The rest were waiting on the doorstep before Carlisle and Edward could even step inside. They watched with wide, golden, eyes as Edward and Carlisle shuffled past them, looking for all the world like a pair of drowned cats.
"Well?" Emmett prompted when neither Carlisle nor Edward gave their audience any mind.
On stepping out of the rain, Edward seemed to have regained something of himself, Carlisle could see the numb daze he'd been in leaving and fathomless rage taking its place. His shoulders tensed; his feet pressed into the wooden floor so hard they left tiny fissures as he made his way to the living room.
Carlisle didn't take his eyes off him, just carefully removed his own shoes, made for the nearby linen closet, and grabbed a towel to wipe himself off.
"What'd she say?" Emmett prompted again, Rosalie not even bothering to jab him in the ribs, as she looked just as curious as the rest of them.
For the rest of them, Carlisle thought with some dull amusement, it was still about the wedding. It was still about the idea that somehow Edward and Bella had fallen apart without any of them noticing.
Edward stopped in the middle of the hallway, still facing away from them, and let out a choked and bitter laugh.
"What did she say?" he echoed mockingly.
He turned back to face them, his eyes immediately locking on Carlisle, "You've murdered her."
Edward held out his arms, wide open, and said in dazed wonder, "I trusted you more than anyone in the world. I trusted you like the father I thought you were and then you murdered her. Bella Swan, the most precious thing in this world to have ever existed, is now gone thanks to you."
"What?" Rosalie gaped in dumb horror.
She wasn't the only one. Esme let out a gasp of horror, Jasper and Emmett looked visibly stricken. As one they turned to look at Alice who only shook her head in numb horror, she hadn't seen this either.
"She's not dead," Carlisle explained swiftly, "Bella's very much alive—"
"For now," Edward interjected, "You might as well have killed her. I might as well have killed her if it was coming to this anyway. I put in all that effort, all of that agony, and look what you do—"
"Do you really believe that?" Carlisle asked and Edward stopped, his face darkened, and his scowl deepened as he processed what he'd just said.
That, had he known that Bella could become pregnant, that Carlisle would one day impregnate her, then he wouldn't have tried to resist her blood. He would have eaten her, had he known this would happen. But he couldn't mean that. They were just words spoken in horror and anger, he had to realize what he'd just said, and if he didn't, he certainly heard it in Carlisle's thoughts now.
Carlisle kept waiting, staring at Edward in horrified desperation, but Edward didn't take the words back.
"You've ruined her," Edward said instead, shaking his head at Carlisle as if in wonder, "Did you know she wanted to go to college?"
Edward looked away from Carlisle and at the rest of them for a moment, then when he looked back to Carlisle, a fire was burning in his eyes, "She may not have known it, may not have been ready to admit it, but she wanted a human life! And all she wanted was this one, simple, thing that I thought I could entrust to you. And now she's going to die."
"She may not die," Carlisle returned coldly, "I will do everything in my power—"
"But she won't survive this human," Edward said mockingly, "You've been thinking it the whole way here. Bella's human life is over, it's time to fake her death for Charlie because there's no going back, her precious human existence is over before it could even begin."
And Carlisle felt something in him, that long tried and true thread of patience he'd always had, finally snap.
"It was already over!" Carlisle shouted, throwing his towel to the ground, "She chose this life, Edward, with or without you! She has chosen to become a vampire, knows the truth, and the Volturi have given her a time limit! Did you honestly think she wouldn't be turned? Did you really think that you could have another twenty, ten, or even four years?!"
"Well now we'll never know!" Edward shouted back, "Because you just had to stick your fucking dick in it!"
"Hold up!"
Suddenly, Emmett was standing in between them, holding out his hands as if to keep them from going for each other's throats. He warily looked between them both, licking his lips awkwardly, and looking desperately at Rosalie for some hint of what was going on. Rosalie looked back at him as if that was the dumbest thing she'd ever seen him do.
"Hold it," Emmett repeated, slower and with more emphasis, "Now, I know Rose and I took a little honeymoon before Edward and Bella could steal the show with their gooey, puppy, love. I know that we were kind of MIA for a few weeks there, but what the fuck even happened while we were gone?!"
He motioned desperately to Edward then to Carlisle, "Bella and Edward's wedding is off, Bella's calling Rosalie and Carlisle when I'm pretty damn sure she didn't even have their numbers, and now Carlisle's sticking his dick in—What did you stick your dick in?!"
