I've not read Midnight Sun, so I'm kind of going along the route of what I imagine in this chapter, than new canon... That'll probably continue because I'm not entirely sure I can write as often as I am if I'm keeping up with reading Midnight Sun as well as re-reading the parts of Twilight I need to to merge the two stories together... Hope that's okay...

Thank you to Jasper's Hope (he's too perfect, it hurts. Also, that's exactly what I was going for with the slow build! I'm glad it comes across!), paninihead (you had me on the first half! It makes my heart hurt too, but we'll make it to the other side, I hope!), magicbustrip (I was trying to work out how bad it would have to be for Rosalie to call Carlisle home and I couldn't think of anything else! I'm glad you got a kick out of it!), and souverian (if there's one thing I know, it's how to be awkward! I want them to be as 'normal' a couple as I can make them, to show their relationship in a different way, and I'm really excited you think that way - looking forward to getting to that part of the story so you can find out!) for your reviews!

Chapter 10

Three hours after Carlisle picked her up, Carys found herself in an incredibly strange position - one she'd never really expected to be in.

Watching a film with three vampires.

Well, watching a film with two vampires whilst a third sat beside her reading a book and pretending to pay attention whenever his son reminded him he'd agreed to spend time with them as much as Carys had.

They'd been accosted by the pair shortly after Carys had dropped her bag off in Carlisle's room and he'd shown her that the two doors led on to his ensuite and walk-in wardrobe respectively.

She still wasn't sure how she felt about the fact that he owned more ties than she did articles of clothing, but she was more impressed and humbled that one of his children had thought to stock the rooms with things she'd appreciate, like conditioner to suit her hair.

She'd been almost as humbled by the fact that Rosalie, though not nearly as enthusiastic as Emmett that she join them, had left the room and returned with a large bowl of popcorn when her stomach had rumbled after about an hour. Yes, she'd thrust the bowl at her dismissively, but she appreciated it all the same, and somehow felt as if it was a far bigger gesture than Rosalie wanted to let on.

As she sat beside Carlisle and tried not to bring attention to herself by piling too much food in her mouth at once, Emmett suddenly paused the film.

It was just after one of the characters appeared to meet their end, and Carys abandoned her attempt in favour of looking at him in confusion. Of all the places to pause, she thought it must have been the worst - the most suspenseful part of the film, in her opinion anyway. She dropped the handful of popcorn back into the large bowl and rubbed the crumbs from her fingers, watching him expectantly.

It took a couple of seconds of Emmett and Rosalie staring over Carys' shoulder at Carlisle for him to raise his head, but when he did, Emmett finally began to speak.

"We now interrupt our regularly scheduled program," he announced, his voice deepening as he held his fist out in front of him as if it were a microphone, "to go to Dr Rosalie Hale for another is it feasible they survived segment." He winked at Carys as he held his fist a few inches under Rosalie's chin. "Drum-roll please."

Carys, now finding the interruption more amusing than strange, obeyed, placing the bowl onto the coffee table and then slapping her hands against her thighs, increasing the speed until she stopped suddenly.

"No." Rosalie deadpanned.

Carys burst out laughing and snatched a cushion from the sofa to cover the bottom half of her face as Rosalie's lips twitched and she broke out into a begrudging smile.

"Dr Carlisle Cullen," Emmett followed, holding his fist out to Carlisle, "do you concur with your esteemed colleague?"

Carlisle rolled his eyes and shook his head, but leaned across Carys to speak into Emmett's fist all the same.

"If Rosalie says so, then I concur," he murmured tiredly, before pulling back.

"Well, you heard it here first, folks," Emmett told Carys, reaching across the long sofa to tug the cushion from her hands as he nodded seriously. "Definitely wouldn't have survived. Let's go back to the source material to find out..."

He pressed play and Carys pushed herself out of Carlisle's arms to the edge of her seat, catching Emmett's smile in her peripheral vision.

"And... They were wrong," he said solemnly, shaking his head at them both when the hero mysteriously survived without so much as visiting a hospital. "Upwards of forty college degrees in this room, and they still can't tell... Worrying, isn't it?"

