"Bella!" Carlisle exclaimed shaking Bella's shoulder. "Are you okay? What's wrong? Open your eyes."

Bella took a shaky breath and opened her eyes. Carlisle was kneeling before her with a concerned expression on his face. His suit was soaked and his normally impeccably groomed blonde hair was plastered against his head. Bella couldn't help but laugh. Once again, she'd managed to let her imagination get the better of her. What had she been thinking? She should have known it was Carlisle coming home from work, not a wax dummy hell-bent on revenge.

"Are you okay?"Carlisle repeated, scanning Bella for any signs of injury.

"I'm okay," Bella said. "Emmett and I were just watching a movie and got spooked."

Carlisle looked at the tv screen and raised an eyebrow. The vampire was about to kiss his teenage love interest. Other than the hundred year age difference between them, there was nothing remotely scary about that scene.

"Where's Emmett?" Carlisle asked.

Emmett poked his head out. "Right here, Dad." he army crawled out from behind the couch. "Sorry about that. Hope we didn't scare you too badly."

Carlisle ran a hand through his damp hair. "What are you still doing up? It's almost 3 am."

Emmett shrugged and sat down next to Bella. "Couldn't sleep. It's been a weird day."

"Is there anything you want to talk about?" Carlisle asked as he turned around to join them on the couch. Bella could practically hear Alice screaming 'don't you dare!' There would be hell to pay if anyone, including the person who paid for the couch, ruined the carefully selected upholstery. Carlisle made contact with the cushions only to leap right back up. Bella wasn't the only one Alice had trained.

Emmett looked down at wet footprints on the carpet. "Not really."

"It's alight, son. No one is upset with you."

Bella groaned. Rose must have already told him about what happened at the museum. While she knew Rose meant well, Bella wished she hadn't said anything. Emmett was fine. It was one bad day not the start of another slip. There was no need to worry Carlisle who already had enough to worry about at the hospital.

Emmett glanced over at Bella. He'd lied about so many things in the past; missing homework assignments, bloody knuckles, and missing food in the kitchen. Inspire of this, Carlisle never treated Emmett like a criminal. He was always willing to give his foster son a chance to redeem himself. In recent months, Emmett started taking his therapy sessions more seriously in order to get to the bottom of why his default response to stress was lying. He was trying his best to repair his reputation with his teachers, classmates, and family. He'd started telling the truth, the whole truth, even when it resulted in detention and a month with no Xbox. While Bella supported the new and improved Emmett, she hoped he'd be willing to bend the truth just this once.

"We saw Edward sit-,"

"We saw Edward sitting there in his coffin and decided to pull a prank on the others," Bella said. "But it backfired and we scared ourselves instead of the others. That's all."

Carlisle nodded. Bella could see it in his eyes how much he wanted to believe her. He wanted to belive this school year would be different. There would be no more angry calls from the principal or visits to the Physicatric emergency room.

"Is this true, Emmett?" Carlisle asked, giving Emmett one last chance to come clean.

Bella looked at Emmett with pleading eyes. He couldn't go back to the hospital. She needed her fun-loving older brother not an empty husk of a man barely able to lift his head. Bella looked at Carlisle and bit his lip. He'd been pulling double shifts again and it showed. There were bags under his bloodshot eyes and streaks of grey near his temples. It was no wonder the new math teacher though he was their grandfather.

"It was just a prank," Emmett said softly, noticing the same things Bella had. "Nothing to worry about."

Carlisle exhaled slowly. "You'll let me know if there are any more...pranks or anything else you'd like to talk about, right?"

Emmett nodded. "I know, Dad."

Carlisle smiled. It made him happy to hear Emmett call him dad without thinking the word foster. After 12 years as his foster parent, the courts had finally given up on locating Emmett's biological parents and agreed to allow Carlisle to adopt him. The hearing to make things official would take place at the end of the month. Alice was planning an over the top celebration with a live band and a feast fit for a king.

Carlisle limped over to the window. Had it not been raining, he would have been able to see the faint glow of the hospital.

"Will the two of you help me with something?" he asked with a yawn.

Bella and Emmett nodded. They'd do anything to make things easier for him.

"We're getting a new placement." Carlisle continued. "Will you help me get the house ready?"

Bella wasn't surprised. After taking in Alice, Carlisle told the social worker two children were enough. When tragedy struck, he agreed in a heartbeat to take Bella. She was already there most days after school. All he needed to do was repaint the guest room and fill out some paperwork.

Two years later, the phone rang again. A fourteen-year-old boy had been abandoned in the emergency room with severe burns. A month later, Carlisle found Jasper crying in his hospital room. His twin sister was being sent to a group home on the other side of the state. Rose came home with them two days later and they'd been a family ever since. Carlisle said the twins would be their last placement but Bella knew sooner or later he'd change his tune. The twins had been with them for a full year. If anything, she was surprised this had happened sooner.

