Chapter 53
Carlisle stood staring out the window studying the weather. The night had come and gone and he was longing to know if Aro would be coming that day. A trigger went off in his mind and he ran downstairs to where he heard Esme playing with Caleb.
"Esme," he said in a somewhat rushed voice.
"What?" she asked with wide eyes.
"Call Luciana. Ask her if her father is coming by today."
"Okay," she said with a nod.
"Please," he added, realizing how demanded he'd been.
Esme smiled, knowing he'd meant to be more polite in the way he asked. She stood up and kissed him once, seeming to almost surprise him. "I love you."
Carlisle smiled and tucked his thumb beneath her chin for a moment before picking up Caleb. Esme dialed Luciana's number and quickly got ahold of her.
"Hi Lucy," she said, "How are you guys doing over there?"
"We've seen better days," she said, referring to everything that was going on, "But we're fine. How are you guys holding up?"
"Okay," she responded, "Hey, Nicole had a vision of your father coming to Forks. Do you know when he's going to arrive?"
"What?" she asked, "No. I didn't know he was coming here. I told him he's not welcome here." Her voice was pained as she spoke the words, only halfheartedly wishing that.
"I'm sorry," Esme said, "I didn't mean to upset you."
Carlisle put his ear close to hers and continued to listen.
"No, it's not you who's upsetting me," Luciana said in a softer voice, "It's him. I'm going to call him."
"Alright," Esme said, then added, "He's probably just worried about you."
"Maybe," she said.
There was a silence before Esme broke it, "I'll let you go so you can try to contact him."
"Thanks," Luciana said, "I think we're all getting together soon, is that right?"
"Yes," Esme said, "Later today."
"Okay. I'll see you then."
"Alright. Take care Lucy."
"See you in a bit."
Esme hung up and looked at Carlisle.
"He must have gotten word about this from someone else," Carlisle told her. He followed her stare to their baby in his arms.
"There's no way I will let anyone take Caleb from my arms."
He sighed, "I don't know what decision to make. If we change course now, will that be the move that puts Caleb in danger, or is he already in danger because of our current plans?"
"I would imagine its our current plans," Esme said, "Right?"
"I don't know," he answered, "But we won't let it happen."
Caleb landed a solid hand on Carlisle's face and he laughed, then made some of his jumbled noises.
Esme took their son's face in her hands and kissed his cheeks, then kissed Carlisle's and pulled them both to her, "God, I love you. I want this to be okay."
"It will be okay," he told her. His eyes drifted out the window to where the sky began to darken. "What time is it?" he whispered.
Esme held her position against him and raised her eyes to a clock that was right in front of her on the wall, "Two o'clock."
He let in a big sigh and pressed his lips and nose against the side of her face, taking in a deep breath of her scent, "I love you. We should all get together soon in case something happens today."
She sighed back and pulled his face closer to her with one of her hands. His lips touched her cheek and she gently ran her hand over his face, "Okay."
"What time are we going to meet Sam and everyone?" Masen asked, whipping into where they stood. He saw the slight seriousness in their postures, though they quickly split up. "Everything alright?"
"Yeah," Esme told him, letting a smile run across her face.
"We should probably prepare to get down there," Carlisle said, looking at her, then to Masen.
"I'll tell Alex and Michael to get ready."
They both nodded. He gave them a closed mouth smile and left the room.
"Come on," Carlisle pulled Esme by the hand, "We'll devise a plan with the wolves. I won't leave you."
She nodded, "Okay."
...
Sam lead the plan of action that their group would be taking over the course of the few days come.
"I feel like the best bet is to have half of us surrounding the border of the reservation," Sam said, "And the other half stay together in the inside." He looked at Leah, "You stay in here with Cassandra."
She nodded, "Alright."
Sam tried to suppress his surprise in the fact that she didn't argue his point before continuing, "I'll take mostly wolves out there. Masen I think you should stay with Leah and your family. Carlisle, I think it's only right that you stay with Esme and Caleb. I've heard of the visions about Aro, so you need to be with them. What do you think?"
