~~Carlisle~~
The past week had been extremely stressful for all of us, especially for Esme as she had to make sure that all of Rebekah's furniture had been delivered to the Montana place. I didn't know how she did it. By it, I mean handling the kids, shape-shifters, our hybrid granddaughter, and the abnormalities of our newest member of the family. She did all of this for Rebekah with grace and kindness, even though Rebekah thought that she could clearly handle it herself. But my wife wouldn't let her. Esme deserved many awards for putting up with all of us.
At the moment, we were almost ready to make the fifteen hour drive to Montana, although for us it would be more like seven-and-a-half. Yesterday, Emmett gave Rebekah a quick rundown on vampire driving and she came back to us in one piece, so that was good. We were taking two cars, one for the luggage, and one for us, with Rosalie and Emmett would be driving behind us with the second car.
"Rebekah, you ready?" Emmett asked, swinging the last of her bags containing fabric and other sewing materials into the backseat of the Maserati.
"Emmett!" She shrieked. "You just threw ten-thousand dollars worth of fabric into the backseat of a car like they were footballs. You don't want to know how expensive those materials are until you have to pay for them."
"Umm… Okay…" He shrugged and slid into the driver's seat, Rosalie sliding next to him. They shared a look.
Esme then turned to me and raised her right eyebrow. We both knew what we were all thinking; what was up with Rebekah? She had been acting irrational, getting worked up over the simplest thing and none of us knew why. Emmett and I theorized stress because of what the past week had brought, but we had handled the majority of the work. Rebekah just packed her things and stayed out of the way and hadn't spoken a word to any of us.
To me, in a way, it was almost like she was showing signs of Premenstrual Syndrome, but it had long been established that a female's cycle stopped after her transformation. I had talked it over with Ness, who had told me the same things I had already known about Rebekah. Esme and I didn't want to bother her, but we had to intervene to see what was going on one day or another.
For now, we just had to focus on the drive. Rebekah had hopped into the backseat and pulled out one of Jane Austen's novels that she had borrowed from Bella. I personally liked that she preferred the classics to modern novels, though there were some she liked. Esme had offered to let her read her copies of Francine Rivers' Redeeming Love and Bridge to Haven, but Rebekah stated that she had already read those. Oh well, those two would be getting a lot of reading done while I drove.
Emmett fired up the engine of the Maserati behind us while Esme and I slid into the driver and passenger's seats respectively. I started the Range Rover, pulled out of the driveway, and we began the journey to our newest home.
We arrived in Montana a lot earlier than I had anticipated, an hour earlier to be exact. Over the course of the journey, we had switched off who would drive; first me, then Esme, then Rebekah. None of us had mentioned how to drive a car as a vampire to Rebekah, and we didn't know if Emmett had told her how to do it yesterday, so we were scared to say the least. But we did know our fate if she did happen to crash.
Luckily for us that didn't end up happening as Rebekah was quite a decent driver, especially for a newborn. She kept the car going at a consistent hundred-and-fifteen miles per hour. I personally liked going a little slower, more around a hundred, but it really didn't matter. It was a miracle that she managed to not get a ticket, as we had passed by many cops on the way. Perhaps that is why we arrived in Montana earlier than anticipated.
"Rebekah!" Alice ran and hugged her sister as soon as we stepped out of the car.
"I've been here for two minutes and she's already swallowing me up!" We all laughed as Alice gave Rebekah a breather.
"We have a surprise for you." Bella said, standing next to Edward. "But it's upstairs, so follow us."
Rebekah dashed after Bella and was close to her, basically on her heels. I was intrigued too, and I managed to pull Esme along. Soon after the entire family was following us. Ever since Rebekah joined the family, this had become more common, and we didn't know why. It was simple; wherever Rebekah went, we went.
Bella stopped in front of a dark wood door, and smiled. "Hope you like it." She opened the door and the smell of fresh paint flooded out. Rebekah stepped in, in awe of what she was witnessing.
"Wow…" I looked around.
Previously, this gigantic room had been two separate rooms, but it was clear that the kids had knocked down the wall between them, Emmett probably doing most of the heavy lifting. My childhood home was about the size of this room. For some reason, I found the color scheme calming. Rebekah's room was a mixture of a light, cool-toned gray with some black, white, and silver thrown into the mixture. It was very modern, but it had a vintage feel to it at the same time. The room was also not overtly feminine, but there were still traditionally "girly" things in there, such as the fluffy gray rug placed beside her bed that felt like a cloud, the fairy lights hanging in one corner, and the crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
"How did you manage all this?" Rebekah asked in awe.
"It wasn't easy, I'll admit that, but seeing the look on your face is so worth it." My wife smiled. "We decided to knock down the wall because judging by your sewing activity, you'll be going back and forth a lot. We've also decided to give you a separate desk for art and school." Esme gestured to the other side of the room where a gray desk with loads of storage space, in front of it was a gray fluffy desk chair.
