Hi! This fic is basically just an excuse for me to shove lots of powers on poor unsuspecting Carlisle and watch him flounder. It is purely for fun and I have not yet developed a serious plot line. It is also available on AO3 under the same name, where I began posting it on 12th April.

I'm really just letting it take me where it wants to go, so if there's anything you'd like to see included let me know and I'll see what I can do. Outside of the main Cullens, characters scheduled for appearances include Charlie, Eleazar (for his vague, slightly useless, knowledge of gifts), and Aro but the size of their parts is yet to be determined.

On my profile I give a brief overview of where I stand with Twilight canon, but for this fic we're pretty much compliant up to the end of Eclipse. As this begins after the new-born battle, the only divergence prior to Carlisle suddenly being gifted and everything going crazy is that the whole Cullen family and Bella are at their house when Carlisle and Edward return from treating Jacob.

The only warnings for this chapter are references to canon violence. Distressing canon backstories and trauma may be brought up in later chapters but they will be clearly labelled.

Chapter 1

Things move quickly after the new-born battle is over, and with Jacob Black in urgent need of medical attention there isn't much time for Carlisle to consider why he feels so off. It doesn't seem particularly urgent, because there are all sorts of reasons why it's been a rubbish day and he will have eternity to consider them.

In a sort of abstract way, he is already thinking about how many innocents he has just had a hand in killing and whether he can morally justify it to himself. It's an age-old idea, kill or be killed, yet somehow one Carlisle has never really had to face before. In his three and a half centuries of life he seems to have had rather a talent for avoiding that sort of trouble, despite the supernatural world he is entrenched in. A talent that has completely failed him since their return to Forks.

As he re-breaks Jacob Black's bones, his mind's eye is on the faces of the four new-borns he personally had a hand in killing. They were brutal, wild things, startled and starving, freshly emerging into a world they knew nothing about with only the hand of a psychotic killer to guide them. Individually, each of them could have been a new family member. With world enough and time, Carlisle could have taught them how to live this life well.

Instead, in defence of his family, he killed them. And then, when one young girl showed the chance of redemption, some sign that something good could come from all this, he had watched her die too.

So yes, there are plenty of reasons why Carlisle Cullen shouldn't be feeling quite right at the moment, which is why the faint tingling in the back of his mind doesn't seem like a cause for alarm. A guilty conscience can manifest in all sorts of ways, and while Jacob Black needs help it's not his first priority. This feeling lasts right up until the moment that they get home, when he steps out of the car and closes the door.

Esme turns to look at him, faint, weary smile on her lips.

She screams.

"Esme? What's wrong?" He asks immediately, glancing around for the source of his wife's distress. It registers a second later that his voice is oddly high pitched and his eyeline seems much lower than it should be. Under usual circumstances he towers over his wife by more than half a foot, but now he seems to be looking up at her.

Before he can come to terms with any of this, Jasper is at his side and his arms have been wrenched behind his back.

"Jazz, no!" Edward shouts. "I know this sounds insane, but that's Carlisle."

The whole family start to speak over each other at that point, full of worry and confusion, but Carlisle barely hears them. He has just caught sight of his reflection. His small, female, red-eyed reflection.

That's when he starts to panic.

Jasper must have released his arms, because his hands are unhindered as they come up to touch the alien face looking back at him.

"Carlisle? Are you alright?" Bella is next to him, eyes wide and trusting, unnoticed by his squabbling family. Edward has said this is Carlisle and she doesn't doubt him.

"I'm not entirely sure, Bella." He replies honestly, then to reassure her adds: "Physically, I am not experiencing an issues beyond the obvious."

"That's good, I guess." She says, biting her lip absently as she considers him, apparently unperturbed by the whole thing. She always has dealt well with the peculiar.

"How is your arm feeling?" He asks, searching for some normality.

"Oh, its fine. I've had worse." She replies with a rueful smile. She holds it out for him to see and he marvels again at her trusting nature before taking her wrist gently in his hand. Her heartbeat does not waver at all. He is pleased to note there is no sign of bleeding through the bandages.

