AN: Time for Esme to have a little chat with the girls.
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-=[ The past, Isabella Swan, 17 y.o.]=-
25.
Esme P.O.V.
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"Alice, you've got some splaining to do, young lady." Esme burst into her daughter's bedroom without knocking.
The curtains were closed and the blue glow of her computer lit one corner of the room.
"Who has been in my bathroom cabinet and why is-… Oh, hello Rosalie. I didn't expect to find you here. Didn't you go with Emmett to meet up with his friend?"
"No, it was raining and I've got a bit of a headache, think I'm coming down with a cold," young Rosalie Hale responded, attempting an innocent expression.
Esme, however, wasn't that easily fooled. "Cold my ass," she thought. The girl showed all the tell-tale signs of suffering from one heck of a hangover, as did all the kids, really (in various degrees, of course). However, she was fairly certain Rosalie wouldn't admit to anything of the sort.
Esme had known this girl for a year and a half now; ever since her oldest, Emmett, had first brought his Rosie home to meet the family. Even if the girl, at first impression, didn't come across as the warmest or friendliest person, she had since then proved she had other good qualities, such as personal integrity and absolute loyalty.
The real source behind Rosalie's headache was obvious. However, Esme saw no point in commenting on it at the time being. Rosalie would never tattle and get the others into trouble. And besides, Esme had bigger bones to pick.
"Alice, I'd like you to explain why I found THIS, between the cushions of the couch downstairs?" she demanded, holding up the empty, torn-apart box that had contained multiple packages of allergy medicine the last time she had seen it.
"I'm sorry mom, what?" Alice didn't even look up from her laptop. Instead she kept hitting various keys on the keyboard, muttering "Shit, buffering again… Ugh, so frustrating…"
"I'd like to know why my bathroom cabinet appears to have been raided. This is important, Alice!"
"Can it wait? Because we are rather busy... and this is important too, like really, REALLY important, so…."
"Busy doing what? What exactly is it that you girls are doing?"
Now that her eyes had adjusted to the dim light of the room she could see that apart from Alice's laptop, there was also an IPad up and running… AND both girls also had their phones out next to them and kept checking them every few seconds.
"The press conference, mom," Alice answered her question impatiently. "We're watching the press conference… or trying to anyway… "
"What? You can watch it live? Who's broadcasting, is it the Gazette?"
"No, Angela Webers' cousin's friend's sister's boyfriend works for The Daily Olympian. He's got a Facebook live video feed set up, but it's buff-…. Oh wait, now it's up again!"
Morbid curiosity had Esme stepping closer to the bed.
She already had a pretty good idea what would be revealed during this press conference, seeing as she had spoken to chief Swan only fifteen or so, minutes ago. And also, she fully expected her husband to give her a thorough run down of the entire thing, once he returned from actually attending said press conference. Still, she stood there with her heart drumming against her chest, indecisive, as the sound of voices came from the laptop on the center of the bed.
"Can I….?"
"Shhh! Yeah, of course mom. You can sit here. "Alice pulled her legs up making room for her mother on the mattress in front of the laptop.
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….
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"Anderson, Tahoma Live News. Chief Swan, can you tell if the woman was alone, or with someone?"
"At the time she gave birth to those babies, you mean? No, it's too soon to say anything about that for sure. However, we do find it highly unlikely that this woman, post birth, would have been in any condition to walk all that way through the woods, climb inside a dumpster with Baby X, and then successfully go into hiding, putting herself somewhere safe, where no police dogs have been able to sniff her out. While it's not impossible that this is the work of one lone woman, I'd say I find it more likely that there was at least one more person present, to help her with this."
"Next question."
"I'm Mia Mckenzie, from the Forks Gazette. I'd like to know how the police can be so sure the mother is local and not some tourist, or some other random person passing through our town."
"Obviously, we can't know that for sure, but everything points towards it being someone with knowledge about the area. Even if a lot of hikers use that service road for parking, and knows about the pond, they are not marked out on any of the official tourist maps. With all the rain we've had lately it is a little muddy out there. This is my personal opinion, but I'd say you're gonna need a bit of local knowledge if you're out walking in the dark and trying to get from the old service road to the pond and then continue through the woods to Forks High without getting stuck in the bog, or getting lost along the way."
