our poor daughter.

"Honey, can you go outside our room and close the door and wait right there in the hallway until we come out please?" Esme asked tonelessly.

She stood there and looked at us for a few seconds before following Esme's instructions. We heard her sit down against the wall on the other side of the hallway to wait. I sucked in a much needed breath of air.

"Shit," Esme cursed.

"Indeed," I responded.

"What the hell are we going to tell her?" she asked.

"I have no idea. Maybe we should just let her talk first and tell us what she thought she saw. We don't want to lie to her, but we don't want to explain any more than necessary. She has been raped so she might know more than the average six year old, or maybe she won't associate what just happened with that at all. We don't know what she knows, so I think we need to find that out first," I said.

"Sounds like the best option to me. I just can't believe this happened," Esme groaned, clearly mortified.

"We have to be more careful," I said.

"I told you I thought I heard her. But then we listened for a bit and there was no noise. I guess next time we should just stop. Better to be safe than sorry," she said.

We quickly put on our pajamas and tried to tame our sex hair. I hadn't washed the gel out of mine so it was rather difficult. Esme put on her royal purple silk spaghetti-strap knee-length nightie and pulled her hair back into a messy bun while I put on my cotton pants and a T-shirt. Even though we didn't sleep we still wore pajamas at night just to be more comfortable and keep up appearances. Now it was time to face our daughter. We opened the door and she stood up and ran to hug us. That was a good sign. I picked her up and carried her downstairs to the kitchen where Esme began cooking some scrambled eggs for her. I held her on my hip while I poured her some apple juice.

"So what were you doing when I came in?" Angel asked innocently.

I nearly dropped the glass of juice at her question. I think Esme froze for a moment as the scraping sound of her cooking halted. I set Angel on the kitchen counter and gave her the apple juice. She took a swig of it, but never dropped her questioning gaze.

"What did you see?" I asked as casually as possible.

"Your butt cheeks for the most part," she said.

I did a double take. Esme snickered for a second as her hand flew to her mouth. I wasn't amused. Not at all. I was completely mortified. There are some parts of a father that a daughter should never see. I had no idea how to respond. Dear Lord, please get me out of this situation.

"Did you see anything else?" Esme asked once she had gotten her laughter under control. I braced myself for the answer.

"I saw that you both were naked. I saw Mommy's boobs," she said.

Now it was my turn not to laugh. Esme didn't seem overly embarrassed.

"And I saw Daddy's pee-pee."

Now neither of us were amused. I wanted to crawl under a rock and never come out. I felt so bad for Angel that she had to see my private parts. I felt guilty. I had dismissed Esme's gut feeling to favor my own wants. I pleasured myself and it cost me. It cost me my dignity but most importantly my daughter's innocence. The feeling was unbearable.

"What do you think we were doing?" Esme asked carefully.

"Daddy was raping you?" Angel guessed.

Ah, this was the part we feared the most. It confirmed not only that Angel was raped, but that she knew what was going on. Indeed we would have to explain the difference to her.

"Daddy was not raping me. We were having sex," Esme said.

I groaned internally. This was not a conversation to have with a six year old child.

"But it looked exactly like what my Master did to me," Angel said. Tears were running down her cheeks now as she looked at me with resentment. She thought I hurt Esme the way this Master person hurt her.

"Technically speaking, it is the same thing. Your Master had sex with you just like Daddy had sex with me. Except the way you had sex was in a bad way and ours was in a good way. When you had sex it is called a rape because you didn't want to have sex with that man. Daddy and I on the other hand decided together that we wanted to do it, and we are married adults so it is okay for us to do so. What your Master did to you was not okay. There is a big difference between our experiences, Sweetheart. I know this is probably very confusing but you are going to have to accept what I have said as you are too young for me to explain how it all works to you," Esme said, choosing each and every word carefully. She dialed it down as much as she could, but it still sounded vulgar to me as she was speaking to a child.

"So Daddy didn't hurt you?" Angel asked, drying her tears. I wanted to wipe them away for her but when I moved toward her she flinched, so I stayed where I was.

"No, Daddy didn't hurt me," Esme confirmed.

"Why were you guys having sex?" Angel asked.

Ugh! I just wanted this horrid conversation to end! Angel shouldn't have to try and comprehend all of this.

"Because that's what people who love each other very much do," Esme said simply.

"But it hurts," Angel said, tears slipping down her face again. "Why would anyone do it willingly?"