"This is too much!"
"Nonsense," Emmett draped his bulky arm over her slender shoulders, Rebekah flinched ever so slightly. "You're our baby sister/daughter! Plus, Esme let me knock down a wall, and that rarely happens!" We all burst out into laughter.
"Well, we should let you get settled in, call if you need anything!" We left her to re-organize.
Hours later, Esme and I decided to check in to see how the process was going. The rest of our kids and granddaughter had each gone to their respective places or hunting, leaving us alone with Rebekah. Ever since they left, she seemed to be settling in a lot better and acting more comfortable. This was a huge step, and it might indicate that she was ready to start bringing down her walls.
"Rebekah," My knuckles rapped lightly on the door.
"Come in." I twisted the door open and found her organizing her fabric into three large baskets made from woven iron. She had bolts upon bolts of fabric organized by both color and material. I faintly smelled some in one of the drawers in her desk.
"I see you've settled in nicely."
"This really is too much," She smiled back. "I could've just had one room."
"Nonsense!" Esme handed her a bolt of cream silk.
"Like I've mentioned before, my previous adoptive parents were wealthy, probably as wealthy as you are. But unlike you, they didn't care for me at all. Never paid an form of attention to me. That's why I've learned that I'm better off on my own, and am extremely independent."
"I remember that conversation." I handed her a bolt of leather, and forgot how intoxicating the smell was. I pressed it too my nose.
"Carlisle!"
"Smell it!" I handed the bolt to my wife, who inhaled the scent of Italian leather for the first time. She sighed with pleasure.
"See? Raw materials are better looking, feeling, quality, and not to mention smelling! This is Pakistani leather, different smell but still as intoxicating." My wife and I took turns pressing the bolt to our noses.
"Geez, I didn't know a doctor could get high off of fabric." That statement made the three of us burst into laughter. Rebekah sighed and then began to organize the different linens. She sighed, something heavy was on her mind.
Esme seemed to notice this and put a hand on Rebekah's. "What's going on inside your head? You don't have to answer if you don't want to."
Rebekah sighed again. "It's just that... a family that's this incredibly caring, sweet, tight-knit - it's just never crossed my mind that I would ever gain a family as great as this one. This was my childhood dream; to have five-thousand siblings to play with, parents who love their kids as much as they do each other. It's all so foreign to me, having a family who would ask you your opinions on the simplest things like 'What color do you want your room to be?' or 'What's your dream car?' To those I say; gray, and a red 1957 Lincoln Premiere Convertible."
I made a mental note to ask Rosalie to start finding one of those cars. I turned to Esme, who looked like she was either about to burst into happiness or dry-sobs.
"This past month, I've had all of my wildest dreams come true. So, I must apologize for being such a bitchy person these past few days. Moving stress, I guess." She shrugged as I handed her the last bolt of linen. She put it into the basket and shoved it under her sewing desk and pressed her back against the wall.
"Well..." Esme started. "We've never encountered a newborn as strong as you, a sister as unique as you, a daughter..." Rebekah stiffened at the last part. Esme's hand was still in hers, and her thumb brushed upon Esme's palm. This moment was too precious to bring up her odd behaviors, so we decided to save those for later.
"Rebekah, there's something we need to tell you..." I sighed, Esme looked at me. We knew what was coming.
"What? That Buffy Summers is coming after us?" I'll admit that I was not expecting that as both my wife and Rebekah started snickering, which later turned into full-blown guffaws of laughter, and I eventually had to join in
"No, Sweetheart, nothing like that." Esme struggled to regain composure. "It's about Edward, Bella, and Ness. So, you see-"
"I already know that Bella and Edward are Ness' parents."
"You do?" I asked, shocked.
"I also know that Ness' full name is Renesmee Carlie. Now I've heard a lot of long-ass names in my life, but that's got to be the weirdest. I thought Rebekah Natasha was bad..." She trailed off and stared off into a corner.
"I'm just surprised that you would know that, especially since it's really something we don't bring up frequently."
"Hello, you're talking to the ex-daughter of the CIA's best forensic artist. It's pretty easy to see Edward in Ness, I thought they were biological siblings at first/ But as I analyzed her more, she showed features of Bella too, example, her eyes. I didn't want to tell you, but I've been looking in old journals and photo albums, which is where I've learned all this."
Esme and I looked at each other and swallowed. We wondered if she looked in my most recent journal, the one documenting her quirks.
"So you know that Renesmee is a hybrid?"
"Yes."
"But do you know her other nickname, the one Bella doesn't like?"
"No, what?"
"Nessie." Rebekah erupted into laughter again.
"Hey, Emmett was thinking of calling you Bek Bek."
"I'm not a chicken!"
"That's what Ness said..."
