The Painter
Chapter 16
"Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love." ~ Mother Teresa
~O~
Carlisle Cullen spent hundreds of years alone in Italy.
He watched thousands of humans filter through the cold, damp Volturi castle with a mixture of empathy and apathy depending on his vampire hunger all the while impotent to save any of the poor souls unknowingly sentenced to their death.
No human was really special or different, really, at that time. They were merely a means to an end of hunger- temporarily stunting the painful burn of venom radiating through their vampire bodies.
But Carlisle and Eleazer were odd in that they chose not to partake in the proffered meals. Instead, they tried to keep their humanity while trying to save as many humans- as secretly as they could- and would hunt animals outside the castle in the lush forests.
It was an act of rebellion barely tolerated and if the Volturi didn't find Eleazer and Carlisle instrumental in their cause, they would have definitely been destroyed. Instead, they allowed the two golden eyed vampires to stay.
For now.
Marcus would read the entire groups of people and vampires to see if there were any connections to vampire to human for mating purposes as Heidi, a beautiful- yet sociopathic empathy- if one could imagine such a trait, would judge the extent of their bonds to another. If there was a gift, talent, and or a bond, they went to the large wooden and iron doors on the left.
Eleazer's simple job in the Royal guard was to read the inherent gifts any human or changed vampire that they may possess, thus adding them to the Volturi guard. He could see what talent or gift they could perform if they were to be changed or in a pre-existing vampire's case- keep, abolish, or destroy at will. It would then be decided among the three arrogant kings if there would be a reason to keep those poor humans and vampires.
There, those who possessed a gift, a bond, or talent would be directed to be changed into vampires.
Carmen was one such human.
The other humans would be the next meal.
Carlisle's job was to provide a sense of peace and comfort that radiated off of the man.
He loathed his existence even more when Eleazer left the Volturi with his new bride.
So, as Carlisle sat in Italy just to the side of the thrones, he couldn't fathom another moment watching yet another mated vampire couple seek the courts blessings, or their destruction after the impromptu loss of their mate.
Carlisle left the Volturi.
He wanted some kind of meaning, perhaps even a mate of his own, hoping the woman was out there somewhere.
The America's seemed like a practical place to start.
.
Carlisle docked in New York living there for a short time before he headed onto Chicago for a decade or so and then finally settling to Ohio in 1910.
Esme Platt was a sixteen year old human girl and very much a tomboy. So when the day came that she was dared to climb a tree by a boy she had a slight crush on, she happily took the dare. She wanted to both prove she could climb it as well as a boy could and to impress her crush.
She was never one to turn down a dare!
But Esme fell, breaking her leg when her legs hit the ground and those kids who placed the dare on her- soon deserted her in her time of need.
It was very much a harsh lesson to learn.
Carlisle treated the poor young girl with gentle care. Her face anguished from unshed tears with wide blue eyes. He gave her a kind smile to go along with her plaster cast.
Esme was instantly a bit smitten by the good doctor with golden eyes; the other boy long forgotten.
The enamored duo didn't know it at the time, but their attraction to each other went both ways. However, she was a teenager and he was a grown, accomplished man for all intents and purposes.
Carlisle had no choice but to let the girl go that day. With a heavy heart and against every venomous cell in his body, he left.
He took the time to concentrate on setting up a home and life there in Ohio knowing there was going to be a day his mate would be of age to court. Until then- he watched Esme Platt very closely.
.
"You're always falling," Carlisle smiled softly at the girl with caramel colored hair. He was always teasing her. "First out of a tree, then off of a cliff…"
"This time couldn't be helped." She didn't smile back. Her face was rigid in pain. It hurt to breathe.
Esme sighed as Carlisle administered medicine to help with her pain.
Memories ranging from the Volturi, to Eleazer, and finally landing on his mother as a young human girl filled Edward's mind. His father's thoughts today were sentimental and distracting.
"However, I was hoping that maybe… someday… you would fall for me?" Carlisle said with humor to Esme as she began to shut her eyes.
"I would love that." She whispered and then deep into sleep.
Edward's mind reading ability provided a constant stream of information and memories, whether he wanted to see or not.
These memories were pleasant enough and far more entertaining than what he was currently reading.
Lying on his black leather couch, Edward's mind went to his father's memories of how he met his mother. Meeting your mate as a human wasn't uncommon, as there were far more human's than vampires yet fate usually led you to the mate soon before- or in Rosalie's case- right before death.
But Edward watched the memories of when his mother fell out of the tree. His mother's young teenage face was always odd, awkward, to see, knowing that she was about the same age when he finally grew to his adulthood.
When Esme came into the hospital battered and bruised Carlisle was enraged! Seething with hate for his human mate's betrothed though he couldn't show it.
