Not long to go until Emmett now! I think I said a few chapters before that it would be four chapters, but we've got this one, the next one, and then that one for definite now. Monica's birthday party was mentioned last chapter - and that's the club scene - it's 5 days away from the funeral!

Chapter 23

"What d'you mean he's gone to Volterra...? How... Why would he...? I'm sorry, I don't understand..."

"Rosalie made a terrible mistake," Carlisle said, holding Carys so tight that she couldn't pull away to see him, could only hear how terrified he remained. "She thought telling him about Bella's death might allow us to be together again, to return to our lives without betraying him..."

That Rosalie could have made the mistake of believing Bella wasn't Edward's mate after the way he abandoned her and forced his family to as well, wasn't much of a surprise. It was possible for vampires to find a companion - love, even, for a time - with someone who wasn't their mate, their true love. In some twisted way, she would have thought Bella's death meant the end of the separation and worry.

Her wide-eyed gaze fixed on the wall, Carys stuttered, swallowed, and attempted to sound less shocked. "No-None of you talked?"

Carlisle slowly shook his head. "I was a little distracted," he said, drawing a sharp breath from her in response. "No. Don't you dare," he snapped, pressing his lips against her ear. "Otherwise, every time we were together since we left, every time before that, every time after, whenever I was or will be distracted by my own life or happiness, it would be me putting us all at risk."

"You were distracted by all this..."

"As soon as he went to Volterra, whatever happened next was entirely out of my hands - out of anyone's hands but the Volturi's. He didn't call me, Carys. He called Bella's home," he said, burying his face in her neck and giving in to his emotion once more. If he'd been able to shed them, she knew she would have felt the evidence of his tears. "Jacob Black. Edward... Said-" his words became so garbled, she couldn't make them out for a few seconds. "-was me..., you and Charlie were at..." He shuddered.

She pieced it together as he allowed her to shift just enough to wrest one arm free of his hold so she could stroke his hair. Perhaps he meant Edward had said something to do with him - Carlisle - and that Jacob had replied that Charlie and she were at... Harry's funeral? It must have been that, or else why would he have mentioned Jacob?

"And he thought it was...?" she mused aloud, trailing off. The implications hit her, and she whispered, "Oh my god. He thought it was Bella's."

Carlisle recovered himself from the very brink, but the depth of his suffering was clear. Pulling away, he cupped her face, pressing his forehead to hers. Nodding near constantly, speaking just slowly enough for her to hear him between shuddering breaths, he managed:

"Aro likes me... He thinks of me as an oddity; I amuse him. He's promised me he'll say no. But when they refuse, Edward is dramatic enough to make such a scene as would force their hand... Alice will be viewed as his accomplice if god forbid anything happens once she's there. And to make matters worse where it shouldn't be a possibility - Bella's presence... If one of them puts so much as a step out of line and exposes themselves... They. All. Die.

"He... He went there. Without so much as a word, he went... There... And I can't... I can't...," he gasped for air, fearing the loss of his children, grieving his inability to stop their potential deaths. "If I go there, especially now that Alice has-"

"Alice and Edward," she whispered blankly. "They're powerful... The type of abilities Aro would crave adding to his arsenal."

"Yes," he bit out. "He'll offer them places in the Guard. They'll say no. He won't be able to use Chelsea's power against Alice or Edward alone - she's not strong enough to break the bonds of true love - but it could bind Bella and Edward to him. Still, if I went as well..."

The two strongest threats in his family - from the Volturi's limited point of view, at least - plus Carlisle, would equal:

"It would look like you're presenting your power, searching for their weaknesses," Carys continued for him, a tear slipping down her cheek. "If you don't want the rest of your family to die, there's nothing else you can do..."

"The only hope is that Aro's interest and affection for me hold true - to let him live for long enough for... After what... He just needs to see..."

He fell silent, then took up his chant again. Carys joined him, following the words, letting her mind wander between verses. Eventually, her thoughts took up the cadence.

Carlisle hadn't said it. He hadn't needed to. She knew Aro's power. If he touched Edward, he would know everything Edward knew. He would hear every thought Edward had heard. He would see Bella, and he would know about Carys as well. Edward hadn't necessarily sealed his own fate just as yet, but the moment he set foot in Volterra, he had sealed Bella and Carys'. It was just a matter of time.

