Happy Wednesday kids! This is quickiest of quickie chapters, unbeta-d because I literally wrote it in the last 20 minutes. Riggosia said they'd like to hear about what Carlisle's up to, and y'know what I agree. So here's literally less than 500 words of Carlisle freaking out, we'll be back to Bella on Saturday xx
CPOV
Carlisle growled at the papers before him, their words and images blurred into a vat of pointless, useless information. None of this was helpful, none of this was of any use to him. It was just relentless busywork heaped onto him by Tanya to stop him running to Texas at the slightest provocation.
The lady in question glanced sharply up at him.
"I think you will find that your papers have done very little to provoke you, Carlisle."
He grunted and pushed them away from him. "I don't even know what we are doing here."
"We are helping Bella."
"No we're not!" He exclaimed, pushing back in his chair and pacing about the room. "If we were helping Bella we would be seven hundred miles south right now!"
"Must I have this conversation with you every day, Carlisle?" Tanya stayed in her seat, her voice calm; her stern grip on the table before her was the only signal to her true frustration. "We shall use the information given to us to prepare a plan for dealing with the Romanian Coven. To help Bella in the long term. In the meantime, you must trust Kate and Garrett to keep an eye on her; and you must trust Bella to keep herself safe. She is more capable than you give her credit for."
His eyes flashed. "I know how capable she is. Even a girl with her talents and ingenuity does not stand a chance against twenty rabid newborns."
"And neither do you."
Tanya stared him down, not flinching from the furious eye contact until the tension drained from his spine and he fell back into his seat.
"We have had no word from her in a month," He whispered. "What if we never see her again? What if I sent my only child to her death?"
She leant forwards and gripped his hand. Loose curls of her ice blond hair fell onto her shoulders, she and Irina had been less scrupulous in their appearances in recent months. Kate had given up altogether.
"There is no way you could have stopped her." She squeezed. "At least this way she is not alone."
He sighed into the silence, his eyes falling back to the maps in front of him. He would take one more second, he told himself, one more second to drown. Then he would return to his useless work, swallow his worry and settle to sit and wait for word from the daughter he loved.
Little did he know that Kate was racing towards the house, hastily scribbled note clenched in hand, carrying news that his child was alright.