Chapter 2: Welcome to the Family
Carlisle was reading in the den. He had recently acquired an original first print copy of Goethe's Faust from 1808 and found that even though he was fluent in modern German, the original proved to be a bit of a challenge to read, despite the fact that he had once lived through that time and age. Esme, Alice and Jasper had left in the morning to hunt. He didn't expect them back before the next day. Rosaline and Emmett had gone to the opera. He was all alone in the house.
He was just working on a particular difficult passage, when he heard the front door of the house open. He looked up from his book when he heard his name being called. He placed the book down and got up from his seat.
Emmett and Rosaline stepped inside and as Carlisle turned around, he saw that Rose was holding a small bundle in her arms. A bundle from which he could clearly hear soft heartbeats and that emitted a very human smell.
"Rose?" he asked as he stepped closer.
As Rose pulled some of the fabric aside to reveal a tiny baby face, Carlisle couldn't help but notice that Emmett was hovering protectively just left of Rose's shoulder. He didn't look happy, but when he looked at the baby his features softened and a small smile played around his lips.
"They left him in a dumpster, in the cold. He would be dead by now if we hadn't found him," Rose all but pleaded, as she held the baby closer to herself.
Reserving judgment for now, he motioned her to place the baby on the table and proceeded to carefully unwrap it.
It was a boy, though he had known that from the smell alone. Small, almost too small. The umbilical cord had been cut not too long ago, a day at most. There was no bracelet like those given to newborns in a hospital, no way to identify him. He looked healthy, though a little bit undernourished, almost as if he hadn't been fed at all since his birth. He was also weak, his arms and legs barely moving.
"Emmett, please go and get some formula, he needs something to eat. And some diapers, too."
Emmett exchanged a quick look with his wife, then nodded and was gone.
He continued his examination, feeling the arms and legs, listening to his breathing, his heart. All the while Rosalie was hovering next to him, shifting from one foot to another, something she had never done to Carlisle's memory.
"Is he alright?" she finally asked.
"He's just fine. A little weak, maybe, but once we get some food into him, he will be fine."
Rose exhaled, sagging a little into herself. She took a finger and gently stroke it along the boy's arm, coming to a stop at his hand, letting him grip the finger with surprising strength for somebody so small.
"Carlisle," she began, "I … I would like to keep him. Please."
Her golden eyes turned to him, a plea shining in them.
"Of course you do," he said a smile on his face. Even though he had never regretted changing her, to save her those many years ago, he knew that she did have those regrets, that she missed being a woman, a mother.
"You know there might be somebody still out there searching for him?" he asked softly.
"He was in a dumpster, Carlisle. Like some sort of trash. Unwanted. There is nobody!"
"Maybe. Maybe not. He might have been taken from his mother against her will. We will need to look for her."
He felt that Rose wanted to protest, but he locked eyes with her and she finally nodded. He knew that as much as Rose wanted to keep the child, he also knew that she wouldn't keep it away from his rightful mother if she really wanted him.
Which, considering what Rose had told him about where she had found him, was not very likely.
And that opened a totally different can of worms.
Unlike most vampires he knew, he and his family, his coven, lived a strictly 'vegetarian' life style. They lived from animal blood, not human. But that didn't mean that there was no temptation. Some struggled more with those temptations than others. Would it be possible for everybody to live in this family with such a tasty morsel dangling every day in front of them? Did everybody want to live like that? He was particularly worried about Jasper. The Civil War veteran was struggling the most of them all. He had lived the conventional vampire life style for maybe too long and adaptation still proved difficult for him. He would regret if he should ever loose control, but by then it would be too late.
"You know there will be problems," he said, while he wrapped the baby back up. It was cold in the house – there was no real reason to heat the place when nobody living in it felt the cold.
Rose sighed then nodded. "Jasper," she said.
"It will be hard for him. He made great progress and Alice is helping with her knowing when he will get into trouble, but having a human in the house may be too much for him."
"Maybe," she said thoughtfully, "this is a chance for him. Right now, with the baby, the pull is much less than with an adult. And when he's grown up, maybe Jasper can get used to him, build up an immunity."
She was right. Even though the baby smelled undoubtedly human, the burn that was always accompanied by that smell was only a fraction of what a grown up would create. Carlisle was so used to suppress that urge that he hadn't noticed it at first.
"We will need to talk to the others first. Everybody needs to agree. Or you will need to leave. I will not risk his life. Not even to hold this family together."
Rose closed her eyes for a moment. She loved her family and to think of a life without the others was unbearable.
But then she looked again at the child and her chin came up, a determined look coming to her face.
"I would hate for this to happen, but if this is the only way I can keep him, then so be it."