Carys pressed her hand to her mouth as she nodded. "Shocking, really," she agreed dryly, choosing not to dwell on the fact that she was likely the least intelligent or accomplished person in the room.

"He was knocked out cold and left for dead, locked in a burning building," Rosalie complained, rolling her eyes as she settled back against Emmett's chest. "Are we supposed to imagine he's impervious to fire?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe they injected him with something?" Emmett countered, twitching the veil of hair that had fallen over the side of her face back so that he could meet her eye.

"Injected him with what? Venom? That'd take three days, need I remind you about the fire-?"

Carys settled back and allowed Carlisle to tug her gently against his side again as she watched the pair argue back and forth, more intrigued by them than the rest of the film. When she glanced in his direction, Carlisle was still completely engrossed in his book, so she at least knew she wasn't ignoring him for the sake of his children.

She grinned when Emmett predictably lost the argument as the credits began to roll, and they were still discussing the matter in low tones when Carlisle finally pulled himself from his book, checked his watch, and smiled at Carys.

"Do you fancy staying down here, or should we go up?" He asked her quietly, before smiling and nodding at Rosalie and Emmett when they headed for the stairs.

"Goodnight!" Carys called awkwardly after them, and the pair stopped halfway up to stare at her for a moment before Emmett returned the compliment and they continued on their way.

"So, bed, or...?" Carlisle asked again after a few moments of silence, his smile growing when Carys' stomach rumbled again and she blushed.

"I'd say feed yer human first, Carl-isle," came the amused response from somewhere behind Carys.

She whipped around and waved at Jasper, who was standing about as far away from them as possible, before sliding to the edge of her seat again to return Alice's hug when she skipped across to them.

Though she'd only really spent an afternoon with them all at Carlisle's party, Carys had been informed by an embarrassed Carlisle that Alice had seen enough about her over the past 16 months that she felt she knew her better than Carys might think.

Carys, for her part, liked the pixie-like teenager's exuberance as much as Rosalie's self-assured nature, and was even coming around to the idea of having apparently met her before.

"We're going hunting," Alice explained when she pulled back a little, pointing at her dark eyes. "That's why Jasper's staying away."

"So... It's not because I smell?" Carys asked with a wry grin, allowing Alice to pull her in for a second hug as she looked at Jasper over his other half's shoulder.

"Not at all, ma'-Carys," he corrected himself with an incline of his head when she narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head. He put more emphasis on the beginning of her name, sounding it out as if it were Care rather than Cah, but she didn't mind the quirk of his accent. "Well... Maybe you just smell too good?" He suggested with a lopsided smile.

Carys began to chuckle before the reality hit her that she was being squeezed by a small hungry vampire whilst another was suggesting she smelt too good to be around, and her eyes widened slightly.

Jasper laughed outright as Alice let her go and Carlisle lifted her backwards so that she sat on the other side of him, her legs laid over the top of his.

"Sorry," Carys whispered pressing her cheek against Carlisle's shoulder as she addressed the pair, knowing they could still hear her perfectly well. "I'm not scared of you exactly, just the..."

"Inherent threat of death?" Alice supplied, her voice tinkling far too happily for Carys' comfort.

She nodded and drew her legs up a little, wrapping her arms around her thighs. "I'll get over it soon, won't I?" She asked Carlisle, leaning away so that she could look him in the eye.

"You're not scared," Jasper amended, cocking his head to the side. "Nervous, confused, happy, ver'much in love, but not really scared like before."

"Can you feel all emotions and feelings?" Carys asked him, a thought occurring to her. When he nodded, she glanced at Alice. "How about Alice's bloodlust?"

Jasper smirked as Alice gasped and her eyes grew round. "It's under control, don't you worry yerself about tha' now," he drawled.

"Is that partly because of you?" She asked him, noting Alice's small frown clear as she began to smile lovingly in Jasper's direction.

"Maybe... Maybe not," he informed her cryptically, holding out a hand for Alice as she skipped back across the room to him. "Y'all have yerselves a good night now, we'd better be off," he added smoothly before they jumped from the window.

