Esme POV

The house was quiet as I walked up to the front door, juggling the many bags of shopping in one trip. I opened the door with a little difficulty, eventually shifting enough bags that I could get enough of a grip on the handle to turn it, and wandered into the main room. As I set the bags down by the side of the nearest sofa, I noticed the scene in front of me. My youngest daughter, in the arms of my loving husband. I realised I could smell the scent of tears in the air, and Carlisle looked saddened. Bree's eyes were closed as she nestled into his embrace. I tilted my head in confusion as we made eye contact. He beckoned me over with his eyes, and I pushed the front door shut before gliding across the room to sit beside my husband on the sofa, and put an arm around Bree's shoulders.

She opened her eyes and shifted to see who had joined her, and a small smile graced her delicate face. She reached out a hand towards me, and I held it as I scooted closer to the pair of them so all our bodies were touching. I rested my head on Bree's, and Carlisle rested his on mine. This was nice. This felt like a family embrace I'd been craving for a while, without even realising it. But something was nagging at me; why was Bree sad? I didn't want to break the comfortable silence to ask, but a fierce protectiveness within me did not want Bree to be sad for any reason. Eventually, Bree stirred and sat up straighter as we loosened our embrace. I took this as my cue to ask.

"Is everything ok, dear?" I asked, my arm around her tracing patterns in her shoulder. She sighed.

"It's better now." She said, contentedly. "We were talking about… about the night we first met, before I was a vampire." She said. I nodded, encouragingly. "And the- the… things my father did to me." I tensed slightly, my natural reaction to this kind of topic. Bree turned so she was properly facing me, and I could see an inner turmoil reflected on her face.

"You don't have to tell me." I said, quietly, but Bree shook her head, almost defiantly.

"I want to. I don't want there to be secrets. Plus, Edward is going to know the second he comes home, if he doesn't already, so might as well get used to people knowing." She took a deep breath, as if preparing herself for something unpleasant. I worried that my deepest fears about her experience were about to be proven true.

"My dad… he didn't start hurting me recently. It started as soon as we moved to Idaho. And then, when I was about 7 or 8, he…" she took another deep breath, and I realised I was holding my breath. I breathed out then in again, and felt Carlisle's hand reach mine behind Bree's back. He squeezed my hand.

"He started coming home drunk and he'd come into my room and… rape.. me." Her voice was so quiet by the time she reached the end of the sentence that without enhanced hearing, I would not have been able to hear her. My heart broke to hear the words that part of me knew were coming. That young too! This poor girl had only lived a human life for 16 years and had experienced more horrors than myself and Rosalie put together. I shuddered, and pulled Bree into a tight hug.

"I am so sorry sweetheart. I'm so sorry you had to go through that. I can't even begin to comprehend how awful that must have been. Please, please know that nobody here will ever hurt you. How you've been treated by your father was truly, truly wrong, and it will never happen again." I gently stroked her long, soft hair as I consoled her.

"I know. I know you won't hurt me. You're not like my father. I don't even like to think of him as my parent. He never loved me or looked after me or treated me like a parent should."

"He isn't you parent now." Carlisle said, suddenly. "We are. He's not you father if you don't want him to be." Bree smiled, a look of contentment passing over her face.

"I already think of you as my parents, much more than he ever was."

I felt like my heart was going to burst. "You've been our daughter from the moment we met in that meadow." I whispered, my lips pressed into her hair. I felt her arms tighten around me in response, and I hugged her tighter still. We stayed that way for I don't know how long. It could have been hours, Bree sandwiched contentedly between Carlisle and I.

"How was your shopping trip?" Bree asked, eventually breaking the silence. I'd almost forgotten that's where I'd been today.

"Oh yes, I got you a few things!" I said, standing up and heading across the room to where I'd dumped the bags. I rifled through them until I found the bags with Bree's things in, which I brought back across the room. Bree's face lit up, and she started flipping through the bags excitedly. It was like watching a child at Christmas as she examined all the clothes I'd bought her. It was possible I'd gone a bit overboard in my enjoyment of having a child to buy clothes for, but it seemed any concern she had about not asking for things was completely forgotten in her excitement at new clothes.

"Thank you so much!" She said, once she'd examined the clothes, shoes and books I'd brought her. I had one more surprise for her though, and I pulled a stack of boxes from behind me. Her jaw dropped.

"Those aren't for me, are they!?" She asked, astounded. I nodded.

"I may have ended up in the apple store by accident. I felt it was time you had your own phone and computer, and there was a deal on that made it pretty cheap to get an iPad too…" I smiled guiltily, and then laughed at the look on Bree's face.

"But… that's the newest iPhone, and a new macbook and iPad?!" Bree could not believe what her eyes were seeing. She leapt across the room to me and wrapped me in an energetic hug. "Thank you thank you thank you!" She said excitedly, and then released me to turn back to the pile of sleek white boxes. She surveyed them, as if she didn't quite know which one to attack first. I laughed again, and walked back across the room to join my husband on the sofa, leaving Bree sat cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by bags and boxes.

"You're going to spoil her." Carlisle accused jokingly, a smile across his face. "I've never seen someone so excited. Just imagine what Christmas is going to be like!" he laughed, and I laughed with him.

"We'll modify the phone a little bit to make it totally waterproof." Carlisle called to Bree, as she examined the sleek phone she'd removed from its box. "That way it won't get ruined every time you fancy going for a swim." He grinned.

We sat on the sofa in peaceful harmony, both enjoying watching our youngest daughter opening the boxes and inspecting the various contents with glee. A little shriek of delight showed she'd found the airpods, and she quickly set about setting them up whilst simultaneously loading up her laptop and iPad. Carlisle's arm wound around my waist and pulled me closer to him. I obliged, reaching for his other hand and intertwining our fingers.

"She's so happy, Carlisle." I breathed, so quietly that Bree would be unlikely to hear with her airpods in. "She's suffered so much pain in her life. I never want her to feel anything but joy for the rest of her life. I want her to know what a true, loving family is like."

"Is that why you bought her so many things in Seattle today?" Carlisle chuckled back, equally quiet. I smiled guiltily again.

"Well, that, and it's been a long time since I had a child to shop for. She needed so many things. The others just want more things, she actually needed them. And, it was so exciting, looking in the kids sections of the stores. Did you know how much cheaper kids clothes are?!" Carlisle laughed again.

"I don't think there's much risk of her not feeling the love when you're around to smother it on." He joked, kissing my forehead.

"It's not too much, is it?!" I asked, anxiously. I didn't want to overwhelm her. We watched her again as she downloaded some apps onto the iPad.

"No. No, I think it's just right." Carlisle breathed.