Disclaimer: SM is the rightful owner of Twilight.

~.~.~

Months Four and Five

Esme sighed frustrated as she bounced Iam as he wailed loudly while rocking the rocking seat that AJ was in with her foot while she sat on the couch in the family room. They've been fussy all morning and only when they were napping, were they fine.

"What's wrong?" she whispered to Iam as his face was red and wet with tears, she couldn't find a reason why they were getting so fussy, Iam especially.

Just as she was about to stand up and start pacing the room, Emmett, Rosalie, and Ava came in from their hunting trip. "You look frustrated, Momma," Emmett smirked when he saw the look on Esme's face while she shifted Iams weight on her arms.

Esme scoffed and shook her head. "Handling two twins on your own is frustrating," Esme mumbled and closed her eyes when she heard AJ being to whimper.

Rosalie quickly took Iam from her arms and held him in her arms, swaying back and forth while Ava picked up AJ from her seat. "Where's Carlisle? Shouldn't he be home right now?" Rosalie asked, rubbing the infants back.

"He's working a double shift," Esme sighed, plopping down on the couch and covered her eyes with the back of her hand.

Ava's brow furrowed as she turned AJ around, so she was facing Esme, while she bounced her. "Why don't we take the twins and you go take a bath or something."

Emmett nodded, prying AJ from her hands and gently tossed her in front of him, causing AJ to laugh with joy, "Yeah, we can take them on a walk or something. Then you and pops can go on a date," Emmett offered, continuing to toss his baby sister in front of him.

"Are you guys sure?" Esme asked, biting her lip. Esme was sure that her kids were more than capable of caring for the twins; it was the fact that she has never left their side for more than an hour or two.

"Yeah, we can handle them." Rosalie smiled, trying to soothe the crying baby.

"Okay, thank you. You guys know where their bottles are, there's a diaper bag next to the couch filled with wipes and diapers," Esme let them know where everything was that she thought that they might need.

Esme placed a kiss on both of her baby's head and proceeded to ascend the stairs, at the fastest speed that she could. It's been a while since she's had some alone time since Ava came to their family, since she got pregnant, and since she gave birth to the twins. Walking into her bathroom, she pulled out the candles that were hidden under the sink and the bubble bath; this was something she needed.

After lighting the candles as careful as she could, she rid herself from her clothes and slid into the scalding hot water, enjoying the way the steam rose to the top. Esme closed her eyes and drowned out the world once she heard both of her baby's laugh.

~.~.~

The twins calmed down a while after Emmett, Rosalie, and Ava tried to entertain them. There was a moment when they wanted to take them on a walk, but they couldn't figure out the strollers or the baby carrier.

Emmett stared at the folded strollers that were in front of him while Rose bounced a babbling Iam, and AJ paced around the room with AJ. "So, does anyone know how to work these things?" Emmett mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck as he picked one up while it was still folded.

Ava peered over his shoulder, trying to get a better view and shrugged. "I only know how to help people make babies, other than that; I don't know anything else."

With a roll of his eyes, Emmett bent down and tried to unfold it but instead heard a small crack, "Ava, sometimes you can be a real smartass," he scoffed.

"Well, you can be a dumbass sometimes," Ava smirked.

"Hey, there's young and impressionable babies here, and if you can stop teasing each other, maybe we can figure out how to open these strollers," Rosalie interrupted, covering Iam's ears with her hand.

"Right, right, well, I think I just broke one," Emmett drawled out, as he lightly kicked the stroller with his toe.

Ava handed Emmett the child in her arms and dug around in one of the closets and found two baby carriers and looked at them questionable.

Emmett let out a laugh as he plucked it from her hands and tossed it over to the couch. "That looks like a glorified scarf!"

"Maybe I can try putting it on," Rosalie offered, setting Iam in his seat and took the carrier.

Ava and Emmett watched bemused at the sight of Rosalie trying to wrap the carrier around her waist and struggled to put him in there when she finally did get it on correctly or so they thought.

"So, we're not taking the twins on a walk?"

"Nope."