"There are such things as flashlights and GPS, you know," objected the journalist.
"And there are-…"
Just then a hand obscured the view for a second and then the picture zoomed slightly, before everything went black.
"No!" Alice muttered. "No, no no…"
"Ugh, not now…. I really wanted to hear the rest…" Rosalie groaned and sat up beside Alice on the bed. "Try refreshing the page!"
"I am. It's not helping."
"Uhm… what happened?" Esme inquired, checking the time on her watch, realizing that a good that half-an-hour had flown by, just like that. Where did that time go? Modern technology was equal part amazing and terrifying… not to mention often ethically questionable in many ways.
What had made her think it was a good idea to watch that live stream to begin with was beyond her – especially seeing as she'd let the girls watch it too. In hindsight, that had not been her most sound decision. Perhaps she should have her head examined…
Oh hey, for a minute there she'd almost forgotten what she did for a living, funny that… Clearly she'd been on sick leave a bit too long…
"I think Angela's cousin's friend's sister's boyfriend just got busted and got his camera confiscated," Alice said with an unhappy sigh.
"Wasn't it her cousin's friend's boyfriend's sister?" Rosalie argued, rubbing her forehead.
"We'll talk more about the press conference when your father gets home, but speaking of getting busted," Esme took the opportunity to get back to her originally planned line of questioning. "I have some questions for you, Mary Alice Cullen. For starters, who raided my bathroom cabinet? Why does the new area rug in the living room smell like puke and why are there no plants in the foyer?"
"Moooom," Alice whined. "This is unfair, you ambushing me like this, when you know my brothers are the worst offenders. "
"Don't mom me, and 'offenders', really? Does this mean you admit things happened here this weekend that shouldn't have happened?"
"No, what I'm saying is, historically speaking, who is most likely to puke on furniture or rugs, me or Emmett?"
It didn't escape Esme's notice that her daughter mouthed 'save me' to her friend.
Rosalie, bless her heart, merely shrugged in a 'serves-you-right' kind of way. She probably didn't appreciate Alice's attempt to throw her brother under the bus.
"Actually, I think it was Taylor who barfed underneath the coffee table," Rosie offered with another shrug as she got up from the bed. "If you don't need me for anything, I'm gonna go lay down in Em's room for a bit."
"Thank you Rosalie, but please stay put. I want to talk to the both of you about what you've been up to these past two days."
"But-…" Both girls started to protest at the same time.
"No buts and no excuses. This will go so much more smoothly if you just answer my questions truthfully, with no attitude. Am I making myself clear, girls?"
Waiting for them both to nod, she donned a serious expression on her face and looked back and forth between them.
"Alright, how many people did you have over? And was it just last night, or was it open house here Friday night as well?"
"Only Saturday, but I'm not the one-…
"Alice, how many?" Esme repeated sternly.
"Not that many."
"Mary Alice Cullen."
"Stop with the middle name… I only invited like 20 people, but then some other people, that don't even go to our school, got wind of it and things got a bit out of hand."
"Rosalie, is this correct?"
The blond girl nodded. "There were a lot of people here and like Alice said a lot of them showed up uninvited. There was a moment when I thought the whole thing was gonna turn into one giant fight, but nothing happened," Rosalie offered as means of explanation. "Some stayed, some went home, but the spirit remained friendly and… well cordial."
"Yeah, mom. I meant 'out of hand' in a good way. It was supposed to be a small, intimate party, but it turned into a big, 'everyone-was-there' kind of affair… Rosalie is right though, nothing happened… the night ran smoothly and everyone had a good time."
"Well, something DID happen. You saw the press conference earlier. An unaided twin birth in the woods just a short bit from here, is not what I'd call 'nothing'."
"But we don't-…" Alice started protesting.
"And NO, it didn't go smoothly…and not everyone had a good time last night. One baby did not make it and the one that did, is hooked up to machines to stay alive. Neglecting to seek medical attention for a newborn child is not just risky for the health of both mother and child–it can also lead to serious criminal charges. Child abandonment is never something to take lightly."
