Disclaimer: I do not own Carlisle or any of the other awesome Twilight characters

Thank you too all of you who continue to read and review and I do apologize for the delay in updating.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Nightmare before Christmas

CPOV

For the past several days I'd been having nightmares. I had had them before, but not like this. These dreams haunted me, not only when I slept but throughout my entire day, as well; sometimes to the point it distracted me from my work. I have dreamt of the slaughter of hundreds of Immortal children, or about coming across my 'singer' and not being able to control my blood lust; but nothing, nothing could have prepared me for the horrific image of my beautiful mate rejecting me. Calling me a blood sucker, a leech and then running into the arms of a tan skinned shape shifter. I knew the very idea of Isabella rejecting me was completely ridiculous, she loved me, unconditionally, and I her, but somewhere in my subconscious it was an underlying fear of mine.

I had told no one, though I suspected Alice was aware;, she would sometimes give me pitying looks and whisper that I had nothing to worry about.

The most recent nightmare I'd had occurred on Christmas Eve. I had gone over to Isabella's, creeping through her bedroom just as she was about to climb into bed for the night.

"I just wanted to see you," I said sitting down on the edge of her bed. She smiled, leaned up and kissed me softly on the lips. "Come on," she pulled back the covers and motioned for me to join her, and of course, I would never refuse the opportunity to be close to my mate, especially in her bed.

I sighed contently, as she snuggled her head into my chest. I wrapped my arms around her small frame and kissed the top of her head. "Love you," she whispered with a yawn.

"I love you too."

She closed her eyes; soon her breathing slowed and evened, and I knew she was asleep. Having had a rather exhausting day myself, I closed my eyes, though I had only thought to do so briefly. Unfortunately my mind was more exhausted then I realized, and soon I joined Isabella in slumber.

Dreams came swiftly.

We were in a meadow, the same meadow I frequented in many of my dreams of Isabella. She was wearing a yellow sundress, which in itself is a very un-Isabella thing to wear, but it look positively lovely on her. She had a few whips of her mahogany hair pulled back in little silver clips; the rest flowed in a wavy cascade down her back. The freckles that ran across her nose seemed all the more prominent against her skin, skin that no longer held her creamy complexion that was so often covered in a blush, but beautifully pale, and perfectly flawless skin. The scar that normally framed the right side of her face was no-existent. She walked toward me with graceful elegance; she required no cane and had no limp, as she glided towards me.

"Carlisle," Her voice sung as my name floated from her lips.

She was still my sweet, amazing Isabella, but obviously very different as well. Her smile was still kind as her beautiful face lit up in adoration, and she looked lovingly into my gaze.

"You're beautiful," I breathed.

Reaching up she cupped my face, her hand no longer felt warm against my cool skin. "We're the same temperature now," she sighed contently.

I smiled as I reached for her hand, intertwining our fingers. "You're even more breathtaking then I imagined you would be… not that you weren't always."

She emitted a small laugh before leaning in and kissing me. Our lips molded together perfectly, as we celebrated her newly transformed being.

My Immortal Isabella.

When we finally pulled apart I expected to see her red eyes once again gaze affectionately into my own., I was taken aback, and gasped in shock when I found myself looking into her human eyes once more, eyes that were narrowed in hate. Her face contorted in revulsion and she took several steps away from me.

"Isabella." I reached for her, but she refused, shaking her head.

"Don't come near me!" she hissed.

"Sweetheart, please I-I love you."

"Well, she doesn't love you," I turned toward the voice that came suddenly from the surrounding trees. "Don't worry, Bella," Jacob Black said, literally sweeping my love off her feet. "I'll protect you."

She buried her face into his neck and nodded. "Thank you, Jake, I was so scared."

"Bella, no… Please. You-you can't do this. We are meant to be together, we're mates."

She didn't reply, but simply shook her head against Jacob's chest. The boy then laughed, his lips pulling into a scornful smirk. "You could never give Bella the life she deserves, but I can… and I will." With that he dashed back into the surrounding woods:, he and the love of my life were enveloped by the dense blanket of trees.

Collapsing to my knees, I buried my head in my hands, shaking my head violently. "No," I cried out, "NO! No… Please God, no!"

"Carlisle."