Carlisle looked away, unable to meet that stare head on, and he was sure if he was human his face would be unbearably red.
"You'll have to ask Carlisle," Edward sneered.
So, that was how it was going to be, Carlisle thought to himself. Had Edward forgotten already just why this had happened in the first place? Why any of this had happened in the first place? Well, if Edward could be crass, then so could Carlisle.
"Edward pimped out his fiancée," Carlisle said evenly, as if it was the easiest thing in the world.
Edward stumbled backwards as if he had been slapped across the face.
"Edward what?" Rosalie asked, walking over towards Emmett to stand between Carlisle and Edward.
"Carlisle!" Esme shouted, "That's not—"
"Edward came to me, about a month ago now, and told me that what Bella wanted more than anything in the world was to experience sex as a human," Carlisle continued as if none of them had spoken, "Only, he knew that he couldn't provide that for her, so he came to me instead and he begged. Without this, he said, they would never get married and she would demand to be turned. And we certainly couldn't have that."
"And you said yes?!" Rosalie asked, as Carlisle had known she would, but this wasn't about Rosalie right now. Carlisle only had eyes for flinching Edward, too ashamed to even face his own actions.
"He asked my permission, Esme's, and then left Bella on our doorstep as if her opinion didn't matter in the least. Bella decided then and there that she did not wish to get married but, strangely enough, that she did want to have sex as a human," Carlisle continued, and then with a thin smile he noted, "As Bella put it: Man sleeps with woman, woman gets pregnant, it's not a new story, Edward."
Carlisle finished by giving Edward a dull look, "Don't pretend you played no part in this travesty."
"Bella's pregnant," Rosalie whispered in shock, "Bella's pregnant with—with Carlisle's child?!"
"Holy shit," Emmet said, he turned to look at Jasper, "You know about this buddy?!"
Jasper awkwardly paused, clearly not having expected to be put on the spot. Generally, in most family disputes, Jasper tended to take the role of an observer and rarely made his opinion known.
He glanced at Edward, then Carlisle, and finally back to Emmett, "The sex, yes, the pregnancy… that's very new."
"And you?" Emmett turned to Alice, gesturing wildly for some explanation, "This wasn't anywhere on your radar?"
"I told you," Alice snapped, "I told you I can't see anything about Bella right now! I told you—"
She cut herself off in horror, she looked over towards Jasper, her face alight with horrified understanding, "It must be the baby. It's like the wolves, I can't see it, I can't see Bella while she's carrying it—"
"Carlisle," Esme said, looking at him as if she didn't recognize him, "Why are you being so cruel?"
Cruel, was it cruel? Perhaps it wasn't as patient as he normally would have been. Perhaps, for once, he wasn't letting Edward say whatever he felt like, do whatever he felt like, and waiting for him to calm down before he said a word. Perhaps finally, after a hundred years, Carlisle had reached some internal limit he didn't even know he had, but he wouldn't call it cruel.
He was simply done.
"It is cruel," Edward spat in response to Carlisle's thoughts, "Even now, there still may be time to save her, and you've flat out refused. You have signed her death warrant in every means imaginable."
"I am not performing an abortion against her will," Carlisle said flatly.
"That thing is three times the size it should be," Edward hissed out, "That thing isn't even human and—"
"I asked and she made her opinion very clear," Carlisle interjected, "So long as she wishes to keep the child, even if it is medically unsafe for her to do so, she will keep it. And no one in this house, not me, not you, will attempt otherwise."
"You think you can stop me?" Edward spat.
"I think you didn't get that far in medical school," Carlisle responded easily, "I know you've never performed an operation before and I highly doubt you could complete one without eating her yourself. So, go on, Edward, tell me all about how you're going to get the child out with a coat hanger in a back alley."
"Carlisle!" Esme shouted, rushing to Edward's side, gripping his arm in an attempt to comfort him. Edward barely even seemed to notice.
Instead, his eyes moved to Alice, he stepped towards her, "Alice, please, tell him how this ends. Tell him—"
Alice held up her hands in defense, "Edward, I—I really don't know."
She looked around at them desperately, "Bella's—I haven't seen her in weeks, she's just gone, I just—"
"But you know how it ends," Edward insisted, "You can see that much, can't you?"