Alice's eyes had grown into saucers. "What happened to those babies is tragic, mom. It really is. I get that," she said bowing her head to her chest whilelooking appropriately sad. "I just don't see how it has anything to do with us… like on a personal level."
"It happened practically on our doorstep, on the very same night you girls had every teenager in town over for your intimate, 'everyone-was-there' house party. The mother may very well be someone you know, someone you go to school with. Someone that was here at your party even..."
"I haven't seen anyone around school looking remotely pregnant though, " Alice commented, her brows furrowed. "I mean, I know there are ways to hide it, like with bigger and looser clothes and stuff, but sill-…"
"Can someone really be 24 weeks pregnant without showing… like at all?" Rosalie cut in, making a sweeping pregnant-belly gesture. "I mean, if she was carrying twins, wouldn't she have been quite big….."
"Every pregnancy is different, just like every woman is different. It's not entirely uncommon that a really young, expectant mother can get to her third trimester without having much of a belly. "
"Really?"
"She'd be gaining weight, for sure, especially with twins, but she would not necessarily get the typical, big, rounded pregnant belly until the very last stage of her pregnancy. It has to do with the tightness of the abdominal muscles and well… you young girls having faster metabolism than us older ladies. However, even if she has been watching her weight and hiding her secret behind layers of clothes, her body would still change quite a bit in other areas that are just as telling as a big rounded belly. For example she would probably get a fuller face and perhaps wider hips and, most definitely a bigger fuller bust… Are you sure you haven't seen anything…?"
"I don't go around staring at other girls breasts, mom. You should speak with Em about that one. Sorry, Rose," Alice hurried to add, before continuing. "But seriously, I still don't think it's someone from school. Maybe, it's someone home schooled, or someone from Port A, or the school on the reservation, or someone older… I don't know-…"
"Why can't they just swab all the girls at school and be done with it," Rosalie suggested. "The boys too… I mean, they got DNA from the babies to compare with. It should be a piece of cake."
"They could and yes, it may come down to that. However, most students at Forks High are still minors. They'd need written permission from each girl's - or each student's- parents before they collect any DNA and-…"
"And say no more," Rosalie snorted. "Sounds like an administrative nightmare."
"Something like that, yes," Esme agreed with a sigh. "Listen, you heard what the doctor said at the press conference. It's not just the baby that is in a critical condition. Sepsis is one of the leading causes of direct maternal death. If you hear anything, even the slightest suspicion, I want you to tell someone –me, dad, the police, the school nurse… Just tell someone. Do it anonymously, if you have to. It can be a matter of life and death."
"Of course." Alice was nodding.
"Even if it means sending a girl your own age, friend or frenemy, to… well, not jail probably, but some sort of correctional, or treatment facility, it's still better than saying nothing and sending her into the clutches of death."
"Now you're being over dramatic, mom. We really don't have the slightest clue who it could be. Right, Rose?"
"Yeah, I can't think of anyone that could have been pregnant," Rosalie responded,but her eyes kept darting towards her friend every other second. Sending out some sort of silent warning, perhaps….
"Are you sure Rosalie?"
"There are always rumors," Alice cut in. "If those were true, Stanley should have had a dozen babies by now. Lauren too… and a few others. Oh, and Victoria has supposedly done at least two abortions. She has scars that can only be the result of multiple surgical procedures, or liposuctions… "
"Vicky had her appendix taken out when she was twelve, the incision got infected and they had to cut her open a second time. Everyone knows this, yet they still spread those nasty rumors about her. That's just high school for you," Rosalie said, picking at her nails.
"Like I said, if you know anything, or if you hear anything, anything at all, you can always come to me, or dad. That goes for you too, Rose. In this family we'll always try to be supportive and keep the lines of communication open. We're all humans and we all make mistakes. Consider this your 'Get out of Jail Free' card," she told them with as much sincerity and honesty as she was capable of. "It can be applied on present situation, but also on any future pregnancy related situations that may arise... Just putting that out here now so you know how I feel about this. Even if it's scary, don't wait too long to tell someone… Delaying getting proper medical care can sometimes lead to dire consequences, such as infertility or recurrent miscarriages later on in life."