Carlisle chuckled as Carys squealed and pressed her hand to her chest, her heart skipping a beat before she remembered they couldn't be hurt.

She was just thinking about how much she liked Carlisle's children - though really they were all far, far older than her and she supposed she shouldn't think of them as the ages they were frozen at, when her stomach rumbled again and she remembered her popcorn.

"Look the other way," she told Carlisle seriously as she grabbed the bowl from the table again. "Neither of us want you to see this."

Carlisle shook his head as he chuckled again and turned in his seat, holding his book so close to his face that if Carys' mother had been there, she'd warn him about ruining his eyesight.

For good measure, Carys turned in the other direction as well, pressing her back to his so that she knew exactly where he was as she began to attack the popcorn.

"You know," he began, quietly amused as he snapped his book closed a few minutes later and reached for another. "I can still hear how fast you're eating, don't you?"

Carys paused mid-chew and held her breath for a moment before swallowing hard and sighing.

"A gentleman wouldn't point that out," she protested through her grimace. "A gentleman would pretend he hadn't heard anything and be thankful the human has food in the first place."

Though she didn't hear anything, Carlisle's back quaked with laughter.

"It's a good job I'm not a gentleman then, isn't it?" He asked, falling silent for a couple of seconds. "Gluttony is a sin..." He murmured as she finished the last of the popped pieces, the smile evident in his voice.

"Says... The one who..." She waved her hand in front of herself as she tried to think of something he did that could be called gluttonous. "Regularly eats entire deer in one sitting," she finished lamely as she winced.

Carlisle scoffed loudly and leaned forwards, reaching behind him to run his hand back and forth over her thigh in what she imagined was supposed to be a soothing gesture. He stilled a moment later as Carys' heart rate picked up, her breathing stuttered, and her blush deepened.

They sat in silence for a moment, the only sound in the room Carys' heartbeat and breathing, before Carlisle cleared his throat and Carys quickly brushed his hand away from her upper thigh and escaped to the kitchen, her face burning as she dumped the kernels in the otherwise empty bin.

"You need tea-towels," she informed him as she returned to the lounge a minute or two later, heading straight for the stairs, wiping her hands dry on her jeans.

Carlisle caught up with her at the top, hopping the last five stairs as if they were nothing and wrapping the arm that wasn't carrying books around her waist.

"Where's Edward?" She asked, sparing him a glance as he opened his bedroom door and ushered her in.

"I'm not sure," he informed her, sliding his suddenly empty arms around her waist as he leaned down to steal a kiss that made her toes curl. "Is it wrong of me," he wondered aloud when he finally withdrew, "to prefer your attention to be on me and not my son at times like this?"

Carys covered her face with her forearms as she twisted out of his arms and headed for one of the doors leading from his bedroom. "I don't know what you mean," she denied, popping her head back around the door-jamb as she pointed towards the hallway and mouthed: "but I do know we're not having this conversation with your kids next door."

Carlisle dropped his head back for a moment before he crossed the room and took her hand.

"But it is a conversation we should be having one day?" He asked her quietly. Though he didn't add soon, she had the feeling it was implied.

She was glad they'd spent a week sharing a bed and getting to know more and more about each other's lives as they'd talked, otherwise, she was sure it would have been far more awkward to think about discussing the next stages of their relationship than it was. They'd known each other well enough before, but there was a difference between before and after they'd shared the deeper things, the types of things Carys felt more comfortable sharing now that they were together, rather than when they were friends or going on their first dates.

"Obviously, I just thought lust was a sin, or whatever you were taught in your day?" She questioned with a light frown, still mouthing her words.

"I like to think my thoughts on the matter have changed since I was young," he explained softly, just loudly enough for her to hear, "but it really depended on a few different factors, and things were more liberal for many of us than people like to think. I wasn't a puritan, for instance."

"Well..." Carys looked to the side as she rubbed her temple. "I think we both know where I stand... I mean..." She avoided his eye as she gestured. "I've slept with-? Lain with? People before, so..."

"I do understand modern English," Carlisle reminded her gently, bringing her hand to his lips. "So have I."

