Esme woke up to the sound of birds chirping and the sun streaming in. It must have been mid morning. Feeling like something was missing, Esme rolled over and noticed that Carlisle wasn't there. In his absence there was a note laying next to her. Picking it up she immediately recognizing his handwriting
My Dearest Esme,
I hate to leave you this morning, but unfortunately I have to venture off to the mainland. I need to hunt. I should be back by lunch time. If you need me beforehand, I have my cell phone on me. There is food in the fridge if you are hungry.
I love you,
Carlisle.
Esme smiled at his note, before she felt the familiar pull of hunger.
"Alright little one, lets get some food in both of us." Esme said, placing her hand on her abdomen, before getting out of bed, putting on her robe and heading for the kitchen.
When she reached the kitchen, she opened the refrigerator and began grabbing the ingredients to make pancakes. She felt an intense need for them, and was so glad she remembers how to make them. Having Nessy around had made her start cooking again. When Bella was human they tried cooking for her, but she would always eat ahead of time, not wanting to be a burden.
After breakfast, Esme cleaned her dished and went up stairs to shower. Once in the bathroom, and waiting for the water to warm up, Esme was checking out her baby bump in the mirror. She was 17 weeks pregnant and her stomach was definitely extended. Her mind went back to when she was pregnant with her baby boy. Back then her mind was unhealthy. Being told be Charles how ugly she was and fat for four years. She felt disgusted when her stomach began to extend, but she knew it was her baby. Looking at her bump now, all Esme could feel was pride and joy. Her little baby was growing and she was so happy to watch them grow.
After her shower, Esme found herself wandering outside. The sun was bright and i was hot outside. She laughed slightly when she reached for the sunscreen. She had never used it in her life, but knew she didn't want to get burned.
Leaving her house, she began walking on the beach, feeling the sun on her skin, feeling it warms her with every passing minute. After a little while she felt the familiar tingling sensation on the back of her neck. She thought it was Carlisle looking for her. Ignoring the sensation, she saw a pearly shell on the beach and picked it up. As she straightened back up, she heard a familiar voice call her name.
"Esme?" The voice questioned, almost pleading.
"Benjamin? Tia?" Esme asked, turning around, finding the familiar facing looking back at her. They looked more drained than she had ever seen them.
"Oh Esme! Look at you! You are glowing!" Tia exclaimed, walking over to Esme at human speed, till she was close enough to hug her.
Esme flinched at the cold contact, from how warm the sun at made her. "What are you guys doing here?" She asked, pulling away from Tia.
"We...we.." Benjamin stuttered.
"You were following the Volturi." Esme finished for him, her face slightly disappointed.
"How did you…?" Tia asked, shock written all over her face.
"Let get back to the house, we should talk. Carlisle will be back soon." Esme announced, receiving a nod from both of them. They followed her at human speed back to the house.
Once inside, Esme offered them a seat, but they declined. Esme explained that her feet were hurting and need to sit down, and hoped they would forgive her rudeness. They agreed.
"Let's cut to the chase, how did you know that.." Benjamin started.
"How did I know that you were following the Volturi? They decided to pay Carlisle and I visit last night." Esme explained. "But I have a feeling you guys already knew that."
"Yeah, we have been," Tia confessed, sitting down across from Esme, looking down on the floor.
"Tia!" Benjamin scolded.
"What? She clearly knows what's going on here. She should know what is happening, she's trying to help us find Gracie and we can tell her what we know." Tia defended.
After a moment of silence, Esme took that as a sign that she can keep going. "What should I know?" She asked.
"Well, if we are being honest not much. When Benjamin left your place with my letter and Gracie's picture, I was on my to Italy. I had to at least know that she was still alive, and Benjamin found me. I couldn't find Gracie, so we decided to confront the Volturi. It turns out they scare easily. The moment I started arguing with them, Aro grabbed me and the look on his face was like I stabbed him and it hurt him. Soon after they began to flee.
"When they all were gone we searched the castle looking for her, but we couldn't find her. We began to search for the Voltori to find them. We found them but stayed a little bit of a distance back, hoping they would lead us to her but they keep moving. We believe they may have figured we were chasing them." Tia explained. Esme knew that if she were human she would be crying uncontrollably.
