Carlisle's POV:
It was really late by the time we got home and the kids had all gone to sleep for the night, so we waited until morning before picking them up and driving to Seattle. This time we had left later and would need to return earlier, so we told the children that we would only be able to stay for two hours before we would have to turn around and head back home.
During the long car ride, Esme and I explained what was going on. They knew that we had gone to Seattle the day before to look at a child we were thinking about adopting, so now we told our children that we liked this new child and were planning on asking that Alice be placed in our home, if this meeting today went well. As we drove, the children wanted to know why she was in a hospital. Esme and I tried to answer the best we could, so we told them about her seizures and visions and that Alice was intersexed.
Jasper had been silent until he heard me say that Alice had Guevedoche, the same exact condition as himself. He then became very curious about how Alice could be a girl when she had the same thing as him. That was a hard concept to explain to a nine year-old, but as soon as I mentioned that Alice had a few more girl parts than he did, he replied, "Oh I get it: she's like Russell when he wanted to be a girl!" And once he understood, he returned to his silent reading, curiosity sated.
Edward and Russell were both excited about the prospects of having a new sister, so after that they each asked a few dozen questions about Alice. I had thought that Russell might feel a bit jealous that we were adopting again so soon. But when I asked him he replied, "Are you kidding? I can't wait to have a new sister! And I won't even have to change any diapers or anything. This sounds pretty sweet to me."
From that response, I got the feeling that Russell was still missing his biological sisters. Esme and I tried to keep the line of contact with the Markeses open; they were the family that had taken Russell's little sisters. We called once a week and drove Russell up to Beaver twice a month, but I guess that was just not enough and our son was still missing his old family.
But as excited as Russell and Edward were at the prospects of getting a new sister, Jasper seemed completely indifferent to the idea. Jasper had a slight phobia of crowds and strangers, so he was typically subdued when meeting new people, often refusing to speak or pull his head out of his book. He always brought a book along so he could use it as an excuse not to look at the new people.
With his phobia, Jasper did not seem the least bit excited as he quietly walked with us down the hall of the institution and into Alice's room, but that all changed the moment he laid eyes on her. They hit it off instantly, starting with a hug identical to the one in the sketch, which was pretty amazing because he never hugged strangers; he rarely even hugged Esme. Then he sat down on her bed, and she crawled into his lap. There was none of Jasper's usual awkward silence and avoiding eye contact. Do not get me wrong, there was plenty of silence, but it was mutual and seemed to be filled with unspoken words and emotions. Alice had seemed so full of life and bubbly yesterday that I would not have imagined that she could seem so peaceful and content in Jasper's arms. And Jasper seemed to come alive with her in his arms. They were like two pieces of a puzzle finally reunited; apart one was too quiet and calm, while the other was too perky and hyperactive, but together they were perfect and completed each other.
Neither of the two could tear their eyes apart from the other, so Edward and Russell did not seem to know what to do. I caught Russell giving Edward a look, to which Edward shrugged and replied, "Let's check out her toys."
Russell and Edward went over to examine Alice's toys. She had a toy box that seemed to contain one of each kind of toy, each in pristine never been used condition. She had one of everything, for both boys and girls, from a Barbie and baby doll, to a matchbox car and Tonka truck, to a ball and a set of Legos. The ball still had the price sticker on it, the Legos were still in the case they came in, the truck still had plastic wrap, the matchbox car was still in the cardboard, the Barbie was still in the box, and the doll still had a tag on her. From the state of her toy box, it was fairly obvious that it was never used. Her desk, however, had the opposite look: it was littered with pads of sketch paper, crayons, colored pencils, drawing pencils, pencil sharpeners, chalk, and paint. The trashcan was full of crumpled up discarded drawings, and the shelf above the desk was crammed full of filled sketch pads. Obviously, this child spent all of her time on her artwork, instead of playing with toys.
Russell and Edward played with the toys for a few minutes, but they did not seem to know what to do with the unopened toys, so they quickly moved on to Alice's closet. They pulled out each intricately beaded dress, or pleated skirt, or fashionably cut blouse and examined them. While they were doing so, Ms. Verhoeven came over and explained that the clothes were the one thing Alice's biological parents sent her.