And he had done so by going to the one place he must have known would hurt Carlisle the most.

Aro liked Carlisle, as he'd said, but Aro had liked testing his dedication to his diet more. Caius had enjoyed the sadistic nature of their actions - the bodies they left bleeding, to die alone and in excruciating pain outside Carlisle's room to test him.

He had taken their deaths - each one had chipped away at his soul - they had traumatised him in a way. Carlisle - so incredibly compassionate - had been forced to endure deaths he believed he could have prevented by not existing. Not having been drawn in by the civilisation of the Volturi.

Carys closed her eyes and settled against him, losing consciousness over time.

"Need to call Charlie...," she murmured, the moment before sleep claimed her.

When she woke, she found herself lying on a sofa, wrapped in their warm duvet.

It took some time for her to get her bearings, to rouse herself enough to realise Carlisle was still kneeling before the cross beside her. One of her hands was clasped in his beneath the covers, and he was on the phone.

"-I agree... No, I can assure you, Edward and Alice are in just as much trouble... Yes... Yes..." He turned his head and lifted their hands to his lips, meeting her half-asleep gaze. "I'll let you know as soon as I have word... I can't apologise enough for... Yes... Right. We'll speak then. Goodbye."

Carys cleared her throat. "Charlie?" she asked.

Carlisle nodded, slumping against her and the sofa. "Bella left a note to say that Edward was in trouble, she was leaving with Alice, and Charlie could ground her when she got home."

Suddenly wide awake, she met his tired expression with a horrified one of her own. "That's all she said!?" she cried. Carlisle nodded again, resting his face against her middle, over the covers. "She... She ran off, potentially to her death. And all she left Charlie with, was-"

"Yes. I imagine she didn't have much time to think of an excuse, but I agree."

"So, Charlie came home from his best friend's funeral, to find his daughter gone, and no more than a note saying-"

"Apparently," Carlisle cut across her dryly, "she mentioned something about knowing it wasn't a good time..."

Carys didn't need to see Carlisle's expression. It was written in his tone.

"I'm not sure what more I would've done in her position, but I sure as bloody-" Carys cut off, trying again when she had a handle on her second-hand anger. "I'm pretty sure," she seethed, "he deserved at least a lie - something like 'I've gone with Alice to get her stuff'? or 'I'm fucking off for a few days, but don't worry, it's to a spa - unless something really bad happens, it'll be okay'? I don't know... Something less 'remember that guy who destroyed me, heart and soul, six months ago? Well I'm running off - pretty much implied - to put myself in grave danger because he's got himself in trouble. Might come back. Might not. If I do, ground me, it's cool."

Carlisle did not immediately respond.

"God, Charlie must be scared out of his mind..." Carys threw the covers off, dislodging Carlisle, who let out a low cry of protest. "We've got to go see him. He-"

Carlisle captured her face, stopping her halfway up from the sofa. He was far more composed than he had been when she'd fallen asleep.

"He'll be fine for the night, Carys, but he's invited me-"

"Demanded your presence, more like?"

"-invited me for coffee tomorrow, to discuss the matter further."

"So.. He's...?"

"Demanded my presence, yes. But-but it'll be okay, Darling. It will be, I promise."

The look in his eyes - the shining certainty - told her he had passed by grief and fallen headfirst into denial.

"Carlisle...," she murmured. Opening her legs, swinging her feet to the floor, and shuffling forward to bracket his chest, she gently stroked his hair away from his face. "Lovely... It might not... What've you heard...?"

He shook his head, smiling gently, taking her hand and pressing kisses to the back of it again. "It'll all be okay, you'll see. I've spoken to the others. They're coming home, and we'll meet them when they get here... And as for... As for..." He wavered, unable to say the names, and she realised he was holding onto his calm geniality as a desperate mask.

"They'll be back in a couple of days," she assured him, forcing a smile to match his. He exhaled sharply, rising up onto his knees, abandoning her hand in favour of hugging her, his face pressed to her chest. "It'll all be fine... They'll be back..."

"Come on," he said, pulling away long minutes later to fix her with a grin. "Let's get you some food. I thought we could wait until they're all back to have our big holi-day. What do you think? Would you mind that?"

