A/N1: Updating not one, but TWO stories today! I'm just so elated my exams are over.


"What about Forks?" Esme suggested, tapping the town name on the map she and Carlisle had been pouring over for a few hours now. "It has a hospital. There will be work for you."

"But what about you, dear?" he asked with a sigh, feeling unconvinced that moving to Forks would be good for them.

"I'll find something to do."

"I don't know." He leaned back in his chair, taking physical distance from the problem in front of him.

"I'll make a list of pros and cons," Esme promised, copying his posture and placing a hand over her currently non-existing baby bump.

In his pocket, Carlisle's phone alarm chirped. "You do that," he said, bending to his wife to kiss her, "I've got to go to work."

"Duty calls," she replied, a little sourly, as she kissed him back.

"Duty calls," he echoed, trying to ignore her sour tone. "Don't wait up for me."

"I won't."


As always, Esme won their dispute without much effort.

Carlisle reluctantly took off a few days as soon as possible - but due to the hospital's understaffing problem, months passed before he managed to.

Still, Esme could not be deterred. Seven months pregnant or not, they were going to scout Forks.

"Plenty of houses to flip," she mentioned as they drove into town, looking out the window with interest. "It looks quaint."

"Uh-huh," he absent-mindedly replied.

"Oh, look, that's the high school." She tapped the window but Carlisle didn't turn his head to look - when he was driving, his eyes were on the road at all times. He took the safety of his wife and their unborn twins very seriously. "That's good."

For a beat, it was silent in the car.

Then, Esme sighed. "Can you at least pretend to be excited?"

"I am excited," he said unexcitedly. "Forks looks good."

"I know you don't want to move…" she began.

"I want to move," he murmured, entirely unconvinced. His current job at the hospital in Chicago was fulfilling, and he didn't care that they were living in a shoe-box apartment that barely fitted their double bed, let alone had space for twins. He'd grown attached to it, and every attempt to move to a different apartment had made him feel nauseated. He understood that this was the reason Esme had been pushing so hard to move away from Chicago. Somehow she thought that if he was unable to muster enthusiasm for moving within the city, he somehow would be able to enjoy moving away from Chicago.

"I know you don't want to move," she repeated, in a sterner, I-mean-business-do-not-interrupt-me kind of tone, "but I think a change of scenery could be good for us. And how wonderful would it be to raise our children out in the country?"

"I agree," he murmured, because that's what she wanted to hear, and he wanted to make her happy. "It would be wonderful."

"Exactly." She sounded satisfied, and, knowing she'd won again, didn't restart the conversation.

The car was quiet again.

They drove past a church.

Esme said nothing.

"Perhaps we can attend the service tomorrow," he said, quietly, almost afraid to suggest it.

"If you'd like." Esme wasn't particularly religious, and only joined Carlisle on his weekly devotions about once a month, just enough to keep up their status in the community. She'd been going even less now that she was pregnant - it was a convenient excuse to stay home.

"I would."


In the light of a new day, Forks didn't look so bad. It made Carlisle feel a little more optimistic. Maybe Esme was right. Maybe Forks was what they'd been looking for all this time. The shifts in a small, local hospital would be a lot more regular, and the job overall would probably be less demanding, leaving him with more time for his beautiful wife, and their twins, when they were born.

"Are you ready, dear?" he asked, turning around when he heard Esme stir.

"Lord, I'd forgotten how early these things are," she complained, struggling to sit up.

He rushed to her side, helping her up from the couch she'd been napping on. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine." For once, her tone was sincere. "Just let me… freshen up a little before we go."

"Of course." He withdrew himself from her side and patiently waited until she was ready to leave.


The church was within walking distance of their lodging, and the sun shone thinly between heavy clouds. It was a pleasant temperature for a walk.

Esme was quiet as they strolled to the church, and Carlisle appreciated the silence.

When they entered, a teenage girl was handing out service leaflets. She smiled brightly at them, welcoming them into the church and pointing to where they could sit.

There was something about her that he couldn't quite put to words. Maybe it was the way her pupils were wide and dark, maybe it was her elaborately braided hair, maybe it was the fact that he couldn't guess if she was twelve or thirty.

"Thank you," Esme replied for them, pulling on his arm to get him to move to the seats the girl had pointed out.

He turned away from the girl, and walked to the benches, letting Esme sit down first before taking his seat next to her.

"I hadn't realised this is a mixed community," Esme whispered under her breath.

"Is it?" He looked around with new eyes, now spotting the vampires mixed in with the human congregants. The teenaged attendees were all sitting in the front rows, by the pulpit, and it made him chuckle. "Look, they've collected the youth in the front."

"Oh," Esme laughed a little, "that's cute."

"Under the watchful eyes of god, pastor and community… there shall be no hanky panky in church," he joked, relieved beyond measure that she was in a good mood today. It solidified his earlier thought that Forks might be the change they both needed.

Esme laughed again, quietly now that the pastor began to speak.

I think this might be it, Carlisle thought as he took her hand and squeezed it lightly.

When she squeezed back, he was suddenly sure they'd be moving to Forks.


"FUCK!" Esme screamed, gripping the edges of the hospital bed so hard her fingers turned white. Carlisle didn't know what to do for her anymore. She'd been in labour for twelve hours now, and nothing he offered her was ever the right thing.