"I completely understand why you guys would do that, trust me I do. If anyone took any of my children I would go to the ends of the earth to get them back and to protect them." Esme confessed.
Esme heard the front door open and recognized Carlisle's footsteps. When he came in, he sat down next to Esme, placing a protective arm around her, greeting Tia and Benjamin.
"You have to know, this is not the way to handle this. I fear that if you two keep stalking the Volturi you may be causing more harm than good. They may have enough of you two stalking them and they may just end the problem." Esme explained, trying to choose her words carefully, but realizing she went too far when she saw both of them flinch. "But I think for now, you guys should stay here with us for a couple of days, and try to come up with a better plan to get Gracie back." Esme suggested.
"I agree. If you guys stay here for a little while, you will lose the Volturi's track and be able to clear your head just enough to come up with a better plan to follow and harass the Volturi." Carlisle agreed.
"You two are much too kind. We graciously accept your offer to stay here, but we won't for long." Benjamin stated, placing his own arm around Tia, as she leaned into him a bit, needed his comfort.
"Great! We only ask while you stay here, if you need to hunt to go onto the Mainland." Esme said.
"Of course."
Later that night, there was a fire going in the fireplace, and all four of them were sitting in the living room, discussing how they should go about saving Gracie. Esme sat curled up on the couch with a notebook on her lap, ready to write down any ideas.
"Okay, does anyone have any ideas?" Esme asked.
After a moment of silence, Benjamin looked up and around the room for a moment, hesitating on what his idea was. "I..um..I think maybe we could just go back home and maybe wait and see what happens."
"That's not a terrible idea. When the Volturi was here last night, I think we convinced them to give her back to you, with the condition of being able to study her." Esme said.
"Why would they want to study her?" Tia asked.
"Well apparently Aro can't see see her thoughts, Jane can't hurt her. No one can use their powers on her. They know she is fully human but can't understand why this is happening and they want to continue to study her." Esme confessed, while writing down the idea.
"No, absolutely not!" Tia cried out, standing up. If they are around her all the time, what's stopping them from taking her again? No, I won't subject her to that."
"Tia, I know this is hard, but my family is allowed to be there. They will be using their powers on her as well. They have less damaging talents. We will be there, so they can't pull any funny business, but I truly doubt they would. I would put my family through it, if I didn't think that it was safe." Esme said, trying her best to calm Tia down.
Nodding, Tia sat back down. "You're right, I know you are, but what if we continue chasing them. Maybe we are wearing them down. I don't want them to just drop her off somewhere and we have to go and find her."
"Well, it's an idea, I will write it down, but I think that should be saved as a last resort." Esme said, writing down the idea.
"You said that the Volturi wants to study her, right? " Benjamin asked.
"Yes, but again, don't worry about that, my family will be around you guys so much that you will probably get sick of us." Esme tried to joke, to lighten the situation.
"That's not my concern right now. My concern is, if they want to study her, they rarely make house calls, why don't we go and find a place in Italy and be closer to them, or just wait for them to come back to Italy. They can just hand her to us." Benjamin said. He hand clearly been thinking about this for awhile.
"That may not be a bad idea." Carlisle said. "I mean there are a few holes in it, but we can work on it, I don't think that's a bottom of the list idea."
Esme wrote the idea down and then looked up. "Any other ideas?" She asked, When no one answered, she looked over at Carlisle who had the same look he did the night before, they were sensing someone. "What? Who is it? Who's coming?" Esme asked, praying that it wasn't the Volturi.
Suddenly a smile spread on Carlisle's face. "Hold on love, you will hear them soon."
In a few minutes Esme heard a familiar roar of a laugh. It sounded like Emmett's laugh. "Emmett?" Esme asked.
"And Rose." He said still smiling.
Esme stood up and made her way over to the door, opening it before they even have time to knock. "OH!" Esme cried. "I am so happy you two are back safe and sound." Esme felt a rush of tears down her face.
"I told you she would cry, you owe me ten bucks Rosie." Emmett laughed, as Rose rolled her eyes.
"Oh hush." Esme said, slapping Emmett lightly on the chest.
After they entered and hugged their father and greeted Tia and Benjamin, Esme could hold it in anymore. "Not that I am not happy to see you, but what are you guys doing here?" She asked.
"We believe we may have found Gracie." Rose admitted.