Carys shook her head, smiling, fighting the tears that welled up in response to the flicker of intense fear in his eyes.

He distracted them both by cooking for her, refusing to let her help with anything other than offering an opinion on the 'to taste' parts of the recipe. He kept up a near-constant commentary throughout, talking about the semester he'd spent guest lecturing at Cornell when he'd left Forks. She didn't mention she knew all of it already. He needed to talk, and his voice soothed her.

When she asked, lying in bed a while later, being lulled to sleep, "When're the others getting back?" he replied:

"On Monday, I expect. They're getting things together now... Esme's not doing well..."

Sunday passed Carys by in a strange drawn-out daze. She felt... Nothing, exactly, and then sometimes everything at once. The nothingness far outweighed the everythingness, and she preferred it, so she sought it out.

Carlisle alternated between holding Carys as if she were a lifeline, locking himself in his office, praying to his father's cross, cooking her meals she could only pick at, and - when suddenly he hid behind his mask again - chatting, smiling softly, putting on a show neither of them believed, but both of them pretended to.

It was with something between his intense fear and the genial mask that he left the house in the waning light of mid-afternoon, to visit Charlie.

He was gone for less than two hours, and when he returned, a deep moroseness had descended upon him.

Carys didn't see him for hours after he'd paused with one foot on the stairs, staring blankly in her direction until she'd nodded and he'd locked himself away once more. When he emerged, he sought her out and found her lying in their bed, reading to distract herself. Without a word, he slowly undressed them both and sought comfort from her body, losing himself to their gentle lovemaking.

It was around five in the morning that he roused her to the news that Edward, Bella, and Alice were waiting to return from Volterra.

Volterra was nine hours ahead of Forks, and Edward had attempted to step into the light - Carlisle informed her - when the sun reached its highest point above the city. The clamouring crowds which had convened to celebrate Saint Marcus, the supposed eradicator of vampires from Volterra, had almost been privy to their continued and very unmythical existence.

The almost-declaration was lost to the humans, who wore cloaks the colour of the Volturi's to celebrate a vampire king they believed to be anything but.

Bella had caught Edward in time.

Just in time.

And, as they'd each silently accepted two days before, Aro had let the trio go with the caveat both Bella and Carys were either killed or changed. Alice would give them more information when she returned. There were too many ears in Volterra, and they would have to wait for nighttime to descend before they were allowed to leave.

Still. It was a matter of time. How long the Volturi would wait. And neither believed their patience would necessarily stretch to six years.

As they had on Saturday, Carys and Carlisle rose for the day and parted.

While he went to get dressed, she ventured to the shower, standing under the hot water until he tapped on the door to let her know she needed to get ready for work.

She'd been dressing in a combination of his clothes and the ones she'd packed in her suitcase, but when she made her way out to the walk-in wardrobe, she found it partially filled with her work clothes, as it had been months before. He must have made the trip when she was asleep, or perhaps he'd done so after visiting Charlie.

Carys dressed in silence, forwent breakfast, Carlisle drove her to work, they kissed goodbye, and the day passed in a blur of activity.

Unlike Sunday, she had countless things to occupy herself, and she threw herself into her work. She more than made up for two of the three and a half days she'd missed the week before. She thought it was strange that that could happen sometimes. That a mindlessness could take over, and productivity could increase tenfold when you least expected it, but most needed the distraction.

Charlie sought her out halfway through the afternoon, leaning against the door of the office, making small talk with Sandra until Carys had finished what she was doing. He looked as if he'd not managed much sleep the night before, and he was dressed for work himself. She tried not to drag her feet for too long.

Charlie pushed off the doorjamb and headed down the corridor when she finally joined him, glancing back at the door through which Sandra was clearly attempting to eavedrop. He leaned in and quietly sighed, "Carlisle tells me Bells'll be home soon?"

Carys nodded. Not quite meeting his eye, she wrapped her arms around herself and ducked her head, toeing the floor.