His hand hovered over her shoulder insecurely as he tried to decide if she wanted to be touched, or if she would punch him if he tried.

When her scream turned into desperate sobbing, he let his hand fall down to her shoulder. "It's okay, dear, you'll be okay," he whispered, letting his lips brush over her sweaty forehead.

"I can't do this," she sobbed, leaning into him and clenching her teeth when another contraction shook her body with pain.

"You can, you can," he promised, bringing his hand down and untangling one of hers from the bed rack, instead offering her his hand to squeeze. The second she did, he almost regretted it, before reminding himself that this was only a fraction of the pain she was in. He squeezed back.

"Dr. Cullen?" A nurse stepped into the delivery room.

He turned his head towards her whilst cradling Esme in his arms. "Yes?"

"Don't go, don't go, please don't go," Esme cried into his shirt, clinging to him in pain and despair.

"I'm so sorry, they're asking for you in neurology," the nurse all but whispered.

"Isn't Dr. Kelp on call?" he asked, slowly transferring his weight away from Esme, preparing to leave her. It only made her clutch his shirt more tightly.

"We called, but he is about an hour out. We wouldn't ask if it wasn't an emergency." The nurse looked apologetic.

"What- what is the problem?" Carlisle slowly peeled Esme's fingers off him. She wasn't dilated enough to give birth. By his best estimate, he had at least three hours before anything remotely birth-like would happen.

"It's the Petersson's boy, he's having seizures." The nurse stepped towards Carlisle to hand him a patient file.

He took it from her as he stepped away from a crying Esme. "Thank you, I'll…"

"There isn't much time." The nurse said again.

"Yes, yes…" With the file open, his eyes slid over the paper as he, first hesitantly, then more confidently followed the nurse out of the room, leaving his wailing wife behind.


Alice's loud cries pierced the silent night.

Behind him, Esme pushed him off the bed with her foot in his back, half-sleeping as she mumbled "it's your turn."

It was always his turn.

He stepped out of bed, finding his way to Alice's crib without effort. Their bedroom was so small that even if he hadn't known where her crib was, he would have stumbled over it on his way out. He lifted her out of the crib and gently hopped her up and down in his arms whilst whispering quiet sushes. Her cries quieted to little, hungry sobs and he dug her pacifier out of the crib, giving it to her to keep her quiet.

Esme didn't move from the bed.

She's probably long gone again. He was jealous of the ease with which she could fall asleep despite the sound of their crying child.

As he exited the bedroom, he passed Rosalie's crib, checking to make sure if she was still asleep. She was.

He made his way to the kitchen, bouncing Alice rhythmically as he made a bottle for her.

It was no use trying to sit down and feed her, as he knew it would be only minutes before Rosalie would wake up and demand her nighttime bottle too. So he fed Alice hastily before sneaking back into the bedroom, swapping the girls and repeating the routine.

When he stepped back into bed thirty minutes later, Esme rolled over to his side to spoon him, pulling the blankets over them to create a warm, safe cocoon. "Thank you," she murmured as she buried her face against his back.

It surprised him that she was awake, and even more that she wanted to cuddle. "It's okay," he whispered, grabbing her hand from off his thigh and pulling it closer around him. "Go back to sleep, dear."

"Mhm-mmm," she hummed behind him, already half-asleep.

"I love you." He whispered the words to the room, to nobody and everybody.

The room didn't answer.


"I bought a house."

It was the first thing Esme said when he came home from a back-breaking shift at the hospital. Not 'hello', not 'are you okay?' not, 'welcome home', no. 'I bought a house'.

His hands were trembling with tiredness, and he could barely keep his eyes open. It was a miracle he'd made it from the hospital back to their apartment without causing an accident.

"Okay," was all he could manage.

"In Forks."

"Forks?" he repeated, the words all jumbled in his head. All words sounded nonsensical. They were just noise. His brain wasn't filtering language anymore.

"Yeah, in Forks," she said, frustration colouring her voice. "We're moving in two weeks. I hired a company to take care of our stuff. You just need to drive us there." Of course she wouldn't drive.

"I…" He rubbed his eyes, hard enough to make them sting with pain. "I'm sorry, what?" Making his brain filter was an impossible task.

"I bought a house in Forks. We're moving in two weeks. I hired a company. You need to drive us. And hand in your notice." Her voice was sharp.

"Okay." It was what she wanted to hear, not an acknowledgement of her words. "Can I go sleep?"

"Take the girls with you. They're due for a nap." Esme nudged their bedroom door open with her hip, lifting Rosalie up while Alice bumbled into the bedroom by herself.

Carlisle followed her, letting himself drop into the bed like a dead man. The mattress dipped in front of him when Esme lifted the girls into the bed. "C'mere girls," he mumbled, stretching his arms to hug them both close to him.

Esme threw the duvet over them, and he managed to murmur his thanks before sleep overtook him.


A/N2:How did y'all like the chapter from Carlisle's perspective? It's my first time writing from his perspective, but I felt this story needed it. I tinkered with it a lot, but I'm decently satisfied with the outcome.

Next chapter should be from Bella's pov again.

As always, I love reading your comments and hearing your thoughts.