"Not to criticize anyone's parenting or grandparenting, but has Ness not bathed in weeks? She stinks!" Werewolf, I thought. She must have been going to the reservation while we were still in Forks. Soon, we're going to have to tell her about Jacob, Leah, Seth, and our alliance with the Quileutes. But does she already know about them?
My wife and I were on the same brain-wavelength and she quickly replied "It's probably just Emmett."
"Well, he does stink…" We erupted into laughter again. I looked to Esme, and saw that her eyes were darkening, mine were too. We probably needed to hunt.
"Rebekah, I'm sorry to cut this lovely conversation short, but Esme and I need to hunt." As I helped my wife to her feet, I remembered something Edward had said to me. Her eyes had the tiniest amount of gold to them.
"I won't set the house on fire while you're gone!" She snickered. "If you aren't back within an hour to an hour-and-a-half, I'm called for help." Esme and I chuckled at that at that remark as we set off.
I had to give props to Montana for having a lot more wildlife than Washington did, or maybe said influx of wildlife was caused by us living on a hundred-acre ranch. Either way, we had a lot more meat to choose from compared to Washington; bison, elk, birds, fish, deer, and of course, bears. Definitely more diverse than Forks. Esme and I entered the house a minute before our "curfew" was going to be broken, and Rebekah would have to get someone to retrieve us.
The unlocking of the door must have disturbed her, because she called from upstairs. ""Finally, you're home, I thought I would have to call Alice and Jasper!" I heard her laugh, the sound reminiscent of church bells. "I was doing some work while you were gone, can you go get my things from the printer, please?"
"Of course!" Esme pushed the door that led to my study open, the sigh we saw was a shock. My poor printer was stuffed full of paper and there was even more paper surrounding the printer. he was working? It seems like she was writing a book! I whispered to my wife.
"Esme, I think we need to get Rebekah her own printer!" She laughed and nodded.
We managed to pull out all the paper from the printer, splitting the amount between the two of us. I examined the documents a little more and saw that they were forms of all kinds; legal, random, informational. All tied back to one subject; genealogy.
"Carlisle." She said. "Esme." I replied. We shoved our respective stacks to each other and examined them even closer.
"What could she need these for?"
"I have no idea! We haven't put her back into school yet, and I don't think we need to go through that process. Wow..." I examined the forms more. "This is real, hardcore medical stuff."
"Carlisle!" She scolded quietly.
"I'm sorry, but I'm quite fascinated about what an almost-seventeen year old could be doing with paperwork that involves lawyers and her parents' consent. I'm even more confused on how she managed to print it out, this could be a scam you know." I showed the first legal document I could get my hands on to my wife.
"Now looking at it more, you're right. How did she gain access to this type of file? Since we're legally responsible for her now, should we let her sign off on this?" Esme inquired, flipping through her own files.
"I say yes, but first we need to know what she needs them for first. Esme, this isn't a little-ol' flimsy school project kids do. Rebekah has managed to get her hands on real, hardcore medical things that only trained specialists know about. Judging by the complexity of the information, I say that she knows this by heart."
"Reminder, she is incredibly clever."
"I know, but I think-"
"What's taking so long?" Rebekah called.
Esme and I replied back exactly at the same time. "A lot of paper!"
"Did I break the printer?"
"No!" We heard her sigh with relief, so did we, knowing we weren't caught yet. "I'll tell you later." I quietly whispered to her as we ran the forms up to Rebekah.
After two hours of us being home, Alice invited Rebekah over to help her go through her and Jasper's old clothes to see what could be chopped up and re-used as sewing fabric. Soon after, this news got to Rosalie and Emmett, and they wanted her to go through their closet. Bella, Edward, and Ness wanted to be in on the fun and asked if she would do the same. Rebekah couldn't resist and she ran off to Alice and Jasper's about three hours ago. This opportunity luckily gave me and Esme another two hours to discuss the paperwork that we had found earlier. I had showered and changed by the time that Esme came down to my study.
"You said that there was a setback." She pushed open the door. Her caramel curls were still damp, making them two shades darker than usual and she wore a thin lavender nightgown with white lace. Her hands were behind her, almost as if she was hiding something.
"Rebekah's door is locked." I sighed. "And I don't want to pry into her private space."
"You're in luck, Dr. Cullen, because I did that before she left." Esme walked over and slapped a big stack of papers on my desk. "I couldn't grab all of the ones you wanted but I got most."
My jaw dropped. "Esme Anne, did you-"
"No, she left them on top of her desk."
"You are literally the best wife in the world right now."
"I know!" She said smugly. "Now, back to what we were talking about. You were mentioning something."
"Well..." I wrung my hands. "I think that this project is for something deeper than just interest..."
"Come on Carlisle, I can take it."
"Esme I think Rebekah is trying to find her birth parents." I blurted quickly.