"Please don't leave me!" Jumping up from the ground I stormed into the woods, trampling grass and shrubs, knocking over small trees, moving anything in my way as I desperately sought out my love.

"Carlisle, wake up."

"NOOOOO!" I screamed as I continued to thrash through the seemingly endless forest.

"CARLISLE, Wake the HELL UP!"

I gasped and then screamed as my eyes snapped open, and my surroundings came into focus. I suddenly realized I was no longer lying on the bed, but on the floor, and it seemed I had brought the mattress with me. It lay haphazardly over my legs, my hands gripping the sides, or at least what was left of it. I had somehow managed to pull out a large quantity the stuffing, and tear through the sheets and blankets that had been covering it.

Shit!

"Jesus Christ, Carlisle, are you okay?"

I turned my head around, to locate Isabella who was standing several feet away, next to her bedroom window.

"I… I'm fine." Moving the mattress aside I slowly crouched, and then stood up, moving across to approach my beloved. My first thought was of her; had I hurt her? She seemed okay, but I had to make sure. "Did I hurt you?" My perfect sight raked her body, scanning for any new injuries.

She shook her head as she quickly wrapped her arms around me. "No, I woke up when you started thrashing around on the bed. I could tell you were having some sort of night mare, and I… well I thought it best to get some distance."

And thank God she did.

"Oh, Isabella, I'm so sorry", I sighed, moving from her arms, too look into her eyes, "I… I've never reacted in that way to a bad dream before. I… I could have hurt you and not even realized it." Or killed you, was my unspoken thought.

I suddenly felt nauseous, just the thought of… if I had anything in my stomach I was sure I would have thrown it up right then.

"It's okay, I'm perfectly fine. You, on the other hand… well, I'm just glad Charlie had to work a double shift today."

I couldn't help but laugh, despite the seriousness of the situation. "No, I don't think he would have taken kindly to me destroying your bed." Not to mention the fact that I would have to explain to him how I managed to cause that much damage, and why his daughter's mattress now had claw marks on it.

"Actually," she said with a laugh, "I was referring to the fact that you were in my bed with me at night. You may have had to dodge some bullets had he seen that."

I gave a small laugh at her joke. Yes, Charlie knew we were dating and it was possible that he realized we were on intimate terms, ever if we really weren't, or at least not completely; still, the shock of seeing his daughter in bed, in his house, with a man- any man- would most certainly have caused an adverse reaction. I turned back to survey the damage to her bed; not only had I destroyed the mattress but the bed frame was cracked as well… at least the headboard seemed to be unscathed.

"I will repair the damage this evening." I looked at the clock on her dresser, it was just after one in the morning; Charlie wasn't due home until after six. "Why don't you go sleep on the couch and I will take care of this mess."

Instead of agreeing right away, she cocked her head and gave me a curious look. "So you're not going to tell me what your nightmare was about."

Damn.

"I don't know if you'd want to hear about it."

She gave me a sad look as she reached up and cupped my face, "Was it about the Volturi again, the Immortal Children?"

I shook my head as I took her warm hand from my cheek bringing it to my lips, "No. It was… worse, far worse, but…I really don't feeling like talking about it right now."

She sighed and nodded, though I could tell she wasn't satisfied with my response., I had no doubt she would bring it up again.

"Go ahead and head downstairs and get some sleep, I will take care of everything up here."

"You sure?" she asked with a yawn, "I could help."

"I'm sure. Tomorrow's a big day, you need your rest."

With another yawn she nodded, "Okay, but wake me if you need me." I agreed, but of course I had no plans to do so. She gave me a small smile, grabbed her blanket off her rocking chair, gave me a quick peck on the lips and headed downstairs.

I grabbed my phone from my pocket; I was going to need help with this if I was going to get it taken care of before six. I was just about to dial Alice, when I was alerted that I'd received a text, it was from Jasper.

Alice Saw was happened. We're on our way over with the mattress and frame off the bed in the guest room.

Thank heaven for that clairvoyant little pixy.

A/N: I know it's late and short, but my life and work have been crazy. I'll be working less over the summer, so hopefully I will have more free time to write over the next few months. Next up Christmas Day. I was going to put it in this chapter but decided it needed its own.