*BPOV*

"Good morning, you two!" Carlisle greeted Edward and me as we took our places at the breakfast table. He was what Charlie would have called especially "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed."

"Good morning, Carlisle. Esme." I sat down across the table from the elder Cullens as Edward scooted in my chair behind me and took a seat at my side.

"I was hoping to catch you last night, but you were out...I wanted to update you about little Jack, the baby with pertussis. You were spot on with your diagnosis, Bella. He was very lucky that you were there to get him help. The willow bark and sage poultices the native healers had been using on him would have been no match for an infection like that.

"His mother called me just a few minutes ago to let me know that his fever had broken and he was sleeping soundly. I'm going back later today to check on him, but I suspect that after a full course of azithromycin, he is going to be just fine."

Carlisle smiled serenely, reaching over a hand and placing it on Esme's knee under the table as she let out a sigh of acute relief.

"That's such great news, Carlisle! I'm so glad you were able to help him," I said sincerely, unwilling to take any credit for the baby's improved prognosis.

"I'm wondering how you helped him," Edward blurted out somewhat incredulously.

"I beg your pardon? With antibiotics, of course..." Carlisle said with a quizzical expression like he didn't fully understand the question.

Edward rolled his eyes impatiently, a rare instance of his cocky, eternally seventeen-year-old self rippling the smooth surface of the placid expression he normally wore. "I mean how did you get her to let you treat her baby? The tribe has a deep distrust of white people and western medicine…" Edward explained.

Carlisle's face smoothed over with comprehension. "Oh. Well, I hardly needed Rosalie to show me the way. Even a human could hear that baby cry from a kilometer away," Carlisle recalled with a regretful smile.

"So I knocked on the door and showed her my Doctors Without Borders credentials. The poor mother was so desperate she didn't seem to care who I was or what I was doing there, only that I could help her baby.

"Her husband is a crab fisherman and it's peak king crab season, so she's been alone with the baby a lot. She was nearly delirious with sleep deprivation and her milk was starting to dry up, which certainly wasn't helping matters.

"With her permission, I gave the baby the antibiotics and told her I should stay and keep an eye on him for any sign of allergic reactions. I wasn't too worried about that, though, it was mostly an excuse to stay so that the poor mother could get some sleep.

"When they were both sleeping soundly, I snuck out to the Trading Company and bought a few ingredients to make her some lactation cookies. I was going to make them myself and bring them back for her with strict orders to eat cookies with every meal," he chuckled at his playful prescription. "But Esme insisted on baking them herself…" Carlisle smiled affectionately at his wife.

Well, that explained the scent of chocolate in the air, which interestingly didn't smell appetizing as it would have to my human nose. It smelled more like something pleasant but inedible, like fresh-cut grass or clean laundry.

"What I want to know," Carlisle queried, "is how Bella knew it was whooping cough. Jack is so young his lungs aren't even strong enough to make the whooping sound it's known for," Carlisle appraised me, his golden eyes burning with intrigue.

"Oh," I looked down at my hands, embarrassed by the attention. "I think Renee has been in Florida for too long," I muttered in explanation. It was my turn to roll my eyes.

"She's been emailing me these junk science articles about how dangerous vaccines are. I had to tell her she was being ridiculous, and of course, she should have my sister vaccinated when the baby comes.

"But in case she doesn't listen to reason, I sent her some information from better sources about the dangers of not vaccinating in hopes that the videos of sick babies with preventable diseases like measles and whooping cough would scare her into doing the right thing."

Carlisle looked like he would burst with pride and adulation. Edward chuckled at this.

"Careful, Bella, or he'll be nagging you for the next century to become his protege in the medical arts. I ought to know," Edward teased with an amused snort.

"A lot of good that did. You barely remembered to feed the girl," Carlisle ribbed good-naturedly. Humbled, Edward had the good sense to look abashed.

"Can we revisit the topic of my going to medical school in five or ten years when the scent of human blood doesn't make me want to drink a kid like a Capri-Sun?" I asked bluntly, making the others wince at my indelicateness.

"I will hold you to that," Carlisle promised with a wink.

"It won't take quite that long," Alice inserted seamlessly as she and Jasper joined us around the table.

"A couple of years from now, a company called Uber will change the world and make us a literal boatload of money. We'll celebrate with a shopping trip to Paris during fashion week, and you'll be there in the front row right next to me at the fashion shows. I've seen it."

"Paris?! Really? I've always wanted to go to Paris!" I exclaimed, more excited about the news of my improved control more than the shopping trip, or especially fashion week.

I was also daydreaming about getting to see such historic places as the Louvre and the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Giving me a sidelong glance, Edward grumbled accusingly, "I wanted to take you to Paris!"

I ignored him, not wanting to revisit the time after we were reunited when I was still convinced that Edward was inevitably going to leave me again.

So anxious that I would hurt myself somehow, precipitating my own abandonment, I barely left my own house for weeks even after I'd been un-grounded by Charlie.

Clearly, taking the "exclusive vampire tour of the Eiffel Tower" (the one Edward had teased was definitely not listed on TripAdvisor) wasn't really on my agenda when he had offered it at the time.