Bella blinks at him for a moment, then smiles. "Back to normal."

"Really?" How peculiar, he hadn't felt a thing, and yet he does seem to be back to his normal height. A quick glance in the car window confirms that she is correct. He's never been so glad to see golden eyes. "What a relief."

They stand in companiable silence for a moment before the rest of the family notice and fall quiet.

"What the hell is going on?" Rosalie is the first to speak.

"I'd like to know that too." Carlisle says, clueless. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't believe it. He is struggling to believe it now. It's been a long day and they're all overwhelmed. He'd be tempted to say it was a mass hallucination.

The only problem is vampires don't hallucinate. Certainly not unless there's another vampire around with a gift for hallucinations. He glances towards the woods but can't see or hear anything out of the ordinary.

"We would've noticed by now. They'd have to be close." Edward answers his thought. Bella makes a small sound, as though she has an idea but isn't sure it's her place to say.

"Do you have an idea, Bella?" Carlisle invites, since no one else is forthcoming.

"I have two theories, actually." She says, slightly timidly. "The thing I think we can all agree on is that Carlisle can change his shape. Considering Edward can read minds, Jasper can control emotions and Alice can see the future, it isn't really that odd. So, either the intense stress of the fight unlocked a gift he didn't know about- "

"That seems unlikely. I've never known a vampire whose gift took more than a few months to manifest, and certainly not a gift this visually obvious." Jasper cuts in.

"So, you're saying one of the new-borns killed Carlisle and took his shape to fool us?" Emmett says eyeing maybe-Carlisle suspiciously.

"And then both successfully mentally tricked Edward into believing they were Carlisle, performed a serious medical procedure on Jacob, and stitched up my arm? All while being a rampaging, bloodthirsty new-born with no self-control?" Bella laughs slightly, all of her usual awkwardness forgotten in the face of an exciting supernatural problem which she's pretty certain she's worked out the answer to. "I doubt that very much. I think my second theory is more likely to be right. Carlisle, you hadn't ever killed a vampire before today, had you?"

"No." He responds quietly, terribly afraid that he knows where she is going with this but hoping she has some other idea up her sleeve. From the grin on her face at his response, that seems doubtful. The rest of the family are practically leaning towards her in anticipation of the big reveal.

"I think Carlisle's always had a gift. It's just not one he'd ever know about, because he's never been in the position to realise before. He's never killed another vampire, or even a human. I think he's… well I'm not sure how you'd describe it, a gift-thief, maybe. One of the new-borns he killed was gifted and when they died Carlisle took that gift. In a weird way it would make sense." Bella shrugs uncertainly, deflating slightly now that she's got it out, suddenly very aware that everyone is looking at her. "Or maybe that's not right at all. It could be something else."

"Actually, I think you're probably right." Jasper says, staring at Bella like he's never seen her before. Edward looks torn between smugness on Bella's behalf and irritation that he can't hear all her interesting thoughts. He doesn't like having to ask questions.

"You said it would make sense." He gives in and asks. "Why?"

"Oh." Bella blushes crimson. "Just a passing thought really. I'm not completely sure how this gift thing works, it doesn't seem like anyone's really certain, but there's some patterns. Take me, for example, Jasper's gift can affect my emotions and James could do whatever his thing was, but Edward and Aro can't read my thoughts and Jane couldn't make me feel pain, so there's clearly some broad similarities and differences in the way they operate. I mean, that's not strictly the point here, it's just an interesting observation, but it might relate to where gifts come from.

It's all a bit murky on the human side, but you think Alice could see flashes of the future even when she was human and that maybe Edward was good at reading people. No one's really sure how actions and events in life influence it, though. Anyway, in Carlisle's human life he was hunting down monsters and demons, and he was good at it. So good he tracked down the real thing. In doing so he sort of doomed himself, he was bitten and became a vampire, but he found a way to do it without being a monster. It gives a sort of poetic justice to the whole thing. He takes on the powers of his defeated enemies and uses them for good."