So, there they were watching the Baby Shark video on loop for the past twenty minutes, it seemed like that was the only thing that the twins enjoyed other than having the movie Tarzan on repeat for the second time. Esme was able to come down to go hunt and come back and was surprised when she saw that they were still watching Tarzan.

Iam and AJ laid on Emmett's chest after Rosalie went off to make the twins their bottles while Ava went upstairs to change and get AJ new clothes since she soiled herself on her older sister. Emmett was playing with both of their toes while he scrolled through the movie and show selection that was suitable for the twins, even though they don't have a clue.

"This is so boring!" Emmett exclaimed, throwing his head back after Alice came in from outside and gave him a questionable look before going up the stairs.

Not far behind Alice, Carlisle came in holding his medical bag in one hand and stopped at the sight of Emmett laying there with both babies' there very calm, all three of them watching Tarzan once more.

"What—"

"Esme was on the brink of a meltdown, so Rose, Ava, and I offered to watch them while she had some 'me time' and here we are," Emmett responded before Carlisle could ask the question, reached out his hand for the bottles that Rosalie held in her hands.

"I'll take them," Carlisle offered, setting down his medical bag.

"Don't; they'll start crying. Go be with your honey," Ava sighed, fiddling with the pants that she got for AJ, and that's when Carlisle noticed that she was only in her diapers.

Carlisle shook his head and set on to find his wife; it wasn't hard, though. He found her in her studio painting away with the radio on at a reasonable volume. He smiled as he saw the way she was so focused on her canvas, her hair in a messy bun on the top of her head, wearing shorts with an old long sleeve that she wears when she's re-decorating or painting.

Esme ran the back of her hand across her forehead, trying to get the flyway's away from her face, glancing up she grinned at the sight of Carlisle. "You are home," she claimed excitedly, wiping her hands as Carlisle walked over to greet her with a kiss.

"I saw Emmett watching Tarzan with both twins sprawled across his chest," Carlisle chuckled and walked over to grab another stool so he could sit next to Esme.

Esme giggled and dipped her paintbrush in the water and placing her watercolor paints to the side, "They were fussy all morning; Emmett, Rose, and Ava walked in before I broke into sobs, so, they offered to watch them. I took a long bath, went out to hunt, and now I'm painting," Esme ticked everything off, moving the easel so Carlisle could see her painting.

Carlisle examined her work and smiled; it was a painting of Carlisle reading a book to the twins, while AJ had her hand in her mouth and Iam was looking up at his dad. "Wow, this is amazing," Carlisle admired, kissing Esme on her temple.

"Thank you; it was nice to have some alone time. I miss my babies, however." Esme sighed, looking up at Carlisle with a sad smile.

"Well, why don't we have an hour alone together and then we can get back to our babies," Carlisle murmured, hugging Esme close to him.

Esme threw her head back in laughter, letting Carlisle carry her to their room.

~.~.~

Esme was swinging on the tree swing with AJ after she woke up from her nap, the day was beautiful outside. It was sunny, and it wasn't too hot out, most of the kids were taking 'a break' from school, while Nessie was in her senior year of high school for the first time, and Ava spent most of her time in the local library or bookstore or even the craft store in town.

AJ was babbling as she played with a chew ring, occasionally shoving it in her mouth. "Look, baby, a squirrel," Esme pointed to a squirrel that was standing in the middle of the garden before it ran off and up onto a tree.

AJ squealed in excitement and kicked her feet, "It's fall, my love, so that means the leaves on the trees turn into pretty colors," Esme explained, she knew that talking to the babies was good for them.

There was a moment of silence between the two of them, AJ chewing on the ring happily, a little bit of drool falling on Esme's hand.

The sound of the back-door opening made Esme look up and smiled when she saw her oldest friends stand in the doorway with Carlisle.

"Hello, Carmen and Eleazar," Esme greeted standing up from the swing as they made their way towards Esme.

Carmen rushed to Esme and hugged Esme, being careful of the child in her arms, "Hello Esme," she greeted and bent down slowly and took AJ's free hand, "Hola, mi niña linda!" she cooed, giggling when AJ smiled back at Carmen.