Alice nodded slowly, grimly, "Either Bella… dies, or she becomes a vampire. But Edward, it's always been like—"
"You see," Edward said, "Either she dies or she's going to end up wishing she was dead. Carlisle, just let me talk to her let me—"
"Like you talked to her about the wedding?" Carlisle asked in disbelief, "Like you talked to her about sex? And what if she says no after this talk, are you going to come to me and insist I do it anyway?"
"If she wants children," Edward hissed, "There are other ways to get them. She could—"
"You know that's not true," Carlisle said.
First, as far as natural pregnancies went, Carlisle had no doubt that this pregnancy would be damaging enough that even if, by some miracle, Bella came out of it fully human she would likely never be able to conceive a second child. Second, given what the Cullens were, what Bella would become, there was no place for a human child in that.
"Maybe we should talk about this!" Esme shouted.
As one they all turned to look at her, stunned by her unusual outburst, but Esme held her ground and said slowly, "This—This affects all of us, not just Bella, and maybe we should talk about this."
"Talk about it?" Rosalie asked, "What is there to even talk about? That Carlisle apparently slept with Bella Swan and you gave him the go ahead? Are we talking about that?"
"No, we should talk about—" Esme paused, looked at Edward, and then finished her sentence, "The baby."
With that she ushered Edward into the living room, the rest of them following afterwards and settling into the same positions they'd been in earlier that night.
Esme started once she had sat down, "I'll start, I suppose…" she breathed out, "Carlisle, I cannot believe you did this, any of this and I feel like I don't even know you anymore. I gave you permission to help give Edward and Bella a gift, not to tear them apart, and certainly not—"
"And imagine if I really had taken the whole honeymoon like you wanted," Carlisle couldn't help but say, which of course, was the entirely wrong thing to say as Esme looked at him with utter devastation.
"Um," Emmett started in, "I hate to ask this but, uh, are we sure Bella's pregnant and that it's Carlisle's kid? Because, no offense, but that's kind of—insane."
"We're sure," Carlisle said dully, "It's either that or Bella's the Virgin Mary."
Emmett opened his mouth, closed it, then asked, "And we're sure about that?"
"Regardless," Esme interjected, sending Emmett a chiding look, "Regardless, given my own experiences… Edward should have a chance to talk to Bella, they should have time to remember what they mean to each other, but if she wants her child then she has every right to keep it."
"It's not like your son, Esme," Edward said, squeezing her hand tenderly, looking utterly heartbroken at her words, "It's nothing like that. That thing inside her, it's not a human baby, it's—"
Esme squeezed Edward's hand gently back, her expression softening in turn, "But does she know that Edward?"
"Well, I guess I'll go next," Rosalie said, looking between Edward, Carlisle, and Esme in judgement, "You all disgust me. I can't believe any of you did this and I'm ashamed to be in the same house as you. I can't say I'm surprised at Edward, this is something he would do, but I certainly expected better from you, Carlisle."
She sent Carlisle a particularly withering glare that he probably did deserve.
She then continued, "Right, that said, since we're here now and I guess we're offering opinions, then obviously Bella keeps the child. If it was up to me, we wouldn't even be having this discussion, because this baby apparently doesn't even have anything to do with Edward. The only reason he's even remotely involved in this, at all, is because he can't admit that he's a jackass who deserved to be dumped by his human bride at the altar. And if he tries anything, and I mean anything, I'll rip off his limbs and hang them over a mantlepiece for the next century."
She smiled primly at all of them, "Right, so, discussion's over."
"The discussion's not over," Alice interjected, "In case anyone hasn't noticed, I'm blind. If she keeps this thing… I can't tell you anything. I can't tell you if she's going to live, if the child's going to live, and then if the child does live it will be like living with a wolf for the rest of our lives. The Volturi could decide to come tomorrow and I would have no idea. I—I love Bella, she's my best friend and been a sister for years now but keeping it would put us in so much danger. Carlisle, it's not just about her."
"It's also not about you," Rosalie noted, "So you can't see the future. Guess what? The rest of us can't either. Welcome to the real world, Alice, somehow the rest of us get by just fine."
"And where would we be without my visions?" Alice snapped back, "How many decisions have we made based on what I could see? How many times would Bella have died already without me?"