"Reckon they'll be back tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Carys managed. She'd hardly spoken all day. Not that it'd mattered all that much before. "Uh, they erm..." She controlled her breathing, hiding behind a sigh as she twitched her nose. When she looked up again, meeting his eye on a level thanks to her heels, she was sure she'd covered her feelings well. "They've got a lot to answer for," she said, touching her tongue to her back teeth as if lost in thought, cocking her hip so that she could extend one leg and roll her ankle, pressing back against the heel of her shoe. "Yeah... A lot to answer for... D'you know what you're gonna do with Bella?"

Charlie, hands-on-hips, turned to face the end of the corridor, and then back to her. He let out a mildly frustrated sigh, shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders.

"When she's back and safe? I don't know. I'm probably going to..." He hung his head. "I don't know, Carys. Last year she leaves him and ends up falling out a hotel window? Then he leaves her, and she becomes a zombie... After all that, Alice comes back and two days later, they're gone again? I just..." Running his hand over his brow, he shook his head again.

"Maybe you and Carlisle'll only know how you'll react when you see them."

"Yeah, I think you can put money on 'angry' and 'disappointed'," he said, standing tall once again. Rolling his shoulders back, he looked around the corridor.

Carys flashed a smile and lifted a hand in farewell when he returned to his shift half a minute later with a heavy sigh. She ignored Sandra's attempts to find out what was going on, stared at her screen, and fell back into her work, but she was cornered right before she left the office for the night.

"Carys," Sandra called out, drawing her attention.

She turned away from the door, and fixed her with a tired stare, trying to cover the worst of her emotions. "Is everything alright?" she asked, hoping it wasn't something to do with the state of her work.

"Take tomorrow off," Sandra said, surprising her.

"What?"

"Take tomorrow. You can make up for it with full Thursdays for the next few weeks."

Open-mouthed, Carys gaped. "Are-are you...? W..."

"Don't ask why. Just go before I change my mind."

"Thank... Thanks, Sandra," she managed, biting her lip and frowning a little as she swung her bag over her shoulder, wrapped her arms around herself, and, head down, made her way outside the building.

Carlisle was waiting for her when she reached the parking lot. He drove on to meet her so that she didn't have to walk all the way, and she opened the door and slid in.

When they reached the house, neither of them moved for a while, staring ahead, not simply at the building, but to what came next.

"Carlisle...," she finally whispered, and he took her hand in his.

"I know," he sighed.

Once again, nothing more needed to be said.

Later, she sat huddled up on the sofa, watching him add to the living room furniture and set the room to rights without disturbing the tree. The other areas - the candelabra flanked dancefloor, and the dinner set for two, she said to take down for the moment. He, in turn, promised her they would celebrate his birthday and their anniversary, both of which they'd missed in the months following Christmas, before her birthday in June.

Carys dropped her forehead to her knees and closed her eyes.

For hours, she simply listened.

"Would you prefer to stay here tomorrow?" Carlisle asked, sinking down next to her, gently rubbing her back. Carys shook her head against her knees. "We'll meet everyone in Seattle in the morning then, get your car, spend a little time before we pick them up from the airport."

She leaned against him, allowing him to fold himself around her. Lifting her legs over his, he shifted their positions, cradling her as he kissed her hair. He put something on the television when, after a while, she asked him to, and the mood lifted a little when he switched to BBC America - a reminder of a home he'd not experienced for many years, and one she missed more than ever.

Exhausted, she allowed the sound of the television and Carlisle's steady breathing to send her to sleep early the next morning.

A/N: Thank you to chellekathrynnn, deniermom, Ella (Right? Leah did not want him, or any of the others, there. Yes, he always knows exactly what he's doing, but he's so self-absorbed... I read a review of Midnight Sun that said it was right on brand for him that the book was so long, and that he heard everyone's thoughts, but that you basically got little to no insight into other people because it was all about him.), Indiana Jones 1935, JosieNightOwl, Estene (thank you so much - that means so much! Thank you! I really love her, she spent a while rocking about my brain as a NextGenHP OC, but once she came to this, she really came into her own. Not to sound weird, but she clicked with the story.), Bimbumel2, vancabreuniter, mariananininha, Guest (Not Carlisle's birthday, a triple celebration of the three major events they missed sharing over the time he was gone), JosieNightOwl, jigglypuffs, souverian, GhostWriter71, TDI- Ryro- Eclares, and BMBMDooDoo- Doo- Doo- Doo (hahaha! Love it!) for your reviews!