Everyone stands there, quietly stunned, partly just because they've never heard so many words at once from Bella before.

Then Emmett laughs.

"It's not funny." Someone hisses at him, probably Rosalie.

"It's a little bit funny." Emmett says. "Oh, come on guys, the one vampire who is the least likely to ever kill and he gets superpowers from killing?"

Jasper starts laughing then, just short little barks of it. Hell must be freezing over because that's pretty much unheard of.

Carlisle thinks he might faint. Vampires can't faint, though, so maybe he'll just stand here until he fossilises. It has to happen eventually.

"Hey, do you think its accumulative? If he kills another gifted vampire would he keep both gifts, or is it a one at once kind of situation? Hey maybe it'll wear off." Emmett is in his stride now.

"I think one is enough." Carlisle tries to say but is ignored by his excited sons.

"Do you think if he killed humans, he'd gain any powers they would have as vampires?" Edward joins in, and he and Jasper share a look that Carlisle really doesn't like. A look that says, lets hunt down a few lowlifes and give it a try.

"Scientific interest." Edward answers his thoughts, only looking mildly remorseful.

Well then why try it on a human we don't know is gifted, Bella's right here, I'll give it a go. Carlisle thinks acerbically. Edward tenses and glances at Alice for a second, clearly waiting for a vision of Carlisle ripping his girlfriend apart in some unspeakable way. None comes and Edward relaxes, seeing it for the scolding it is rather than any real sort of threat.

Really, Edward? Carlisle thinks, despairing at what love is doing to his son's head if he's entertaining the possibility that Carlisle is actually a threat to Bella. Edward has the grace to look properly repentant this time, at least.

"Anyway, I've lost people on the operating table plenty of times before with no sudden superpowers to show for it." Carlisle said aloud, bringing the whole family back into the conversation.

"It could be a technicality though; you might have to intend to kill them for it to work." Esme says contemplatively, fingers tracing gentle circles on the back of his hand.

"Yes!" Rose pipes in. "Like, it has to be a deliberate act! Or something." She trails off as though embarrassed at showing an interest, and shrugs as though she doesn't really care.

My family are insane, and My family read too much sci-fi war for place as his dominant thought.

"A bit of both, probably." Edward observes, apparently unconcerned. "For the record, I agree though. I don't think losing a patient would count. You were trying to save them and you're pretty good. Usually if they die, they were going to die anyway."

I've been a doctor for a long time, though. Poor hospital hygiene, misunderstood anatomy, we don't always know best. It's something that constantly haunts him, the idea that sometimes he's probably made the situation worse. Hygiene advances in particular, knowing that for many years he had probably carried bacteria and viruses from patient to patient. If only they had known then what they know now.

Edward scoffs. "Come on, Carlisle, the point is still the same. You were trying to save, not kill, so there's no intentionality. And if it's bacteria or a virus that did it then you aren't even the responsible organism, just the transmission vector."

"Ooooo, Eddie pays attention in Biology." Emmett says, completely unconcerned by the one-sided conversation. They're used to it, after all.

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway, because I'm never going to be involved in a human death in any other way." Carlisle points out, effectively closing down that line of conversation. The following silence is heavy. No one is sure how to console him.

Emmett is practically vibrating with the effort it's taking to supress his mood inappropriate excitement. To him, this situation is pretty much summed up by the thought: Dad has cool powers now, let's play with them!

Jasper, at least, is benefitting from that. He inches closer to their overgrown family happiness generator like a moth drawn to a flame. He all but basks in it.

Meanwhile, Carlisle feels like a human who's forgotten how to breathe. An enforced layer of calmness is sitting over him, courtesy of Jasper, but everything still feels unbelievably wrong. He's pretty sure he's in shock.

"Probably." Edward agrees, then winces at something that could be in his head or the head of anyone else in the group. "There, there." He pats Carlisle's shoulder awkwardly in what is probably supposed to be reassurance. He doesn't quite get it right.

Thanks for reading!