"That's funny, I seem to remember being around for several decades getting on just fine without you and your visions," Rosalie mused, as if she was truly thinking on her words, "In fact, I remember, shock of all shocks, actually being able to pick out my own wardrobe. Hey, Carlisle, remember when you actually went shopping for your own clothes? Remember when you didn't parade around town looking like a Calvin Klein model every day of the week?"
Carlisle felt like they were getting dangerously off topic. Well, no, it was as if in this one discussion years' worth of resentments were finally boiling over and as one came out the rest simply followed.
"Rosalie," Jasper insisted from across the room, "I think that's enough."
"And hey," Rosalie continued, "Has anyone noticed that, despite Alice's all-powerful visions, we're still in this mess? Not even just in this mess, by the way, but in any of the messes we've ever been in since Bella crash landed in our lives. Remember that great baseball game? Remember the time Alice told us Bella killed herself then, woops, guess we were wrong about that one. How dare you, Rosalie, have the guts to actually call Edward and tell him the love of his life was dead."
Rosalie gave Alice a pointed look, "The way I see it, maybe not relying on Alice's flakey visions so much might actually be a good thing. We might actually have to think for ourselves for once in our lives."
"Rosalie," Jasper hissed, "This is not Alice's fault."
He then looked over to Carlisle, not wasting time convincing the others of anything, "And she has a right to be scared."
"I have never heard of vampires getting anyone pregnant, other humans or each other," Jasper said, "This is new territory not simply for us but for the world at large. It's not simply Bella that's at risk. We are already on thin ice with the Volturi, we saw that they'll take almost any excuse to murder us all, and we know they will come to check and see if Bella is turned. If there is a child with us, one that looks even remotely like an immortal child, what do you think they will do?"
"And what if it is an immortal child?" Jasper continued darkly, "What if it comes out and it never grows up? What if it has no human intelligence at all? We have no idea what this thing will even be and why should we allow ourselves to be the guinea pigs who find out? Why should we put Bella through all this suffering when, one day, we will very likely have to murder it anyway?"
"And what if it isn't?" Rosalie asked, "Bella should decide if it's worth the risk—"
"Bella doesn't even know what a vampire is," Jasper scoffed, "Edward's been so busy giving her the censored, pleasant, version that she barely understands what she will become. You try explaining an immortal child to her and see if she understands what it means."
"Enough!" Edward slammed his hand down on the armrest and looked across at Carlisle, "Enough, we all know that Carlisle's is the only opinion that matters here. Carlisle, please, see reason. I'll forgive you for—for everything—just save her while you still can."
His was the only opinion that mattered.
Perhaps, Edward simply meant the only opinion in the room that mattered. Perhaps what he really meant was that it all came down to Carlisle as he was the only with the expertise and the tolerance to blood to be able to perform the abortion. In that sense, Carlisle supposed he wasn't wrong, ultimately it was what Carlisle decided to do that would matter.
Once, not so long ago, Carlisle would have told himself that this was exactly what Edward had meant.
Now he couldn't help but wonder, no, think, that Bella's opinion had very much been left out on purpose. To Edward, her conviction and decision didn't matter, was an after thought at best, and that once Carlisle was convinced all that would remain would be to cajole, persuade, or else trick Bella into agreeing with him.
Just as, apparently, he had in every major decision in her life.
"I agree that this pregnancy is likely extremely dangerous," Carlisle began, "I agree she may not survive it, may not even manage to carry the child to term, and I agree that we are venturing into unknown territory that could result in tragedy at every turn. However, I also believe that ultimately it is not my decision to make, nor is it the decision of anyone in this room."
"If Bella changes her mind," Carlisle said evenly, "Then yes, I will perform the abortion. If she does not, then I will not."
Edward gritted his teeth, gripped the armrest of his seat, and then said, "But if she changed her mind—"
"I'll hear it from her lips alone," Carlisle cut in, "Not from you, not a vision from Alice, only from her and without anyone else in the room."
It had taken him nearly two years now, but Carlisle had finally realized just how much Edward had tried to speak for Bella in her place, and how much he chose to beg for her forgiveness rather than ask for her permission.
"And with that," Carlisle said, forcing himself to smile, "I believe the discussion is over."
And not one of them said a word in response.
Author's Note: Also note as the Carlisle's done chapter. He's past where he thought he could go. Next up, Bella returns to being ridiculous and Edward returns to being even scarier than he already is.
Thanks for reading and reviewing. Reviews are much appreciated.
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight