Based on characters from the Twilight© by Stephanie Meyers. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No copyright infringement is intended.

36 ESME

A.N.: This isn't pretty folks, but here it is. Tell me what you think.

Carlisle's POV

I hadn't heard anything above the frustrated roar in my head. I didn't want to hear her last heartbeat and know I was defeated that I didn't deserve another blessing. Now I stood silent at the end of the room rapidly breathing in her scent, tasting it on my tongue, memorizing it, knowing that it would be gone any moment, replaced by the stench of death. Over the sound of my own unnecessary breathing I heard the faint pulse of a soft heartbeat and the rustle of fabric on wood and looked back at Esme's body and was stunned. She was moving.

In an instant I was next to her. Incredibly her heart was smoothly pumping, enough venom had reached it in time, and it had strengthened. Her wounds, sealed with venom, were healing, and she was also responding to the pain. Her eyes opened and she let out a long low moan.

"Thank you, God!" I cried, elated. Hysterical with relief, laughter threatened to burst from my throat as I stood next to her. I took her hands into mine as she moaned with the pain. I tried to comfort her so I talked to her. I couldn't hold her; she was still so weak, her body still so broken.

From the depths of despair my hope was restored, she would survive, my miracle had happened. The love I felt for this woman filled me with wonder with its intensity and extent, and I knew that God had significantly changed my life once again.

It was torture knowing that I had to wait for Edward to come back home to find out if she still felt anything for me.

The rest of the night and day we sat like this, she moaned, cried and frequently screamed. She didn't struggle much, her spine was still broken. I tried my best to comfort her by telling her all the things that I had waited to tell Edward.

As she became stronger she grasped hold of my arms. She tugged at me and I fell against the table and it collapsed under our weight. I avoided falling on her and sat next to her on the broken tabletop. She clung to me pulling herself into my lap.

"Esme, you will hurt me if you grasp too hard," I said to her although she wasn't strong enough to hurt me, yet.

She looked up at me through her pain. "Dr. Cullen? You found me?"

"Yes, Esme, it's me, Carlisle," I said amazed that she remembered and recognized me through the pain. "You were dying and I changed you. You are becoming like me but you will be so strong you can hurt me. Don't grasp too hard," I said again.

She loosened her hold slightly on my arms but the pain gripped her and she screamed out in agony grasping at me again. This is going to hurt us both, I told myself, she isn't restrained and I'm all she has to hold on to.

"You came back for me," she cried out through her pain.

"Yes, Esme, I will never leave you again," I said as hope that she still cared for me strengthened me.

I talked to her but other than screaming she did not respond again. She began to writhe with increased agony, her legs began to move. Her spine had healed and the additional pain took her in its merciless grip.

Edward's POV

I 'played' in the forest for almost two days; I convinced myself that I could help Carlisle now. I was pretty sure that his friend wouldn't smell so human now. She would be reaching the end of the transformation where everything was not only extremely painful but also very confusing. He might need me to read her mind to see what we needed to tell her to help her cope with her new… life? existence?

I headed back to the city at twilight listening hard for Carlisle. I headed to where I knew I could hear Carlisle at home.

Edward? I heard Carlisle's 'voice'. I was almost a mile away from where I normally would have heard him. He was calling me loudly and I was pushing the limits and obviously he was too.

Edward? Where are you? His thoughts hit me, frantic for some reason. He needed me, but he just wasn't thinking why he needed me.

Edward, please! he begged the silence. His eyes were closed at the moment and I couldn't see what was in front of him. I blocked his mind again.

For a fraction of a second I wondered how long he had been calling me before I cranked up my pace. I was thankful that it was full dark as I raced home.

I slowed down close to the house; he could hear my voice from here. I didn't know how close I should get.

"Carlisle, I'm here. What can I do?" I asked aloud listening for both his voices.

"Get down here!" he growled aloud. I need to talk to her. I need to know what is going on in her mind. She needs to know things and I don't know how to tell her. The last part is coming soon. Hurry, Edward. His voice was anxious.

I raced into the house without smashing through the door in my rush. I knew he would have heard me come in, if he was listening to anything but her heart thundering in her chest. I could hear that from outside, I could also hear her wailing cries.

"I'm right here," I said from the kitchen at the top of the basement stairs. I was still blocking her mind. I saw through his eyes though and was stunned. "Carlisle?"

"I couldn't leave her. Help me, Edward." His mind filled with their shared agony. His eyes locked on her face but I could see through his peripheral vision.

The room was a disaster, things smashed and broken. The table was legless and lying on the floor. He was sitting cross-legged on the table's remains, the woman curled around his body, her head in his lap. She was wearing only underclothes; her dress was on the floor in shreds partially under the rubble. I could see she had bites on each wrist because her hands wrapped across the top of her head. I knew that she had a bite on her neck but I couldn't see it. I wondered if he had bitten both her ankles.

What had happened down there?

"I'll see if I can find something for her to wear. I'll be down in a moment."

It was so easy with you. How could I know this would be so difficult? he lamented.

Easy…? I thought in disbelief, blocking his thoughts again. My transformation was easy? Huh! Maybe for him, I huffed, though I knew it wasn't true.

I suffered with him and knew the torment he was in when I went through it. This was so much worse. I wondered what I had missed during the last 48 hours. His focus was still on her so he hadn't let me hear the reason for the destruction.

I had a couple of long night shirts in the chest of drawers in my room that I never used that would do for now. I flew up the stairs to my room and down. I headed down the basement stairs more slowly and smelled blood.

I froze. It was two day old dried dead blood but it was human blood. The beast reacted to the smell and my stomach twisted… not in the usual way. It was sour, disgusting and made me queasy. I went back up the stairs and pulled a bottle of bleach and a pail out from under the kitchen sink. Again, I was thankful for Carlisle's whim of have all things human around.

I took a breath of untainted air and held it. I walked down the stairs.

"Carlisle?" I called tentatively from the bottom of the stairs. I could hear her heart revving up; I knew it would only be a short time until she was fully one of us. Frighteningly it also meant she would be stronger than either of us.

"Come in," he whispered.

I walked around the intervening wall into the room. I recognized some of the broken glass pieces strewn across the floor and knew they were centuries old. This damage had cost him dearly.

He was cradling her and crooning. She had moved her hands from her head, and they were clutching his at her chest. Her moaning wail hadn't ceased but the volume had decreased. Her body curled around him so tightly her knees tucked up against his back. I could see the twin bite marks just above her crossed ankles. She had her head turned so that her eyes stared into his.

I saw no blood on her wounds. I moved in closer so I could assist him if he needed me. She screamed and startled me as I sat the pail on the floor. I saw where the smell of acrid blood was coming from, where the blood from her wounds had gone.

"I have to get rid of this," I said still holding my breath, it only took a few seconds to pull her blood smeared dress from under the rubble and place it inside the pail of bleach. I took a tiny breath and was relieved that the bleach masked the scent.

I stood watching Carlisle. He shook his head once, then I heard my name and I unblocked his thoughts and listened to him.

Edward, help me! Tell me what she is thinking. It's driving me crazy, Carlisle begged, his eyes never leaving hers.

His thoughts were swirling, totally revolving around the condition of the woman and how she was feeling. His overwhelming love and crushing concern were truly making him crazy. His desperate circular thoughts were enough to make me hastily and thoughtlessly agree to listen.

"I'm going to listen to her now Carlisle. If it is too much for me, I'll have to stop." I rushed to tell him to ease his mind.

"I know," he said dully.

I took an unnecessary breath, then I foolishly and a bit arrogantly opened my mind to her thoughts.

I cried out as excruciating pain instantaneously shattered my mind and stunned me completely. The psychic shock hurled me back against the brick wall knocking the air from my lungs and I collapsed on the floor. I was on fire. I tried to scream with airless lungs as the horrific hell of my own transformation, engulfed me in the blazing inferno all over again.

I struggled against the flames ripping through my mind and thrashed around on the floor. Drawing in air, I screamed in response to the agonizing pain but the intensity rendered me useless. I couldn't block her mind or even futilely fight the pain; I could do nothing but writhe in the inferno. Then the intense pain closed down my throat and even strangled my screams.

"Edward! … Son!" Carlisle cried out in terror, hearing my scream. Breaking eye contact with Esme he looked over at me as I hit the wall. He tried to pull his hand away to reach me but her grip was too strong. He tried to move toward me but her body wrapped tightly around him prevented it.

Her body trapped him, and I was trapped by her burning agony.

"Son! Oh God, no! Edward?" he cried again, watching in horror as I writhed on the floor.

He desperately struggled to extricate himself from her newborn grip. I heard the first squeal of tearing vampire flesh as he attempted to free himself from her. The visceral sound ripped through my pain bringing me agony of another sort.