Alice's parents owned a fashion design business and had all of their latest styles regularly shipped over. The only contact they ever requested from their daughter was a biannual picture of her wearing whichever outfit was her favorite. They apparently could not handle anymore contact than that, and even though they had not had legal rights to their daughter for the past two and a half years, Ms. Verhoeven had continued to honor their one request and biannually sent them a single photo of Alice.
And as the photos had kept flowing back to her parents, the dresses had continued to arrive for little Alice. After hearing this story, Esme and I agreed that we would continue to send the biological parents two pictures per year. It was the least we could do for receiving such a precious child, and if the photos continued, maybe Alice's only link with her parents, the dresses, would continue too. Esme and I did not want to take the one thing Alice still had to remind her of where she came from away from her.
Edward and Russell spent an entire hour examining all of Alice's clothes. After that Esme and I broke up the happy couple on the bed long enough for the other children to get to meet Alice as well. So Jasper just shifted her in his arms and continued to hold her while she talked to Russell and Edward. Her normal bubbly personality emerged as she told our boys how she had seen that they would be her brothers and about some of the cool adventures they would have.
Alice even had a sketch for each of our boys. For Jasper, she gave him the one she had drawn yesterday of their first meeting today. For Edward she gave one of them sitting side by side playing the piano. And for Russell, she gave a sketch of all of us on a camping trip. In the background was a fight between a boy and a bear.
"That's your Emmett. He'll be your best friend if that bear doesn't get to him first," Alice explained.
Ever since that first camping trip two years ago when Edward had gotten the urinary tract infection, Esme and I have been averaging about two camping trips a year with the kids. We did not go while Russell was in the cast, but we went right after his adoption came through. And as it turned out, he was a bit of a natural. He picked up the riffle like a pro and was almost as good a shot as Jasper by the end of the trip. So now when we camp, Russell, Jasper and I go hunting, while Edward and Esme go hiking.
"So all I have to do is rescue him from the bear and then I can keep him?" Russell asked confused.
"Yep. And then Edward and I'll get another brother," Alice replied. She seemed so sure of the future, even though there was no way she could know that this bear boy even existed.
"Whatever," Russell replied shrugging and folding up the sketch. I had seen Alice's visions in action, but Russell had not, so he seemed to be a bit skeptical still. I wonder what he will do if he actually does meet his bear boy?
But after that, we had to go because it was a school night and we still had a long drive ahead of us. Both Jasper and Alice cried when they were separated, but we promised them that they would be back together soon. On the car ride home Esme asked Jasper if he had ever seen Alice before, obviously still curious about all of those sketches she had been drawing.
"No, but I can't get her out of my head now that I have," he replied.
"What about her keeps her in your thoughts, Jasper?" Esme asked.
"Just how it felt to be with her. Did you feel the hope coming off of her? It was so strong I could taste it," he replied.
"No, we couldn't feel it Jasper," I replied for Esme, as she was stunned into silence. Jasper had told me before of his strange affinity for emotions, but we were keeping it between the two of us, in an effort to minimize the effect of paranormal activity on our lives. But now that Alice was joining the family, it seemed we would have to admit that there really was something special about those two.
And as I was thinking about Jasper's emotions and Alice's visions, a connection formed in my head and I thought that maybe they really were meant for each other: maybe they were destined to be together because they were both special and had these extra abilities… Although I did believe Alice to be psychic by this point in time, I still did not believe in the divine, so I was fairly certain that there was a logical explanation for this all. Maybe they were just accessing untapped areas of their brains. Or maybe it had to do with the hormonal imbalance caused by the Guevedoche.
Either way, one question kept nagging at me. "Jasper, what were you two doing on the bed for that hour?"
"I was just memorizing her face: I never want to forget it. She's so perfect; please adopt her," he begged in awe.
Esme and I were already thinking along these same lines, so we told him as much. We called Ms. Verhoeven the next morning to see how that emergency placement was going. She informed us that a court date was set for Wednesday and she fully expected that we would be awarded temporary custody at such time. If that was the case, she would drop Alice off Wednesday evening.
Esme and I already had the guest bedroom downstairs set up from when Russell broke his leg, so we decided that Alice would stay there at first. We had an empty room upstairs for her, but we wanted Alice to help decorate her room. We did not want another disaster like last time when Esme picked out pink and lace for Russell, when he wanted cars and racetracks. So there really were not any preparations that needed to be made, leaving our family more free time to worry about the up-coming court date.