"How are you, Esme?" Eleazar asked as he gave Esme a brief hug after his wife took the baby in her arms.

"Oh, I'm good. I'm out here having AJ breathe some fresh air. How are you guys?" Esme asked, moving to stand next to Carlisle, holding his hand.

"We've been good; the rest came this time," he smiled.

Before a word could come out of Esme's mouth, the back door opened again, and Tanya came out holding Iam in her arms, cooing at the baby. "Esme, your son, is darling!" she exclaimed, bouncing the baby in her arms, followed by Kate and Garret.

"Thank you," Esme responded, her face brightening when Iam reached his arms out for Esme. "Hi baby boy," she whispered, taking him from her.

"Oh, is this your daughter?" Kate gushed at the sight of Carmen playing with AJ.

"What about me?" Ava asked as she came back from the trees, letting her hair fall from her ponytail.

Kate, Tanya, and Garrett looked at Ava in awe at how much she resembled Esme. "Wow, you're Esme's twin," Garrett mumbled.

"I'm Ava, and you two must be Kate and Tanya," Ava greeted them politely, then turning to Garrett, "and you, Garrett?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Ava nodded and turned towards Esme and Carlisle, "So, I found this cool pumpkin patch that we can take the kids to, or we can dress them up here and have a photoshoot here," Ava rambled on, unaware at the way the three of them were looking at her.

"Maybe we should dress them up, it's starting to get chilly for the kids," Carlisle answered, taking AJ from Carmen after she started to get fussy.

"Cool, I'm going to go get their costumes!" Ava announced, then turning to look over at the other Denali's that she met, "Nice meeting you guys," she said with a wiggle of her fingers.

"That's Ava?" Tanya asked once she was inside.

Eleazar chuckled along with Carlisle with a shake of their head.

~.~.~

Within two hours, Ava was back with several options; she, Alice, Rosalie, Bella, and Nessie were inside comparing the selection of costumes when the others came back inside.

"Anything good?" Esme asked, setting AJ in her bassinet after she fell asleep in Kate's arms.

"So far, we have Thing 1 and Thing 2 as contenders, along with Pebbles and Bam-Bam, and skunks," Rosalie sighed, lifting the possible options.

"I like the skunks," Kate offered, sitting down on the love seat.

"Right, it's warm and cute," Ava agreed, "it's practical."

"Okay, but this is the twin's first Halloween! They should look cute!" Alice cried out, holding out the Pebbles and Bam-Bam option.

"I second the skunks," Tanya piped in, standing next to Ava.

"Skunks it is," Esme sighed examining the skunk costume.

Alice looked between Ava and Tanya, with a smirk on her face. "What?" Ava asked.

"Nothing."

"Whatever, Tinkerbell," Ava huffed, shoving the other costumes back into the bag, "I'll go return these, I'll be back."

"Oh, I'll go with you, if you want," Tanya offered after Ava grabbed the car keys from the dish.

"That's fine, let's go."

~.~.~

Carlisle hugged AJ in her skunk costume close to him, as he watched Iam try to crawl while he was doing tummy time.

"Do you think he'll start crawling soon?" Esme asked, grabbing him and putting on his hood.

"Perhaps, maybe AJ too."

"She doesn't like tummy time, though."

"However, she does try to push herself to crawl towards you, my dear," Carlisle teased.

Ava came in with her Camera and taking her little sister in her arms, "So, we're doing the photoshoot now," Ava announced.

"How was your trip to town?"

"It was fine," Ava shrugged and leaving to go downstairs with AJ in her arms.

"I love all these milestones," Esme sighed in awe, kissing Iams head.

Carlisle smiled, bringing his wife into a hug, giving both her and Iam a kiss on the head. "We'll have plenty of milestones and firsts to come. My life can't get better," Carlisle commented, his voice soft and low.

"Thank you for kidnapping me from the morgue," Esme laughed moving away from Carlisle.

"I'd do it again if I had too."