"How bad is it?" Emmett asked.

Friday night placements were the bad ones, the ones who couldn't wait until Monday morning with the placement office opened. They were the ones with burns, broken bones, and lost innocence. The ones whose stories made headlines and broke hearts. Four-year-old Emmett was a Friday night placement. He was found living in an abandoned apartment with singed clothing and a badly broken arm. While no one knew anything about Emmett's early childhood, his protruding ribs, food hoarding, and emotional outburst spun a tale of horrific abuse.

"He's been beaten over the head, probably with a bat or a 2x4. While he wouldn't hold still for a CT scan, we suspect he has a concussion," Carlisle said. "He seems rather...aggravated and is unable to tell us what happened to him. He's been asking for his 'beloved' but can't seem to remember her name or what she looks like." Carlisle clenched his fingers into a fist. "Someone, whos identity he can't or won't tell us, fused his eyes closed. He may end up needed surgery."

Bella winced. As someone who fell, no pun intended, a bit short in the coordination department, she'd received her fair share of head injuries. While being in pain and unable to think clearly was unpleasant, she always had her friends there to keep her spirits up. She couldn't imagine how awful it was to be blind and surrounded by strangers. It was no wonder the poor guy was a tad upset.

"Who would do something like that to him?" Emmett asked.

Carlisle shrugged. "The police think he may have been the victim of an assault or some type of gang violence."

Gang violence? In Forks? No way. Forks was the kind of place were locked doors were the exception rather than the norm.

"What do you think happened?" Bella asked.

"I'm not sure." He paused and scratched his head. "Judging by the wat he was dressed, Dr. Yorkie things he escaped from a cult. There are rumors of a group up north who call themselves vampires."

Midnight, Bella's cat, strolled into the room. She hissed at Emmett, swatted Carlisle's leg, then hopped onto Bella's lap. Bella hoped their new foster sibling wasn't involved in any weird occult stuff. Foster sibling or not, she'd kill him if he hurt her baby.

Emmett paled slightly. "Where did the police find him?"

"Highway six, just outside town," Carlisle replied. "Someone saw him wader out of the woods and called the police. She thought he was some kind of monster."

Bella stroked Midnight's head. It was common for dogs and cats to be abandoned in that area. When Carlisle wasn't busy at the hospital or volunteering at the high school, he loaded up his SUV with crates and rescued every stray he could catch. He'd managed to find new homes for all but one, a black cat who had eyes for only one human. No matter how far away her new home was, Midnight always escaped and returned to Bella. After she managed to find her way home from California, Carlisle gave up and let Bella keep Midnight despite his cat allergy. Who was he to argue with a cat who'd made up her mind?

"He's lucky to be alive," Carlisle said. "It's a miracle he didn't end up getting hit by a car or lost in the woods."

According to town legend, Forks Forst was the home to pack of man-eating wolves. While Bella didn't believe in man-eating wolves, she did believe in hypothermia, steep drop-offs, and poisonous berries. While he probably didn't feel that way now, her foster sibling was lucky. Plenty of people who weren't already injured entered the woods on foot and left in a body bag.

Emmett took a shaky breath. "What's his name?"

It was then Bella realized what he'd been getting at. Forks Woods contained more than trees and wild animals. It was almost home to a castle, the home of a long-dead prince and his family.

"Edward," Carlisle replied."You don't hear that name too often these days." Carlisle yawned. "I'm going upstairs to get some rest. Assuming he doesn't need surgery, Edward will be released tomorrow afternoon. Would the two of you mind getting the bedroom next to Bella's ready?"

Bella didn't recall responding but she must have agreed. The next thing she knew, she was helping Emmett change the sheets and dust the furniture.

Emmett sat down on the edge of the bed. "What are we going to do?"

As much as Bella wanted to say something comforting like, 'Maybe it's not the same Edward', or 'Everything is going to be fine," she knew those things weren't true. She knew it was the same Edward and everything was going to be far from fine. In less than 24 hours there would be nothing but 4 inches of drywall separating her from a monster.

Suddenly feeling exhausted, Bella collapsed next to Emmett. "I have no idea."

Emmett looked up at the ceiling. "Do you think he's going to remember it was me who knocked him on the head?"

"Hopefully not. Carlisle said his eyes were glued closed so we know he doesn't know what you look like."

Emmett closed his eyes. "We can't Dad bring a monster into the house. We've got to tell him what happened." Bella was there and still couldn't believe what happened. There was no way Carlisle, a man who put his faith in science and reason, would believe a fairy tale prince had come to life. At best, he'd think they were reluctant to accept another foster sibling. At worst, he'd think they'd both gone and insane and have them committed.

"I should have never told him Alice was a pixie." Emmett buried his face in a pillow and groaned. He's never going to believe us. We are so screwed."