Then when she had fell (as Carlisle liked to think- but Esme really did jump) off a steep cliff, he watched with tension of his mother's memories of skidding her way down the cliffs until she landed on her leg on the rocks next to the water below. Blood entered his mind- his father's memories of smelling her blood as she lay broken at the bottom.
The slam of the back door alerted Edward to Jaspers abrupt departure with Alice trailing right after.
He was never one to want to deal with bloody, emotional memories.
Carlisle mumbled his apologies as his mind drifted on. He then recalled moving back to Chicago, unable to bear his mate walking down the aisle to the man Esme was arranged to marry.
Esme remembered her first husband who was an angry, often drunk man. He had shunned her when she was unable to birth a live son and left her to be with another woman.
Having heard the rumors of the death of his mate's child from one of the doctors Carlisle had befriended, he rushed back to Ohio. Upon arriving he heard the embarrassing rumors and eventual betrayal of Esme's husband.
She was devastated, contemplating life and her future and the embarrassing end of her marriage as the sun set that fateful day. She sat on the edge of the Cantwell Cliffs, as she'd done countless times before after her son's burial, contemplating her future.
She had been to the cliffs often- usually finding a sense of peace- but the day she fell, jumped, she liked to think she slipped upon rising to her feet rather than the reality that she really just wanted to die.
Carlisle followed her scent easily and knew where she usually ventured off to when she needed to be alone. When he smelled her blood, he knew she was on the steep, beautiful cliffs. He found her easily and quickly repelled the rocks, securing Esme to him, but he had not realized she was paralyzed from the waist down.
"You would be a far safer bet to fall for it would seem." She smiled up at him, grimacing at the harsh memories of which brought her to her mate. She wouldn't change anything, really, just the acute pain.
"You might just land on your feet this time," he teased, but her eyes darkened with sadness.
"I'll never be a mother, Carlisle. It's the only thing I've ever wanted." Human Esme's soft voice moved through Carlisle and then Edward's mind.
Esme refused to go to the hospital. She was afraid her husband would be notified and begged the good doctor to take her to his home instead.
Torn between logic, duty, and her wants, Carlisle begrudgingly obliged.
Esme's husband soon filed for divorce, but when the papers went undelivered, he filed a report of her desertion and had the marriage terminated.
But life wasn't over for Esme. She healed slowly being cared for by Carlisle. He had left the hospital that he worked at and devoted all of his time on Esme and her needs.
There was one need, however that never went away.
Esme wanted to be a mother.
But Carlisle wasn't human.
Carlisle was a vampire.
Esme didn't care, she wanted to try.
The man would do anything for his new wife and they sought out applications to local orphanages, hoping for a child desperately wanting a home.
But the months ticked by and one day, as Esme sat in her wheelchair watching the birds pick their favorite seeds out of the birdfeeder, she cried. Her lower body, although unable to walk, was still able to bear a child. She couldn't understand why her husband wouldn't consummate their marriage. Was he fearful of harming her further or was it that she repulsed him?
She couldn't find the words to ask.
Carlisle was at a crossroads.
Could he risk telling his wife he was not human and have her fearful of him or could he keep up the pretense that he was a human?
He went to great lengths trying to keep his vampirism a secret. He warmed his hands and face on warm pots before he'd go to her to give affection. His cold mouth was easily explained as it could be cooled from a cold drink.
But intercourse with Esme was a whole other thing.
He could hurt her internally, without either of them knowing.
He could harm her with his lust, biting her or tearing her apart.
There were many things to consume his thoughts.
But watching his wife sit outside and cry in a moment of weakness he whispered, "We can try," knowing that she had no chance of baring a child from him.
He was wrong.
Esme's pregnancy took both of them as a surprise.
To Carlisle's horror the pregnancy was violent and quick- only 4 months long before the child started to rip her apart from the inside out.
Luckily for Esme, she couldn't feel it, but she could see it, and soon fainted.
Carlisle had no choice but to put the babe on her breast to nurse as he raced to save his mate.
The venom sutured the wounds, healing her, but as her heart raced and lost blood he began to worry. The worry became fear and when her heart stopped he bit her over and over, trying to save her.
Esme burned for days while he cared for their baby by buying donated milk.
She woke with a vengeance, grabbing her baby from the bassinet and cradling him as she cried, yet no tears fell.
Carlisle spent time explaining, beseeching her to understand, but it wasn't until she was standing in the corner holding her crying boy that she finally understood.
She'd been married to vampire who was too scared to tell her the truth of who he was. But yet, he risked everything- even her- trying to give her what she wanted.
Esme was never one to hold a grudge.
Edward Anthony Masen Cullen made it all very easy for her to forgive.
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A/N: Long chapter… hope you get a lot of backstory, much of it is relatively cannon, yesno? Thanks for reading and kind reviews.