Chapter 12: Matching Emotional Chaos: His
Carlisle's POV
True to her word Bella did not go to the hospital on Friday. I had the night shift so I spent most of my day reading and idly listening to her. Around five she started really moving around and I sighed. She was getting ready to do what ever it was that she did every weekend. At least this time she didn't get really dressed up.
My shift went by quickly and I got back to my house a little after sunrise, Bella wasn't back. My phone went off and I answered it.
"Hey what street do you live on again? I'm by the hospital if you want to just give me directions from there." Edward asked from the other end of the line. I had completely forgotten that he was coming for a visit. I gave him directions and not ten minutes later he was knocking on my door.
"How much over were you driving than the speed limit? It normally takes me half an hour to get from the hospital to here, and that's when I'm already speeding." I asked in a false scolding tone. He just laughed.
"I wasn't going too fast, but I may have been in the triple digits." Edward twirled his key ring on one of his fingers and looked at my house. "Not bad. I don't see why you want to get this place redecorated. That will just cause an invasion of privacy when all those people stream in here."
"I have my reasons." As we walked deeper into the house his nose crinkled.
"What's that smell?" I took a whiff of the air and immediately identified it as Bella's scent. Edward groaned. "She smells absolutely divine, Carlisle." His eyes were black and I growled at him. Black met black. He looked hungry, yet incredulous. "I'm not going to hurt her, Dad."
"Good." My voice was gruff and both of our eyes remained black.
"Just don't ever get us in a confined space and I'm sure she'll be fine." My hands flexed into fists and I restrained myself from attacking. A few minutes passed and his eyes faded back to gold while mine remained black. He was looking at me confused. "Is Bella the one from Alice's date visions?" I growled even louder. He was a threat to Bella, to my Bella. Edward's eyebrows shot up. "I'm not going to hurt her." He restated and held his hands up in surrender. "You know me Carlisle."
My rigid stance slowly relaxed. I let out a sigh and rolled my shoulders, trying to rid them of their last bits of tension.
"Yes, she's the woman I had dinner with and don't even think about trying to track her she's gone." An unbidden image of Bella pulling out of her garage in her Bugatti Veyron came to mind. His head flashed in the direction of Bella's house then back to me. I was immediately back on edge.
"I'm not going to hunt her. I have more control than that." His hands were still up in surrender. "I've never seen you act this way before." Edward paused in contemplation. "The only time I've seen something similar is when you changed Emmett." It was my turn to be confused. "You referred to her as 'my Bella'. Once Emmett became a vampire, even before he knew Rose's name he referred to her as 'mine'." He let me mull over his words. I wanted to accept what he was implying, but then I remembered how she always reacted to me, always rejected me. "She's a human. If she is your mate the bond is probably weaker." I continued pondering the possibility of her being my mate. "I don't know if she's your mate. I could be completely wrong. It's just a thought you should seriously consider." Edward's hands dropped back to his side. His eyes were gold and his posture wasn't defensive so I relaxed again. "I have news about Esme." The mood of the room completely changed.
"Good news or bad news?"
"Depends on your perspective."
"Well don't drag it out."
"Esme and Robert decided to start their own coven, their own family." I sat on a chair and leaned my elbows against my knees as my head rested in my hands.
"That's… good, good for them. Are they going to change someone or have they met another vampire?" Esme, I knew she left me behind, but I didn't think she'd leave the rest of the family too. How could she do this to them? I understand why she didn't talk to me, but to create a whole new family? Did she even think about how they'd feel about that?
"It's not like that, Dad. She's not replacing us, just having another kid. She asked our permission. He's an 18 year old with no family or friends. He's a good kid. Esme and Robert are the only people who were ever nice to him in the town they live in. He has lung cancer."
"Non-small cell or small cell lung cancer?" I asked mechanically still stunned by his news.
"Small cell, he's getting close to death. Esme already loves him like a son."
"Why are you telling me this?" I stood up and started pacing. This is not what I needed to hear right now, or ever. It already hurt enough knowing she was with someone else, but now she's building up a whole new world and life without me.
"She wanted me to tell you, said that you deserved to know."
"So I deserve to know this, but I didn't deserve to know that she was leaving me?" Edward cringed as my whisper warped into a shout.
"You know that's not how it happened." He was trying to placate me, but I wasn't having any of that! First he threatens Bella's wellbeing then he drops this on me!
"I gave her a kiss on the cheek because she said she was going hunting with Alice and Jasper then she never came back! That was the last time I saw her, Edward. We haven't even spoken since then!" I was growling and I just couldn't find an outlet for all my emotions. Edward had his hands in his pockets and was looking at the ground. He had no idea how to help, but that didn't stop me from continuing my tirade. "Do you know what the last thing she said to me?" He remained silent. "She said she loved me! Then she just left!" I sunk to the ground feeling my anger dissipating and despair replacing it. I could feel the tearless sobs starting to rack through my body. "We were together for over 80 years and she didn't think I deserved a good bye let alone an explanation!"
So yeah, Carlisle is still hurtin' from Esme's betrayal. You know what to do.
Are you guys chill with my weekly updates, 'cause I'd rather have chapters consistently than sporadically. Also this way I have deadlines pushing me to write.
Sidenote: I released an Aro one-shot.
Review please!