That was the last straw. My heart shattered into a million pieces. I didn't care if I scared her. I picked my daughter up off the counter and held her tightly to my chest. She froze for a minute but then accepted my comfort. Esme was crying too, but Angel couldn't see. Angel sobbed into my shoulder, no doubt reliving the tragic event.

"It's okay Honey, you're safe now," I whispered in her ear over and over.

"When done with the right person at the right time, it doesn't hurt," Esme said.

That was the last thing that was said on the topic. I just held Angel and swayed back and forth trying to calm her down. She was inconsolable. She screamed and thrashed around in my arms, and I came to the conclusion that she must be having a flashback. I talked to her, repeating the words I love you several times. A few minutes later she slowing started calming down.

"That's it. You're all right. Mommy and Daddy are here with you. We love you Baby Girl," I said.

An hour later, after she was sure that Angel was all right, Esme went to the grocery store to do the weekly shopping. I was looking forward to having a couple of hours alone with my daughter. I had to work the nightshift at the hospital tonight since one of the other doctors called in sick and no one else was willing to take the extra shift or they had been working all day so they couldn't. I wasn't particularly thrilled about it, as this would be Angel's first night without me and it wasn't a good day, but people needed my help, and I didn't have it in me to deny them that. Looks like my paternity leave would be ending early. Paternity. I loved that word.

"What do you want to do while Mommy's shopping?" I asked Angel.

She shrugged. "I want to go outside but it's too cold."

It was the end of February so it was definitely cold out. Snow still covered the ground and the sky was grey. It was below zero today and I didn't want to risk Angel getting sick so I agreed that it was too cold to go out and play today. I had a lot of paperwork to do but I could put it off to spend time with Angel. In fact, that's what I've been doing this past month or so. I really needed to get it done, and I hated procrastinating, but my daughter is more important than my job. I had to remind myself of that from time to time.

"Do you want to go play with the toys in your room? I can leave you alone if you'd like," I suggested.

"Yeah okay," Angel said and trudged up the stairs to her room.

I was a little worried about her. She never wanted to be alone until today. It probably had something to do with the events of this morning. The flashbacks were still bugging her, but I decided not to bring it up and make her unhappy. Maybe some alone time was what she needed to pull herself together. I would just check on her often. I made sure she was contently playing before going to my study. I guess I would be able to get some paperwork done after all. I decided to work at a human pace because it gave me more time to think. I could've used my vampire speed to get it all done in no time, but I found it oddly relaxing. The scratch of a pen on paper, and it was quiet enough that I could hear the rhythmic beat of Angel's heart. Fifteen minutes passed before I heard the light patter of Angel's feet walking down the hall.

"Do you need something Sweetheart?" I asked as she passed through.

"I'm just getting a glass of water if that's okay," she said quietly.

"Of course it is." I stood up. "Here I'll get it for you."

"I can get it myself," she said, her voice sounding a little snappy. I was surprised by this. Something was definitely wrong, but I decided to ignore it for now.

"All right. Just let me know if you need help," I dismissed.

I turned on an Italian opera to listen to while I worked. It was my favorite type of music. I also enjoyed piano which Esme occasionally played. She couldn't stand opera music so I was only allowed to play it when she is out of the house or use headphones. Otherwise I would be dealing with a very irritated woman, which was neither easy nor fun. I immersed into the paperwork again.

Half an hour later I was completely caught up on charts. I tucked the files back into my bag before leaving my study to go spend time with Angel. She had never been alone for this long before. She never wanted to be alone. Maybe she was just getting more comfortable with living here, but my gut was telling me that something wasn't right with her. There's something she isn't telling us. My guess is that it had to do with her being raped or some other bad memory from the past. Today probably brought back a whole string of dark events. I still feel bad about this morning and I don't think the guilt will go away anytime soon. I stood outside Angel's room and knocked on the closed door. No answer.

"Angel?" I called, knocking again. "May I come in?"

Still no response.

"I'm coming in," I warned her.