"Oh!" Alice's glazed-over eyes returned to the here and now. "Be sure to take a tour when we go, Bella, because Notre Dame burns down in the next decade or so," she forewarned. I gaped at her in horror.

"Don't look at me like that. Do you know what happens when I try to rewrite the future? Terrible things, that's what!" Alice snapped.

"That must be horrible knowing that awful things will happen and being powerless to stop them," I gasped. Under his breath, Edward muttered, "Tell me about it."

"Every single one of our gifts comes at a price, and that particular burden is my cross to bear," Alice's golden eyes matched the weariness in her voice.

I pondered that for a moment, wondering what my shield would cost me. Whatever it was, it couldn't be more than what it's already saved me from.

Jane's torment, for one. Aro's intrusive power to hear every thought you ever had for another. And I couldn't help but wonder if it saved me from Edward himself.

Without the curiosity of my silent mind, would he have found me interesting enough to keep me alive when the scent of my blood appealed to him so intensely? I would have sounded just like every other infatuated human admirer.

And if he didn't find me interesting, it seemed a logical conclusion that he never would have fallen in love with me to begin with.

It was becoming more apparent than ever that perhaps I owed everything to my freaky AM-frequency brain.

Suddenly, Edward growled at my side. I looked at him curiously. "What did I miss?" I asked quietly.

"Jasper was just thinking about how Aro has a special fondness of defensive talents and how interested he'll be to hear about yours," Edward answered, his arm wrapping protectively around my shoulders.

"Aro couldn't possibly think that I'd ever join the Volturi after what happened there!" My tone echoed the revulsion etched across my face.

"Merely hoping. With time comes patience, and Aro has a great deal of both," Carlisle explained of his old friend.

*EPOV*

"Bella, dear, I wanted to ask earlier, but could hardly get a word in edgewise with Carlisle and Edward carrying on the way they always do. How is your mother? Feeling any better? How far along is she now?" Esme asked warmly.

"According to Renee's last email, the baby is nineteen weeks and the size of a mango. She says she's feeling a lot better now that she's into the second trimester. Only throwing up five times a day instead of ten or fifteen, so I guess that's progress," I quoted the most recent update with thinly-veiled skepticism.

"She sent a photo. She's still too thin if you ask me, but she looks happy," Bella slid her phone across the table to show Esme the photo.

"How wonderful for her that she gets to raise another baby after watching you grow up into such a lovely young lady! What a blessing!" Esme said, smiling at the photo on the small screen.

Esme was completely sincere in her sentiments, though she also felt the familiar twinge of envy that arose whenever the subject of babies or pregnancy was brought up.

She tried not to dwell, knowing it did no good to fixate on things that could never be. Besides, she had her own new baby to dote on, even if this new baby came in the form of my nineteen-year-old wife.

"I think Bella gets most of the credit for her own upbringing," I snorted with derision, earning a scowl from Bella, who felt the need to defend her mother's shortcomings at every opportunity.

There were plenty of things I appreciated about my flighty mother-in-law-her parenting abilities were not among them. But Phil seemed like he had a pretty good head on his shoulders, so hopefully, Bella's little sister would get a better start than she did.

At least she'd never have to worry about how the bills were getting paid. (Or write the damn checks herself to ensure the lights stayed on, as Bella had had to do.)

I looked at Bella sitting beside me, a politely interested smile brightening her face as she listened to Alice prattle animatedly about runway models and that one time she hobnobbed with Anna Wintour at Stella McCartney's fashion show.

Renee often referred to Bella as an old soul, but I think maybe that was a learned trait. After all, there can only be room for one child in a mother-child relationship. Renee's carefree and often careless personality left Bella no choice but to assume the role of the parent.

Though, if Renee wasn't who she was, Bella wouldn't be Bella. And she certainly never would've moved back to Forks to give her mother the freedom to follow Phil's baseball team around the country. Nor would she ever have met me.

So, as uncomfortable as it made me to think about, I owed my everything to Renee's fecklessness. And Carlisle, of course, for saving me...

As Bella's melodic laughter made the soft, lustrous waves of her mahogany hair ripple down her back like a gentle stream at sunset, I swore to myself I'd never criticize her mother again.

"Did Alice ever tell you about the time American Express deactivated her card because they were concerned about her ability to pay back what she charged on the last trip to Fashion Week?" Jasper lovingly teased the scowling pixie at his side.

Alice scoffed. "They shouldn't call AmEx black cards unlimited if they clearly have a limit. I have half a mind to sue them for false advertising."

"That might work...if they advertised the black card," Jasper ribbed.

"Emotional distress, then," she snapped back. "I was mortified when my card was declined at Dior. And right in front of Vera Wang!" Alice bore a horrified expression.

Bella only laughed harder, thoroughly amused by this little anecdote. And Jasper, loving having someone to tell his stories to who hadn't already heard them, was soaking it up. "Ally's paid with cash ever since," Jasper concluded with a chuckle of his own.

He slung an arm over a protesting Alice's shoulder and drew her close so he could kiss the top of her head in a wordless apology for his teasing.