Carys raised her eyebrows and winked in an exaggerated manner that had Carlisle closing his eyes as he pressed his lips together and sighed. She tapped him lightly on the cheek in an effort to get his attention once she'd laughed almost silently for a few moments.

"How about...?" She began, nodding her head a little as she spoke. "We obviously don't do anything tonight-"

"Considering the grown adults who are currently-" He stopped and bit his lip against a smile when she held up a hand.

"Don't want to know. But yes." She nodded again. "Considering two of your children are next door, another two could come back at any time, and you have no idea where the last one - the one who can read minds - is... How about we make like we're human-" she broke off, waiting for his laughter to abate before she continued seriously, "-and let it come up naturally?"

Carlisle ran a finger down the bridge of his nose. "I just want to be sure," he explained, his lips twisting, "that I didn't cross any boundaries when I-"

"No," Carys assured him, speaking aloud for the first time since they'd begun their conversation, "not at all. I just didn't know where your head was at, and I didn't want to make things awkward."

"So... It would be okay if I touched you more? You would tell me if I made you uncomfortable?"

"Yes, and you should do the same for me," Carys agreed with a smile, pulling away so that she could begin to close the bathroom door. Just before he moved out of view, she added cheekily, "though considering you've only really touched my face, hair, waist, back, and accidentally my thigh so far, I think you're good."

When she'd showered, brushed her teeth, and changed, Carys left the bathroom and crossed to where Carlisle sat against his headboard with a book on his lap as she swept her moisturising cream over her face and neck, climbing unsteadily across to sit beside him. A thought had occurred to her halfway through her routine that she couldn't wait to find the answer to.

"Is it just me," she asked as Carlisle wiped a stray bit of cream from her cheek and she rubbed her hands together, "or did Rosalie seem a bit different to last time I was here?"

Carlisle slid a bookmark that Carys knew he didn't really need but liked to use into his book and closed it, laying it on the bedside table. "Ah, well, that probably had something to do with Emmett," he whispered as they settled down against the pillows and he tugged the duvet over them both. "He reminded her that you had a similar outlook on the idea of vampirism."

"You mean it's a good thing I threw up when I found out?" She asked seriously as they wrapped their arms around each other. She'd meant her tone to sound more teasing, but her confusion had changed it at the last moment.

Carlisle pressed an affectionate kiss to her cheek before he answered. "I wouldn't imagine you're going to be friends any time soon, but she's had well over a year to warm up to the idea of you... And, yes, the fact that you didn't instantly wish to abandon your human life won you some points... Speaking of which, did you call your mother?"

Carys pressed a hand to her mouth as she yawned. "Yeah... It's strange knowing she's in the same country again, even though she's so far away... They're doing well, but she's still got so much going on, she said it might be better if I visited after the baby's born. Give them some time to settle in as a new family, you know...?"

"How do you feel about that?" He asked thoughtfully.

She avoided his eye and rolled to her side, facing away from him as she ran her fingers over his, examining his hand.

"I..." She pulled his arms around her more securely and worried her lip between her teeth. "I think it's late and I should go to sleep."

"Darling..."

"What did you think when you first heard jazz?" She asked, forcing a light tone as she stared at a painting across from her, continuing their conversation from the night before.

"Darling..." Carlisle repeated, dropping a kiss to her shoulder. She thought for a moment that he wasn't going to answer, but then he sighed and tightened his arms around her. "Well... I suppose I-"

Carlisle's words faded out quickly as she lost herself in her thoughts. It wasn't that she wasn't interested, she was, she wanted to know everything he'd thought and felt about every turning point in history she could think of, but...

Well, she was thankful Jasper and Edward weren't there, though she imagined Carlisle could tell how she was feeling without them. She wondered how long he'd been waiting to bring it up.

It was the way her mum had said new family that got her.

She knew that she'd decided to stay in Forks no matter what, but her mum didn't know that yet, and it almost felt as if she'd said it so off-hand - so easily, that it got to Carys in a way she couldn't explain.

Was she allowed to be upset about it? She wondered to herself as she blinked away the tears that pricked her eyes. It wasn't like her mum was saying she wasn't part of their family anymore...