I waited a couple seconds before entering her room. Her toys were set up in the middle of her floor but she wasn't by them. I scanned the room and found it empty, as was her bathroom. I walked throughout the house, calling her name. She never responded. It was when I walked past the front door that I noticed her little shoes were missing. I didn't see her out in the yard, so I put on my shoes and coat and went outside. I walked around the entire house but she wasn't anywhere to be found. My baby had decided to go for a walk apparently. I started walking down the drive toward the highway expecting to find her not very far away. But she wasn't on the drive. I started running at vampire speed toward the highway. It was raining and snowing so her scent was washed away leaving me with no trail to follow, not even the slightest hint. I reached the highway in just a few seconds. I looking both ways and could see for miles, but Angel was not in my line of sight. There was no way she could've gotten so far away so quickly, so she must've wandered into the woods. My stomach plunged and I felt sick. There are dangerous animals in the forest. Since new snow was falling, there were no footprints on the ground to follow so I had no idea which way she entered the forest. I had about three hours to find my daughter before Esme would come home and tear me apart. I would tell her anyway, but if I actually found Angel it might soften the blow. The forest surrounded our property on all sides with only a small break in the trees for the drive to be paved. I walked around, searching for any clues that would suggest which way Angel went. I went into the woods a few feet to see if there were any signs of her. After searching for a few minutes, I noticed some slight indentations in the snow. I brushed away the newly fallen snow and sure enough there was a footprint small enough to be Angel's. I finally had a trail. I ran at vampire speed so it only took about two minutes to reach her whereas if I walked at human pace it would have taken an hour.

The wet golden hair came into view and I slowed. I sighed in relief and approached at a human pace. I was still a good twenty feet away and the wind blew, and I instantly smelled the rich scent of fresh blood. My relief didn't last long. She was sitting behind a big rock and I ran to her. She looked up at me with a surprised and pained expression. I assessed her wounds. She had a large gash on her arm that was bleeding rapidly, and she was trying to nurse it by having taken off her coat and applying pressure. She had frostbite on her exposed skin and tears were running a short path down her face before freezing. Any anger that I had in me at her for running away vanished. My baby was hurt.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. I'm here, I found you. I'm going to fix you up and make you good as new, okay Baby?" I said as I took off my coat and wrapped it around her.

"Daddy it hurts," Angel said brokenly.

"I know Honey. Daddy's going to help you," I said.

Her little shoes had come off and her socks were soaked through to her feet. Her entire body was trembling from the cold, pain, and fear. I picked her up and carried her home. She was bleeding so fast that there was no way I could spend an hour walking, so I had no choice except to use my vampire speed. I heard her sharp intake of breath as I began running. She tried several times to ask me what was happening but she was so out of breath that she couldn't form words. I felt so guilty. I didn't want her to have the burden of knowing what we are on her shoulders, but I wasn't going to let her bleed out or get severely ill from the cold. We were nearly home when her blood pressure took a plunge and she passed out. I got her inside not bother to take off my shoes and laid her out on the kitchen counter. I pressed my fingers to the inside of her wrist and felt that her pulse was evening out and her blood pressure was coming back up. That was good. Her body was just in shock but recovered quickly. Angel had not yet come to, so I dashed her up to my study and laid her on my desk, shoving the papers and everything onto the floor and out of the way. I stripped off her cold wet clothes and assessed her for injuries. The wound on her arm was now just slowly blooming with blood instead of gushing since I've been applying pressure, but it would need suturing very soon. She had a few minor cuts on her face that needed to be cleaned and bandaged but wouldn't require stitches. She had some bruising from the most recent incidents but everything was healing nicely. What I was most concerned with at the moment was the frostbite. I needed to get her warmed up soon or she could lose her fingers and toes and skin off her nose and tips of her ears. I carried her to the nearest bathroom and started filling the tub with hot water. It wouldn't scald her, but it would feel extremely uncomfortable on her frostbitten areas and on her entire body as well because all of her was cold. She was waking up and started crying. I quickly placed her in the tub before she had time to realize she was naked.

She screamed as the hot water rushed over her. "DADDY IT BURNS!"

"Shh, shh," I said to her. "I know it does Sweetheart, but that means that the circulation is returning. It'll hurt less as you warm up."

"I can't do it! It hurts too badly!" she cried.

I took off all my outerwear and shoes and socks so I was just in jeans and a shirt. I scooted my daughter forward and got in the tub behind her and pulled her back against my chest. My body temperature would eventually cool the water, but I would just let it drain a bit then add more hot water. The tub had just finished filling so I turned the water off. Angel was holding her arms above her head because she knew that if she put them in the water it would burn just like the skin that was already submerged.

"Angel, you need to put your arms down so they can warm up too," I told her.

"No!" she cried.

I placed my arms out in front of me, palms facing up. "Here, let's do it together. Put your arms in mine and we'll put them in at the same time."

Slowly she placed her arms on mine, her fingers feeling cold even to me. Gently I wrapped my hands around her wrists and pulled her into the water. She shrieked in pain and thrashed around trying to escape my grip, but I didn't let go. After a few minutes the pain began to subside and she relaxed. I placed a warm washcloth over her nose which caused a few tears but didn't hurt nearly as bad as before. I repetitively scooped water into my hands and let it trickle over her frostbitten ears. I could tell that she was feeling better as she relaxed her ridged body and closed her eyes. I washed and conditioned her hair and helped her wash her body and we sat in the warm water for another ten minutes before I decided it was time to get her out as she was beginning to turn into a raisin.