She hesitated for a bit before adding, "Life is precarious, and life is precious. Don't presume you will have it tomorrow, and don't waste it today."
"That's deep mom. Does this-… I mean, it's about what happened to you, isn't it? It's about the baby YOU lost?" Alice asked, eyeing her cautiously, as if worried the mere mention would be too upsetting.
There was not much about this whole situation, that wasn't upsetting. However, she would not let herself be dragged into the depths of loss and grief again. Instead, she plastered on a neutral expression and with a nod, she said, "It's a quote that's been stuck on my mind ever since first I read it. It's by theologian John Piper, I believe."
"You think you'll try again? Try for another baby, I mean? I know it wasn't planned… I know you didn't think it was even possible, but evidently it was and evidently you two still have sex, despite your advanced ages and all."
"Hey now, I just turned 43, not 85," Esme objected playfully, even though her heart wasn't really in it. "Your dad on the other hand…he's getting old. You should see the amount of grey hair he has on his back-…."
"That's gross, mom."
"To give you an honest answer, when you get to be my age, there are no grantees that you can get pregnant to begin with. And with me only having one functioning fallopian tube, my odds of conceiving naturally is even lower than for most women my age… In fact, the only time we have managed to see a pregnancy toterm was by conception through IUI."
"Yeah, I remember that; me and Eddie, two sperms stuck in the same test tube…" Alice joked. "Fun times…"
"If I do get pregnant again, there are no guarantees that I could go full term and give birth to a healthy baby. There are a lot of uncertainties and risks to take into consideration. Your dad and I talked a lot about the future this weekend. What we want to do next… whether or not we still want to expand our family. And if yes, then how? Specifically, we talked about the adoption process, we started almost on the day a year ago, and how to proceed with that."
"And?"
"And we've decided that we want to resume our efforts to get to know Bree. We want her to come spend time with us, get familiar with this house and get to know us as a family. We'd love to tell her that it is our intention to adopt her… "
"Yay, I'm getting a sister at last! This is great news! Isn't it, Rose?"
"Of course. One does not negate the other, though. Does it?" Rosalie asked, looking genuinely confused. "I mean, just because you're adopting doesn't mean you have to stop trying to conceive another baby? I can't believe I'm actually encouraging my boyfriend's parents to keep having sex, and unprotected at that, but..."
"Oi, stop right there," Esme laughed. "Perhaps we will, perhaps we won't… This reminds me of the other thing we need to discuss here today, girls."
"What's that? The birds and the bees? Because we've already had that talk ages ago..." Alice objected.
"Consider this a repetition course then. You girls are safe, right? Rosalie, I know you're on birth control, but you should be using condoms as well. There's no such thing as being too careful."
"Eh, thanks, but we… eh… we've got it covered."
"Do you really, though? Because I can talk to Emmett, if you like-… "
"Mom, please," Alice interrupted, putting her hand over her ears. "Do I need to listen to this?!"
"And you, young lady, it is time to see a gynecologist. I'll set up an appointment for you A.S.A.P. Last time we spoke about this, we agreed to respect your wish to avoid unnecessary use of hormonal methods of birth control. It was a decision we made based on the fact that you said you weren't sexually active, and because you weren't serious about anyone you were seeing at that time. You swore to us you'd tell us if either of those two things changed. "
"Mom, please…"
"But that was then and now is now. You and Jasper has been dating for a while now. I know you're smart enough to figure out how to work a condom, but accident happens and like I told Rosalie, there's no such thing as being too careful. "
"I'm sorry you had to find out about me and Jasper from someone other than me, but if this is punishment-…"
"I'm not punishing you. I'm simply looking out for you. We should have had this talk months ago, but my head's been elsewhere. I've been preoccupied with my own situation. I'm sorry."