He agreed with a nod, "Yeah. I agree."
"I'd like to take Michael out on the watch with us," he said, looking at Alexandra.
Her face dropped and Michael turned to her, "I'm an excellent fighter, Alex."
"But..." Alexandra didn't have the right words to protest as everything was whipping through her mind.
"I'm confident in myself," he told her, "I'll be teamed up with someone."
"He'll be with Paul," Sam said, "He's one of our best."
And the most hot-headed, she thought with a sigh.
Michael hugged Alexandra and kissed her forehead, "Nothing will happen. Paul's a great fighter."
"He's got a bad temper," she whispered quietly in his ear.
"Good," he said, "He can use it to take out the... the bad guy."
Alexandra looked unhappy, but allowed Michael to do as he felt was right.
"Are we good?" Sam asked.
Michael looked at Alexandra, who gave him a solemn nod.
"Yeah," he said, throwing an arm around her shoulders.
"Alright."
"Seth and Lucy are going to stay together," Sam told him, "I'm going to go with Brady. Quil and Collin are going to be together. Jacob and Renesme are going to stay inside with you guys."
"It's almost just as likely that they get to us, as they do the perimeter," Jacob said. He looked at Carlisle.
"From what Alice and Nicole have seen, there aren't going to be very many of them," Carlisle said.
"But last time there were only two, and they took out Embry and Jared," Quil said.
"They pulled a sneak attack," Sam said.
"No one was ready that time," Carlisle added.
Quil showed he understood through his body language and took a deep breath.
Sam looked at Nicole, "You said around four o'clock, right?"
"I think so," she told him, looking up at the deep gray clouds, "It looked like this in my vision. Very dark. All clouds, but not night time yet. Then it starts to rain."
He smiled at her in depth thinking, "Okay. Thanks." Sam's eyes scanned everyone's, locking with Jacob's first, then Carlisle's, "I guess we're ready to take position."
Carlisle and Jacob looked at each other.
"Let's go boys," Sam said to his pack.
"Don't forget Lucy," Seth said nonchalantly.
"And Lucy."
They all scattered and went their separate ways. Leah and Esme rounded up the children inside of Leah and Masen's home.
"I'm going to call Edward," Esme said, looking at Carlisle, "I want to see how they're doing."
He nodded before Jacob called him over, hoping to talk strategy.
Esme dialed Edward's number, catching him on the second ring, "Hey," he answered.
"Edward," she said, relieved to hear his voice was calm, "Anything up there yet?"
"No. Nothing yet."
"We just met with Sam and the tribe," she told him, "Nicole's vision looks like it may happen today."
Edward gave a sigh on the other end, "Stay together. Nothing can happen that way."
"I hope you're right," she told him.
Neither of them spoke for a few seconds before Esme continued, "Well, please please be safe. Try to stay in touch as much as possible."
"We will," he assured her, "Tell Renesme that we love her, and we're thinking of her."
"I will, do you want to speak with her?"
"Yeah."
Esme found her granddaughter in the other room playing with Cassandra. "Nessy, your dad's on the phone."
"I'll be right back," Renesme said to Cassie with a smile, before heading to where Esme held the phone out for her. "Thanks," she smiled, then her face straightened up when she spoke to Edward, "Hello."
Cassandra called Esme over to take Renesme's place for the little game they were playing. She quickly went to her side with a smile and set Caleb down right next to them on the carpet in the living room.
She tried not to eavesdrop, but could hear the emotion in Renesme's voice as she talked with her father. A new conversation started and Esme knew Bella had taken her turn to communicate with her daughter. The shakiness in Renesme's voice pulled at Esme's heart strings. She hated to see her family members so tense and anxiety-ridden all the time, as they knew their loved ones could be taken in an instant.
All they could do now, was hope for the best. The worst was already prepared for.