"I'm going to go change into some dry clothes and get you some pajamas. I'll be right back," I told her.

I got out of the tub and closed the shower curtain and took off my shirt and jeans so I wouldn't drip water through the house. I changed into dry jeans and a dark blue zip up and went into Angel's room to get the first pajama set I could find. It was a Disney Princess Ariel set that was blue and green. I went back to the bathroom.

"All right Baby, let's get you dried off," I said, pulling the curtain open. She covered her private parts and looked down. "Angel?"

"Don't look at me," she said quietly and yanked the curtain shut.

I sighed. She was slipping back into her protected state of mind, I could tell. Whenever incidents happened, she would shut us out for a while. So far it hadn't been severe, but I knew that she could go back to being silent like she was when we first got her at any moment. It was time to be extra cautious now.

"Okay, how about this. You stand up and I'll hand you the towel through the edge of the shower curtain so you can wrap yourself up and then when you're covered I will help you out. Are you all right with that?" I asked.

"Yes," she piped meekly.

I stuck the towel through the curtain and she took it from me. Once she gave me the okay, I pulled aside the curtain and gently helped her out. I got her into her pajamas, letting her cover herself with the towel. Her arm started bleeding again and still needed to be stitched, so that was the next order of business. I picked her up and carried her back to my study. I set her on my desk and grabbed my medical supplies. Since she had recently gotten stitches on her forehead, hopefully she wouldn't be too frightened by this.

"All right Sweetie, you see how your arm is bleeding very badly? In order to make it stop, it needs stitches, just like the ones you got on your forehead in the hospital a little while ago," I said.

"But those really hurt!" she exclaimed and started crying.

"Remember how I had to give you some shots around it to make it numb? You don't feel it when I suture the wound, only when I poke you with the needle a few times. It shouldn't hurt quite as much this time because your arm is less sensitive than your face," I told her as I prepared the syringe.

"No Daddy! I'm scared!" she cried.

"The needle doesn't go in very far Honey. It'll be quick," I said.

She started sobbing uncontrollably at that point. She hopped off my desk and scrambled to hide behind the big armchair in the corner. I immediately put down the syringe and went over to her. I hated to see my baby so afraid, especially when I was the one she was afraid of. I leaned over to pick her up but when my hands grabbed either side of her body she screamed. I let go of her. I got down on my hands and knees and crawled behind the armchair to sit with her. There wasn't enough space for her to squeeze out the other side. She was trapped.

"No! No! No! No! No!" Angel kept screaming over and over. She was hyperventilating, panicking.

I grabbed her and pulled her into my lap and held her tight. I squeezed her against my body and didn't let her go, even though she fought me on it. Eventually she gave in and accepted the comfort and allowed herself to calm down. She now clung to me, her little hands holding fistfuls of my shirt.

"Everything is going to be okay Angel. I will get you through this," I promised her.

"Daddy I'm scared," she cried softly.

"I know you are, and that's perfectly okay. Remember when we went to the Mall Of America and you got to make your Princess Bear? Remember when you asked me to stitch her up for you because you thought I was very good at it? Well I am, aren't I? I will stitch you up just as well as I did Princess Bear," I said.

"Rosalind," Angel said quietly.

"What?" I asked.

"Her name is Rosalind," she explained.

I smiled. "I promise to do your stitches just like I did Rosalind's."

I coaxed Angel out of the corner and helped her get back on my desk. I positioned her arm into my side so that it was resting on my hip.

"Keep it right here," I said as I grabbed her upper arm with one hand and the syringe with the other. "I'm going to inject you with this numbing medicine. I am going to inject it in a few different places around the wound, so it will be more than on poke, but after the first few it shouldn't hurt as much."

Angel's cries picked up again. "Can't we wait till Mommy gets back?"

"I wish we could Dear, but the longer I leave the wound open and exposed the more likely you are to get an infection," I told her.

"What's a fection?" she asked.

I pursed my lips to keep myself from smiling. She was just too adorable. "The best way to explain it is like a sickness. If your arm got infected, that would mean your arm would be sick."

"I don't want my arm to get sick," she said.

"That's why you need to let me close the wound so that all of the germs in the air don't make your arm sick," I said.

"Okay," she squeezed her eyes shut.