Or was she more upset because she knew that even though they'd agreed to shelve the conversation about what would happen in the future, Carys already knew that she would probably take the selfish route and want to spend her life with Carlisle - whether that be as a human or...

She didn't want to dwell on the thought of that second option - for the very reason Rosalie wasn't quite as stand-offish as she'd been before.

"I might ask Sarah if she wants to do something on Friday," Carys murmured, only realising Carlisle was still talking when he stopped to let her speak. "Sorry," she added, lifting his hand to her lips.

He pressed his face to her shoulder and spoke against the fabric of her pyjama shirt. "I think that sounds like a good idea... Do you think it'd help?"

She shrugged lightly and rolled back towards him, hiding her face in his top. "I don't know," she admitted sadly, "I just... I don't know why I'm upset..."

Carlisle tucked her against him and laid on his back, running a hand up and down her spine as he tangled their fingers together.

Carys appreciated his calming silence as she closed her eyes and gave in to another yawn, almost as much as she appreciated the way he changed his breathing, taking slow and even breaths that lulled her to sleep almost as easily as if he were reciting another medical journal.


Carys woke with a jolt the next morning to the sound of shouting from downstairs.

"-SO BLOODY STUPID! NOT TO MENTION, A COMPLETE-"

Rosalie's angry yell cut off suddenly as Carys sat up in surprise, and she jumped as a door slammed a second later.

"What's going on?" She asked Carlisle when he came in a minute later with a mug in his hands. She thanked him when he handed her the coffee as he sat down on the edge of the bed, and placed it on the bedside table before she scooched across to rub a hand over his shoulder.

He looked resigned as he turned his head to look at her. "Edward spent the night at Isabella's..." He informed her quietly, sighing as he ran a hand through his hair. "And not everyone's happy about it."

"Were they like this when you stayed at mine?" Carys asked him worriedly, glancing at the door.

It didn't occur to her to ask whether or not Bella knew about Edward's presence. She was far too secure in the knowledge that Carlisle wouldn't do such a thing as stay the night without her permission to so much as suspect his son might.

"No," he assured her with a faint smile. "No, in fact, I believe they were beginning to wonder why it was taking so long."

"Ah..." She nodded slowly, squinting her right eye as she calculated. "So is it because he's... A hundred or so, and she's seventeen. It's a-"

"Coffee tomorrow?" He asked quickly, using the signal Carys had suggested he use if there was something he wanted to put off until his children couldn't hear but he was still open to talking about.

She nodded quickly and squeezed his hard shoulder as reassuringly as she could before she slid from the bed and headed towards the bathroom.

When she returned, Carlisle kissed her, his lips lingering before he pulled back. "I think I might need to do some damage control," he whispered, glancing at the closed bedroom door.

"How about I see if Sarah's free tonight instead of Friday?" She cut in, smiling as he closed his eyes briefly and pulled her in for a hug.

That day, after Carlisle dropped Carys off at home so that she could pick up her car, she didn't see him again for the rest of the day.

Luckily, Sarah had been more than happy to go for a drink after her shift, and they'd taken a bottle of wine to Carys'.

Their conversation had flitted quickly and often between Sarah's dislike of Monica's new perfume (which was apparently far more pungent than Mon wanted to admit), Richard's recent decision to go in for a promotion in Seattle (which had been a surprise to them all), Carys' issue with her family being so close and yet so far away (which Sarah had dismissed with a tipsy wave of her hand, explaining that of course Carys would feel that way, it was the reality setting in that she wasn't going back to England anytime soon), and Sarah's suspicion that Carys and Carlisle were more than friends (which Carys neither confirmed nor denied as Monica came to pick her girlfriend up before she could force it out of her).

The next day, she slept over at the Cullens' again, and so it wasn't until that Friday, the fourth of March, when Carys and Carlisle managed to spend the night together away from his children, that he was able to explain why Rosalie had been so annoyed at Edward.

A/N: Rosalie isn't any more angry about the situation than I imagine she was in the books, but without Esme there all the time, Carlisle has to handle things alone at times.

P.s. I wrote this on my phone, so fingers crossed there aren't any mistakes.