"Okay," Alice bowed her head. "I'm sorry too. I'm glad I have parents that are 'normal'… And by normal I mean, not overly strict, or old-fashioned, or scary to talk to. You guys both being in the medical field do tend to make it a bit weird though. Like I don't need visuals to know what smoking does to your lungs... And you don't have to show me slideshows of what long time drugs use does to your face… Believe it or not, but we already get those lectures in school… "
"How about this for a lecture… Using two methods of contraceptives during your most fertile teen years is how you avoid 'oopsie' babies and also STd's, or like in my case, that's how I could have avoided losing a fallopian tube due to an ectopic pregnancy at seventeen. By the way, keeping track of safe days do not count as a reliable method of contraception, just saying… "
"Sorry mom. I thought we still blamed Dad for that one," Alice said, looking mildly peeved. "High school ski trip to Canada," she stage whispered to Rosalie. "Dad was skimping on condoms. He was trying to save up money for concert tickets or something like that…"
"It was a leather jacket," Esme cut in. "He already had the tickets, but he wanted an authentic, cool-looking leather jacket to wear to the concert to impress his date - which by the way wasn't me. It was some older chick, an older sister of one of his friends that was coming home from college for the holidays. He thought he'd have a shot with her if he changed his looks to appear older and more mature. He even stopped shaving…not a pretty look… Anyway, he'd been planning it for months. Needless to say, I dumped his sorry ass the minute I found out about this…"
Esme looked around to see if they were still listening. Content, she carried on. "Fast forward about eight weeks for the gruesome part. I remember waking up in the morning being in pain. It was a strange kind of pain. A swelling sensation in my abdomen and bleeding. I thought it was my period, coming early again for the second time in two months. Well, it wasn't… I got a fever and started vomiting and the pain got progressively worse until I had to be taken to hospital in an ambulance. I woke two days later with a 10-out-of-10 pain and stitches across my stomach. And if you want visuals, I still got photos somewhere of what my incision looked like fresh out of surgery… "
"Thanks, but we're good," Rosalie was quick to respond. Shaking her head she added, "But please DO tell, what happened next? I hope you didn't take him back straight away?!"
"Hell no-.. I mean, heck no. I made him grovel for months afterwards to redeem himself… All our college applications were already sent in and we both got accepted to our first pick, which of course landed us in the same city at the same school. Same dorm even, but different floors. We had been planning on going there together after all… as friends. He really was my best friend first before he was anything else… and eventually, I did take him back as a friend… but still dated tons of other guys to make him suffer. It went on like that for a while until I realized that I was hurting myself just as much as I was hurting him. So there you have it…I married him, divorced him and married him again. The sense moral of this; don't skimp on condoms –and use them for sex, don't waste them on making balloon animals. Is that understood?!"
She waited until the girls nodded their heads. "And Alice, one day, you'll have kids on your own and you will be giving them all the same lectures your father and I've been trying to give you -about not doing drugs and staying safe – and a few additional lectures, I'm sure."
"Yeah well, that may be true, but I'm not having any kids anytime soon, so… I'm glad we had this chat and cleared the air and all, but can we not do this in a loooong while, please and thank you."
"Of course, I'll leave you now to think this over. I have dinner to get started on. We can talk more tonight," Esme took a step towards the door, then she stopped.
"I'll let you know when your father and I have decided on a punishment for your 'anything-but-intimate, big, little get-together'. In the meanwhile, Alice, you can consider yourself grounded."
"That's not fair!"
"If it makes you feel better, Edward will be getting the same punishment and the same safe sex lecture, as soon as your father gets back here."
"Okay, that DOES make me feel better. Tell dad to remind Edward again that using more than one condom at the same time is a bad idea… and that most girls don't find latex gloves a turn on during sex
"You'd be surprised, Alice. You'd be surprised," Esme snorted. "But seriously, it's not nice to make fun of your brother for his fear of germs and his… other issues."
"He doesn't deserve nice. He wasn't nice to me this morning when I needed his help cleaning up the me-.. or well, tidying up this place from last night's little get together. Ask Edward what happened to your plants, by the way… And I'm pretty sure he can tell you who raided your bathroom cabinet too."
"That's enough." Esme held up her hands. "I hear a car on the driveway. That's probably your father returning."