"Alice?" Bella asked my sister, though she was looking down at her sneakers. "Does Chuck Taylor do any fashion shows in Paris? I could probably get interested in going to that one."

Alice mouthed the name with a stricken expression. "You wound me," she finally said, pouting.

Just then, Carlisle's cell phone rang, bringing the chatter to a halt. He looked at the unfamiliar number that flashed across the caller ID and answered it on the first ring.

"This is Doctor Cullen," he greeted into the mouthpiece then pausing to hear what the caller was saying. The murmur of a female voice sounded through the speaker.

"Am I accepting new patients?" He repeated into the phone, his tone was professional, but his face was astounded. "Er, well…" he looked automatically to Esme who waved her hand in his direction as if to say "Well? What are you waiting for?"

"As a matter of fact, I am. Why don't you send me your address and we can set up an appointment?"

After going back and forth with the woman over the phone a few more times, Carlisle hung up the call. All eyes were expectantly on him. We'd all heard the voice clear as day, of course, but out of courtesy, we let him share the news himself if he wanted to.

"Well, I'll be!" he exclaimed. "Word travels fast around here. She heard about how I treated little Jack and wanted to know if I'd examine her daughter, too!" He relayed, equally surprised and delighted.

"There you go, Carlisle! Looks like you've cracked the code for getting the Tlingit tribe to trust you," I grinned.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," he cautioned, though his smile was just as wide and optimistic. "It's only two people...But I'll take it!

"Esme, my darling, would you like to accompany me to the mainland to go stock up on some medical supplies?" he asked, turning his gaze to my mother.

"You know I will," she smiled, rolling her eyes just a little.

"Can we come, too?" Alice invited herself and Jasper along. "This island is giving me cabin fever like you wouldn't believe!"

"I don't see why not," Carlisle shrugged, causing Alice to bounce up and down in her seat with excitement.

"I'll go gas up the boat," Jasper offered, standing up from the table.

"Looks like we get the house all to ourselves," I noted cheerfully to Bella, hoping she wouldn't feel too left out about the others going to Juneau.

As much progress as she'd made practicing her control, it was still out of the question for her to go on a shopping trip to a comparatively large city. Luckily, she didn't ask to tag along.

Bella queried, "What about Emmett and Rose?"

"Date night. They'll be back tomorrow," I informed.

Well, that's convenient, Bella thought with a smirk.

Still unused to hearing her voice pop into my head, layered on top of the other usual voices like a descant, my body tensed and I sharply inhaled, startled. My family, all but Bella, looked at me with peculiar expressions; I seldom if ever startled.

"Edward, what is it?" My mother asked what they were all thinking.

"Bella is just getting rather good at letting me hear her thoughts," I said, smiling beatifically at my beautiful bride. I softly squeezed her hand. "It's still so new for me to hear her," I explained.

Alice stood up then and joined Jasper in the doorway. "Oh, I know that look! We're getting out of here before the newlyweds get you all horned up," she said, tugging his arm to leave. "I want to go out, damnit," Alice growled. Jasper just shook his head and laughed.

Jasper drawled, "Yes, ma'am!" And then tipping his head in our direction, "Catch you two later," he said in farewell just before disappearing out the door.

"Have fun, kids," Carlisle said with a knowing smile as he and Esme also started to head for the door. "And thanks again, Bella, for my new patients. Couldn't have done it without you!" he beamed.

Never one to take credit when it was due, Bella smiled shyly and threw him a dismissive wave.

"I can't remember the last time I was so excited to see a rash," he chuckled as he strode out of the room

"You can take the man from the medicine, but not the medicine from the man," Esme tutted affectionately, as she followed him out the door

As the front door clicked shut, Bella and I found ourselves alone.

"Now what, Mrs. Cullen?" I asked one side of my mouth curling into a crooked smile.

"Hmm. Let me think," she smiled back, tapping her chin with her index finger.

I barked out a laugh when she first thought of Emmett coming home and finding his video game controllers set inside wobbly jello molds.

"Emmett was right. You are diabolical," I chuckled. "Think you're up for a trip to the trading post to buy some gelatin? It's not Juneau, but you'll still be around more humans than you're used to," I suggested.

"You really think I'm ready to go to the store?" Her eyes widened in sudden trepidation.

"Without a doubt," I told her confidently.

She seemed to consider that and then smiled broadly. "Ok, but then after we're done jello molding Emmett's Xbox controllers, I have some other plans…" she said with a mischievous gleam in her amber eyes.

"And what do these other plans entail?" I asked, taking the bait.

Barely containing her laughter, she answered, "Hiding your joystick."

*A/N* I'm baaack. My vacation turned out to be a vomitpalooza after a stomach virus took us all out like dominoes. There was not a single day when someone was not puking. Ahhh, memories. 💖 And then my 2yo daughter was diagnosed with autism a couple of days after we got home. No big surprise there, but lots to process.

It took me a little time and space to get back into the writing mindset after all of that, and I really appreciate your patience. Hopefully, now I'll be able to get back to more regular updates. As always, I am eager to know what you think. Thank you for reading and reviewing!

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