Wasting no time, I injected the wound with the anesthetic. She screamed for the first few, but then calmed down as her skin numbed. When I only had a little more to go, she even watched me inject the rest of it. I didn't miss the curiosity in her eyes. Maybe she would be a doctor someday.

"The hard part's over," I said, kissing her forehead before beginning sutures.

She watched as I stitched her arm closed too, which amazed me. It wasn't an easy thing to look at.

"I feel like I should be crying but I can't feel anything," she said as I pulled more skin together.

"It's amazing stuff, isn't it?" I said, nodding toward the now empty syringe on the table.

"Can I try?" she asked softly, unsure of what my reaction would be.

I snipped the thread and bandaged her arm. "Sure. Um . . . here." I grabbed the washcloth I'd used to clean off the dry blood and the empty syringe. I stuck the needle through the washcloth and made a two inch incision and made it about a centimeter wide. I sat down in my black leather office chair and pulled Angel into my lap. I placed the washcloth flat on the table and grabbed a new suture kit.

"First you have to put the thread through the needle and tie it," I told her. I held the needle while she put the thread through. She didn't know how to tie yet so I did that part. "Then you push the needle into the opposite side of the wound, then rotate it out through the second side, tie it off, and there's your stitch. Here, you try." I handed the instruments to her. She took them from me and I moved her fingers until she was holding them correctly. She stuck the needle through the cloth and attempted her first suture. She didn't do the technique correctly and the cloth became all bunched up and wrinkly, and the knot was loose, but nonetheless she had done her first stitch. My heart swelled with pride even though there was a disappointed expression on her face.

"It doesn't look anything like yours," she said sadly.

"Don't be put down Sweetheart, just try again. Here, let me help you." I took her hands in mine and guided them through the process of stitching. I wanted her to get the correct feel of it so she would know if she did something wrongly. With my help she made a perfect stitch, and I encouraged her to try another one on her own. She did, and it turned out a little better. She kept practicing, and on her ninth attempt, she got it exactly right. It looked nearly the same as mine.

"Daddy I did it!" she exclaimed, the biggest smile on her face. I grinned too.

"Excellent. I couldn't have done it better myself," I told her.

"Do you really think I could be a doctor someday?" she asked.

"I think you can be anything you want to be, and if you want to be a doctor, then you'd make a great doctor," I gave my honest opinion.

I made the incision longer so she could keep suturing. They turned out better and better every time. I heard Esme come home, but Angel didn't notice. I decided that I would let Esme discover us on her own, as I didn't want to disturb my very focused and determined daughter. A few minutes later, Esme came into the room.

"What are you two up to?" she asked, smiling.

"Look Mommy! I can do stitches just like Daddy!" she said, holding up the washcloth proudly.

"Good job Baby!" Then she noticed the bandage on Angel's arm. "What happened to your arm?"

Angel got very quiet all of the sudden and looked down. We haven't discussed the running away stunt she pulled yet because I thought I should wait for Esme. Frankly, I wasn't sure what to do. Angel needed some sort of punishment but she was very sensitive so we had to be firm but we couldn't frighten her otherwise she would go back into her distant state again.

"She cut it on a rock," I explained simply. I gave Esme a look letting her know that there was more to the story but to let it go for now.

She gave me a slight nod. "You need to be more careful Sweetie," she said and kissed the top of Angel's head.

"I will Mommy. I'm sorry," she said.

"Are you feeling all right now Angel?" I asked.

"I'm still really cold and it hurts a little but otherwise I'm fine," she said, downplaying her pain as always.

"Carlisle what happened?" Esme asked worriedly. She was getting impatient.

"Not now Esme. I'll tell you everything soon. Let's just get Angel settled first," I said quietly. Angel couldn't hear me.

I picked Angel up and carried her downstairs to the living room. I flipped the switch to turn on the fireplace and grabbed the large afghan off the couch. I wrapped Angel up like a burrito and laid her down on the carpet in front of the fire.

"This should warm you up quickly. Try to relax and Mommy and I will be back in just a few minutes, all right?" I said.

"Okay," Angel said and yawned, closing her eyes.

I gave her a quick kiss before bringing my wife upstairs to tell her what happened in the woods today.

A/N: I don't have much time to edit but I hope it was almost up to par. I know it's kind of a weird stopping point but if I were to continue with the next event it would be at least three thousand for words and I figure it would be better portrayed in a new chapter. Plus I didn't want to make you guys wait any longer. Any thoughts, questions, or comments are always appreciated in a review! Thanks for reading!