"Please repeat that slowly."
"Esme-"
"I was joking! Now why do you think that?"
"Essie, look at the circumstances; Rebekah's a foster child who's turning seventeen in… God knows when. Could be a few days, could be a few hours! Seventeen, one year from eighteen, the legal year to find your birth parents. She's probably starting early in order to have less to do when her 'big day' comes. With school not being in the way, she probably has more time to work on it.
My wife ran her fingers over my various medical journals, personal journals, and binders filled with out legal documents. "It seems likely, but I… I just don't know. Rebekah is this… she's basically Rosalie when she was a newborn; mysterious, quiet, and somewhat unfriendly. Luckily for us, Rebekah doesn't have the strike-to-kill look in her eyes like Rosalie did."
"Oh, she definitely has that specific look in her eyes, sorry Honey but I've got to disagree with you on that one."
"You're right, but she only had it periodically; Rose had it all the time." We sat in silence until Esme muttered something.
"Not to mention the drawing I found…" My wife nestled herself onto the couch in my study, wrapping the fur throw blanket around her legs and leaning her head on the arm rest.
"What? Can you speak up?" I stood up and moved closer to her.
"Rebekah has this... drawing. I don't think it even qualifies as a drawing, it's so detailed that it really looks more like a photograph on paper."
"Where is this 'drawing' and may I see it? What is it of?
"The drawing is of a bust of a man and a woman, both whom look incredibly like her. The drawing is in the pile that I brought in, it's at the very top." I plucked the crinkled paper off the top of the stack and snuggled in next to my wife. She unfolded the delicate piece of paper and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The attention to detail was immaculate. Both figures looked to be in their mid-to-late thirties, but looked much more youthful than that.
The man had raven-black hair that was styled in a manner similar to how I usually wore mine. The features he had in common with Rebekah were his high, prominent cheekbones and his eyebrows were arched in the same way as hers, although his were much fuller. He also had a goatee and a mustache. The man's eye color was a dark amber shade, I could only compare it to Jacob's wolf form. His facial structure was also somewhat severe, but not in a bad way.
The woman on the other hand, looked nearly identical to Rebekah. She had the same button nose, full, heart-shaped lips, gentle monolid shape to her eyes, and light golden skin tone. This woman could've been Rebekah if she was around thirty, I'd heard that Asian women tended to age well. The woman had a similar eye color to the man, but the amber shade was lighter. The lips of the woman were colored a deep berry hue, and her hair was a dark brown with lighter brown and blonde highlights. The natural color of her hair was probably a very deep brown. The makeup and highlights were probably more for dramatic purposes than accuracy purposes, but the attention to detail was nevertheless impressive.
"Woah… not to be critical of my own wife, but Es, she draws better than you… With humans- you're better with landscapes and-" I fumbled over my own words.
"I understand. The first time I caught a glimpse of this, I thought that it was a photograph. But after more careful examination, I believe that this is indeed a drawing." She sighed and leaned into me, her scent creeping into my nostrils.
"We need to talk to her about it." My wife said quietly as I stroked her hair. If I had a liquid in my mouth, I would've spit it out.
"NO!" I raised my voice slightly too loudly and it made her jump.
"Sorry," My tone softened as she relaxed. "Esme, it's just-" I managed to breath. "You and Ness have the best relationship with her so far, Rebekah allows you two to hug her. That doesn't happen with the rest of us. She allows herself to open up to you two because she trusts you, you can get close without scaring her off. Rebekah's trust is delicate, Esme, and if we break it, there is a high possibility that we will never see her again." We both swallowed.
"I agree with you, but we at least have to tell everyone." She stated. "Alice and Edward will probably find out soon, and won't be able to keep it a secret. Also, when are we going to introduce her to the Quileutes? I have no idea if the Uleys would like to meet her, but I know that Jacob and his pack would like to meet her."
"Ness asked me about that today, and I said that we should probably do it soon. She texted Jacob and he's on his way with Leah and Seth now. They should be here by early Tuesday."
"Wonderful!" She sighed and moved close to me.
"In the mean time, we've got a house to ourselves and a new bedframe. Why don't you say we... mess around tonight?" She whispered huskily into my ear. "
"Now why don't we?" I growled into her ear and led her upstairs.
AN: So this chapter was harder to write than usual! *Coughs in math test* Anyway, I'm planning for the next chapter to be from Seth's POV.
I would very much like to mention that Renesmee and Jacob ARE NOT AND WILL NEVER BE romantically involved. I think that he would make an amazing fun uncle to her, and they would have a really strong bond. But them dating? *Gags*
Finally, if you would like to see Rebekah's room please go to this link. Restoration Hardware and Pinterest were very helpful: RachelThePandaPrincess/rebekahs-room-cullen-montana-house/
Finally to conclude; today's my birthday! (Nov.14)