Ms. Verhoeven called Esme Wednesday a little before noon to tell us the good news: Alice's emergency placement was approved and she would be dropping Alice off around four. I was at work at the time, so Esme called to pass along the news. I really wanted to take off from work early that day and leave all of my duties to Dr. Smith, the other attending. But we were swamped with a logging accident, so I could not.
I probably should have stayed late and continued working that night, to help deal with the overflow, but as soon as my replacement showed up, I went home to my family. The five of them were home waiting for me to start dinner when I arrived: they looked like the picture perfect family sitting around that table, although, Jasper and Alice were holding hands. Children that age do not typically hold their siblings hands, but it seemed that those two could not get enough of each other.
After dinner we all went into the living room to watch television, and Jasper did something that I have never seen him do before: he crawled into Esme's lap. He used to crawl into my lap all of the time when he was younger, but he was getting to that age when children stop wanting affection from their parental figures, so it had been ages since the last time I had held him.
Russell and Edward used to climb into Esme's lap all of the time for that extra bit of maternal affection, but Jasper never did, always choosing my lap or to sit by himself and read. Esme and Jasper had never been close, so he never went to her for comfort, and consequently I had never seen him in her lap. I had even seen Jasper go to Russell and Edward for comfort a few times, but never Esme. Even if he was hurt and Esme was closest, he would go out of his way to find someone else, anyone else, just so long as it was not her.
At first I was disturbed by their inability to connect with one another, and I tried to help my wife with what she was doing wrong. Two of the more superficial problems were that they had nothing in common and never spent time together and that could easily have been rectified. But my wife was just a tad bit stubborn, and never took my advice on the subject. But then I never took my therapist's advice to stop spoiling the children either, so I could not really be one to talk.
And even if Esme had fixed the superficial issues, the root cause of the problem, that they had such total opposite personalities that they could not understand where the other was coming from, was insurmountable. My wife was the type of person that thought children should live in a magical fairy tale world where everything is dumbed down for them as they are fed sugar coated white lies to make the world seem like a less harsh place full of fluffy white bunnies.
Jasper's life so far had been anything but a fairy tale: from being born with a birth defect, to being present when his mother died, to discovering his father's body after the suicide, to killing that man in the bathroom last year. These events were hard to reconcile with a perfect fairy tale world, and even harder for someone like Jasper. He was the type of person who needed to be told everything straight with no sugar coating, filler, or fluff. He felt insulted when Esme bought him a children's history book when he was already reading at college level. He felt offended when she tried to treat him like a child and downright outraged when she told a white lie. Not only that, but Jasper has always been particularly in tune with emotions. He could sense when Esme was being insincere or was just placating him. He could also tell that she was more emotionally bonded to the other children and he resented her for it.
And as a consequence of this precarious relationship between the two, I had never before seen Jasper in Esme's arms. But that night Alice, who had not had a mother for over four years, crawled into Esme's arms to cuddle. And Jasper, wanting to get closer to his Alice, whom he was fascinated by, snuggled into Esme's other side. My wife wasted no time in taking full advantage of the rare opportunity and quickly shifted her over, and wrapped the other arm around him.
The three of them looked so cute cuddled together that I grabbed the camera and took a snapshot. I plan on getting it enlarged and framed for mother's day, which was quickly approaching. And with a new child in our lives, this mother's day was sure to be a special one.
Having Alice join the family turned out better than I could have ever dreamed. And despite Dr. Grant's warnings, we never had any problems with sexual harassment between Alice and Jasper. Esme and I laid out strict rules for them, insisting that they were not allowed to be in the same room together alone. Not even the living room: Edward or Russell always had to be with them if Esme and I were not. They were also not allowed to touch each other inappropriately or kiss on the mouth.
The two of them followed the rules to the letter, and we never caught them in violation. But whenever we asked Alice if she wanted to kiss Jasper on the mouth, she always answered with an affirmative. When we asked Jasper, he admitted that he had been thinking about it as well, but had held off because he was not old enough.
When Alice's adoption was finalized, Esme and I had her name legally changed to Alice Brandon Cullen, and her gender officially changed to female. The gender change request was unusual, but not unheard of in cases of intersexed individuals, so we did not have any trouble getting it approved. And with that approval, we officially had a daughter to go with our three sons, and our family was complete.