CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

LONG GONE


Carlisle returns to Ariel's room the moment that his conversation is over, feeling that he completed his obligation to her to show them the knife. He will admit that his eagerness to get toward her is in part to get away from her brothers and the realizations that they force him to face. As the adrenaline started to wear down, as did the numb sensation that was keeping him from truly processing anything in the first place. He could only take so much of the casualness of her brothers - lacking her cleverness and subtly - and the way that they nonchalantly talk about death, demons and potential demon knives that just lunge at each other after it was used to nearly kill her.

He feels that itch forming under his skin that once again something is wrong, that he needs to see her - protect her. Something inside of him just screams that he needs to get to her. He tells himself that it is just his own anxiety, his need to make sure she's okay. That after seeing that knife it brought back the same fear he had when he found her, but that she is okay. Just like everyone keeps saying she is. Just like she said she would be.

He doesn't even get through the door. It's already open, which doesn't surprise him, however he didn't expect Edward to greet him. His son towers in the doorway like an omen, a shadowed look on his face that chills Carlisle to the bone. What's wrong? He knows his son can hear the thought. Edward refuses to answer. Look at me, Edward. His son can't, lacking the courage to look Carlisle in the eyes. When Carlisle steps around him, Edward blocks his path.

"Edward."

Carlisle's voice is a firm warning, a low growl forming in the back of his throat before he can stop it, whatever game this is, now is not the time for it. He is so close to seeing Ariel again, if he could only get around his son to do so. He's not one to growl or threaten his family in any way, but the beast in him is clawing with the desperate need to make sure she's okay. I need to see her. I need to tell her I love her. I need her to look me in the eyes and tell me she's okay.

Edward winces, painfully, as he silently resigns. He sighs deeply as he steps through the doorway and promptly gets out of Carlisle's way. He doesn't have the strength to make it downstairs, settling to wait in the hallway for the discovery that Carlisle is about to make. He closes his eyes tightly and waits for it to come.

"Ariel."

Carlisle's voice is broken, wavering with ache as he cries out her name, desperately looking around for any sign of her. His pained voice echoes through an empty room. A dull ache forms in the center of his chest at seeing an empty bed greeting him. He can still smell her, but he can't track it. As if she suddenly vanished, her smell leads nowhere else but to the window. Ariel. The worst fear starts to bubble up to the surface, a foreign sense of panic gripping Carlisle. Where is she? Where is my love? Not nabbed again. He doesn't smell anything else in her room. Just his family. Just her. Edward, did you know she was missing?

"What's all the ruckus?"

Lucifer is the first to stroll in, eyeing the empty room, but the rest of the Cullens are not far behind with Amenadiel trailing behind them. Despite the stress visible on the Cullen's faces, neither Amenadiel nor Lucifer seem particularly concerned at the disappearance of their sister. Edward looks physically sick, leaning against Rosalie for support as he tries to settle the screaming in his head from Carlisle - as unintentional as it is, it hits Edward's mind like a powerful force, making his head fuzzy and ache. Jasper has his arms wrapped tightly around Alice, squeezing her as Carlisle's intense emotions hit him. He tries his best to level it out, to calm his mentor, but it does little to ease the deep rooted panic in Carlisle's chest.

Lucifer rolls his eyes as he spots Carlisle's pained expression and while something about reaches deep into his soul, he tries his best to ignore it. In the back of his mind, he wonders if this is what it feels like every time he leaves for Hell. What Chloe felt. What Linda felt, as brief as Amenadiel's visit always is. This isn't the same thing. He tells himself sharply and the crash, harshness of his thought is enough to reach Edward, who looks stunned and unsure of what to do with the information.

Before Lucifer can get a word out, Amenadiel steps forward with compassion in his eyes and the calming presence that is desperately needed. The desperation on Carlisle's face, in his eyes, is enough to make even Amenadiel falter before he speaks.

"It's okay."

An awful first thing to say, honestly, as Carlisle's eyes snap to him as if to say everything is but okay. Amenadiel has the decency to wince, realizing the poor choice of words, before he continues. He is acutely aware of everyone's attention on him, in desperate need of answers. Amenadiel takes a hestiant step forward and Lucifer, to his credit, steps back to give him enough room.

"Ariel's injuries were pretty severe. Made from that knife, she wouldn't have been to heal from it on her own. She - "

Amenadiel falters here, unsure of how to word this without making it seem as if she has passed, not wanting to panic the already stressed doctor. Lucifer takes over immediately, stepping forward with a nonchalant, if a bit bitter, grin.

"-She went home." Lucifer jabs his thumb up toward the sky, "Getting all fixed up in the comfort of paradise. Oh she's probably getting an ear full from the others though, can't imagine how that conversation will go."

"- But she will be back," Amenadiel adds on quickly, noticing the pained look in Carlisle's eyes, "We're angels. It doesn't mean the same thing to us if we go back home. As long as we have our wings then we can freely go between our home in heaven and our home on Earth."

"And believe me," Lucifer drawls out, "It's so much easier going down then it is going up. Must be the gravity."

Amenadiel nudges him harshly for his blunt choice of words, but Lucifer shrugs. His I'm not wrong goes unsaid. Amenadiel doesn't hesitate catching Carlisle as he falls to his knees, thinking of the gray feather tucked away in Carlisle's drawer. Ashamed that his son is more accepting than he is. That he needs to be the example to his son, not the other way around. He doesn't wince at the doctor's cold, solid skin as his hand reaches for Carlisle, supporting him as Carlisle goes to the ground . If Carlisle is surprised by Amenadiel's actions, he doesn't say it as he collapses, the overwhelming sense of grief ripping apart at him.

The tiny bit of adrenaline that Carlisle was relying on to keep moving has finally run out; though Amenadiel does take him off guard, he simply lacks the energy to even react to the brother's small gesture. He's already emotionally gone from thinking she is dead to her being alive. He does not have it left in him to go through it again so soon while the priest's blood is still fresh in his palms. The flood of relief that she's safe - though he wishes it were with him - that she is getting back is enough for the tension in his muscles to give out from under him.

"She'll… she'll be back..." Carlisle repeats, hopefully, still desperate as he glances toward Amenadiel. Despite being fresh from a hunt, his mouth feels dry. Unable to feel. His hands go toward his chest, as if he can claw out some sort of relief to the hollowness that has settled in him. Amenadiel stands, putting a hand on Carlisle's shoulder in an odd sense of comfort.

"She'll be back," Amenadiel confirms, glancing toward the rest of the coven who look unsure, but relieved. "I can't promise you when she'll come back."

"Yes, you know how it is when you haven't seen family in a while," Lucifer comments, "Imagine it being a whole milliumm."

"They won't hurt her, will they," Carlisle asks desperately, his mind swirling with her comments on how they fight. Amenadiel shakes his head negatively and at the very least, that is one less thing for Carlisle to worry about.

"I can go there. To check on her." Amenadiel offers, only partly to ease the doctor's mind and partly to ease his own. But Carlisle denies the offer immediately.

"No. No. You mustn't, you've got your own wife and son that needs you here."

Carlisle shakes his head in denial, still not quite getting up as he starts to settle himself in the chair by the bedside. Alice shares a brief glance with Edward as they know that it's unlikely he'll move from that spot until she returns. They know their father and he is a patient man. He will sit and wait for as long as needed until she gets home to them.