"Actually," Rosalie spoke up. "Could be the boys just as well. They were only going over to James' place to collect something. They should be back any minute now."
"I'll go and have a look." Esme said moving towards the door again. Then, she remembered something.
"Oh, I almost forgot," she said, turning back to Alice. "Can I suggest, you invite Isabella to come over for dinner? In fact I must insist you do. Call her for me, will you? Her father will be working nonstop for the next couple of days, so she could probably use some company. We'll be eating at seven. Tell her I'll be making lasagna. She likes my lasagna. Also, tell her she can stay the night, if she wants to. That's fine by us."
"I will let her know. She probably won't be interested in coming over right now though."
"Oh, and why is that?"
Alice sighed, like the answer was obvious. "The rain, mom," she explained. "Charlie isn't home to give her a ride and I'm grounded, remember? I mean, obviously, Rose and I don't mind swinging by her place to pick her up. If you let us we could-..."
"Nice try, but nope. I'll pick her up myself, if necessary. Or, if she like she can bring her boyfriend along for dinner. Jake is it? He's got a car, doesn't he?"
"Eh, Jake's got a car alright, but no driver's license." Rosalie snorted. "He doesn't turn sixteen until the end of December, I believe."
"Also, he's not her boyfriend." Alice added matter of factly.
"They broke up?"
"It's complicated, mom. According to Bella it's never been anything serious between them. She hangs out with him from time to time, but it has never been exclusive, no real feelings or whatever... If you ask Jake, however, he'll tell you a completely different story," she explained. "He brags about her to his friends. Apparently, it's a big deal to them that she's older and stuff. Gives him bragging points."
"That doesn't sound very nice. Maybe he SHOULD come by here so we can talk with him."
"Mom, don't!" Alice cautioned. "That would only embarrass Bella. She likes to think she's independent and doesn't need anyone looking out for her."
"Everyone has moments when they need someone."
"I know. But we can't go behind her back, she hates that! She knows what Jake's been up to. It's not the first time he's done it. Let her deal with it her way."
"Well, I'd hate to see her being treated badly... or treating herself badly. She's such a bright and thoughtful person, yet she doesn't seem to notice the good things she has going for her, like her smarts or her pretty smile… her great sense of humor…"
"I know that, I'm her friend, remember? When we hang out, me and Bella, it's because she wants to be around me, and not because she feels obligated to. No offence. I know she genuinely likes you, mom, but you're essentially someone that gets paid by -and reports back to- her dad. Yes, I know I'm not supposed to know about that, but I do know so… Actually, you're not even reporting anything back to anyone anymore, are you? Unless of course… Mom, are you getting back to work? Will you start seeing patients again?"
"I'll be giving it a try. My body is all healed and I've come a long way with… well, my grieving process. So, yes, I'll be easing back into work again. I'm starting off slow though. I'll only work a few hours a week. I want you to know that I've made a conscious decision to try and be more in the present, focusing on the people I'm with and not on the ghosts in my head. The holiday season is coming up in a bit and hopefully this means we'll be spending more time together as a family… And spending time with Bree."
"That's good, mom," Alice said, while signing 'love you', with her hands.
Esme signed back 'love you more'.
It had been ages since they'd looked through the 'The Everything Sign Language Book' together. She definitely needed to find the book and dust off again. She wondered briefly where it had gone, she hadn't seen it in months… Tomorrow, she decided firmly. Tomorrow she would look for it.
"Now, I better get started on that lasagna."
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….
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AN: Did you see that Bree-Cullen-connection coming? Bree was living with the Webers while her father was serving jail time. It was mentioned in a previous chapter that adoption plans were in the works for her, but that the plans fell through. Technically the plans were put on hold after Esme suffered her miscarriage and needed time to grieve and heal after the loss of the baby. Understandably, as it was an unplanned, but very much wanted (and slightly miraculous) pregnancy, that ended in tragedy. As fate would have it, the adoption plans were later on permanently halted (for reasons yet to be revealed). It has also been mentioned that the father eventually had a change of mind and showed up at the Weber's one day to collect his daughter. This plotline will be revisited later on.