Carlisle's POV

Edward was turning out to be quite the emotional young man. During our hunting trip he had constantly shown his temper, his annoyance with me and my decision to change him. Now, however, at his first opportunity to be left alone to contemplate the situation, he again was upset and didn't want to be left alone. This I could understand though. He had so many things to digest and understand about his new existence. I knew that being alone was the last thing he truly wanted. How I wished there had someone to comfort me and reassure me after my change . Then again, my values were far different from most others of our kind. Possibly if someone had been there to teach me, I wouldn't have these values.

Edward entered the library a few steps behind me. I gestured to a chair that I had placed near my desk. He sat, then stared down at his hands as his fingers dug into the wood of the arms.

"I'm sorry." he murmured.

"It's quite alright, Edward. You're strong. Very strong. New vampires generally have much more strength than older ones. Normal human movements are now amplified because of our strength. I'll teach you how to control your motions so that you appear human." I gently smoothed the wood with one fingertip so that you could barely see the divots Edward had made.

He sat silently for several moments, his body motionless, but his eyes danced around the room. A frown marred his gentle features.

"Why me?"

It was the same query Edward had challenged me with in the forest. Suddenly, he stood before me, arms crossed over his chest, glaring at me.

I took a step towards him, my hand extended. "Edward. I wish to be honest with you, now and always. I had several reasons to change you into the person you are today."

"I'm no longer a person." Edward snarled. "I'm a vampire. A person has a soul and compassion. There's nothing human about me any more. I'm no better than an animal."

I took a step back as Edward lowered into a crouch and began to growl menacingly. Newborn vampires could be volatile and, even though he had been fairly controlled up to this point, Edward's emotions were raging. I mentally prepared myself for an attack.

"I don't want to fight you." Edward whispered, his voice horrified. "I don't understand why I reacted that way." Edward slumped into a nearby chair, his head in his hands. I gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You are a newborn. Your natural instinct is to defend yourself. I'm actually quite surprised this hasn't happened sooner. Most newborns feel threatened by any other vampire, especially in close quarters." I explained.

"I don't want to hurt you." He sounded distressed. "I'm very sorry."

"And you say there is nothing human about you anymore."

I chuckled softly as I settled into my leather office chair. "Stop apologizing and let me continue with my reasons for changing you."

Edward nodded silently and waited patiently for me to continue.

"Your mother is the main reason I decided to change you. She seemed to know that I was something other than the doctor I presented myself to be. She had discovered my secret somehow and just before her death she demanded that I save you the only way I could."

"My mother asked for you to do this…to make me like you?"

I nodded my head. "I don't know how she knew, but she begged me to save you. Her exact words were to 'make you strong and beautiful again.'"

Edward's face twisted in pain, like he'd been struck.

"I spent a whole day thinking about it . It confounded me that your mother had discovered my carefully hidden secret. I still have no idea how she knew, what gave me away."

"Momma always knew what Father or I were thinking." Edward whispered. "We never were able to hide any secrets from her."

I quieted, deep in thought for a moment. "Were you able to read others thoughts when you were a human?"

"I did, on occasion, know what someone was thinking. I knew, for instance, if someone was coming to call for a visit to the house, or if Father was going to be delayed at work."

"Perhaps you inherited that ability from your mother, and the transformation merely intensified it."

Edward shrugged. "Please carry on."

"Your father had died, and then your mother, I knew you had no family left, much like myself. You were so ill, you weren't even aware of your parents passing. As I told you before, it was a monumental decision for me."

"I cannot believe this is the life my mother wanted for me."

"I'm sure she had no idea about the type of life a vampire leads, Edward, if she even did realize that's what I am. I truly believe she simply didn't want to see her beloved son buried in the ground at such a young age."

"But if Momma could read your thoughts, she knew you were a good vampire. She knew you didn't harm humans."

"Perhaps." I knew where his thoughts were headed so I remained silent.

"Maybe she requested this so that I wouldn't…die…so that I could stay young. She knew that you would look after me and ensure that I didn't harm humans as well. She would want me to lead a good life."

"Certainly."

"I've already failed her."

"Edward…"

He waved his hand at me. "Just carry on please. Momma's words were not the only reason you changed me."

"They were the main reason."

Edward merely stared at me.

"Yes, I was lonely. I did want someone I could relate to, someone to share experiences with. I wanted a friend."

"I had often though about changing someone, merely to have a companion that understood my…life, such as it is. But I could never bring myself to actually do it. It seemed to me to be a very selfish thing to even consider. How could I think of doing such a thing? Condemning someone to this lonely life? But I couldn't deny your mothers wishes and honestly…"

Edward looked at me expectantly as I paused, not sure if I should reveal the biggest secret I'd been keeping from him.

"You are exactly the type of man I would have wanted my son to be. I could tell when you were in the hospital that you were a decent, respectable young man and it pained me to think that someone was fortunate enough to have you as part of their family when I would never be able to have a family at all."

"But, my parents had already died. I no longer had a family."

"I know. All I could hear were your mothers pleas and at that point I foolishly saw you and I as a family. I saw myself as a father figure to you."

Edward silently paced around the room, his eyes sparking as my thoughts relayed to his brain. As he walked, his heavy steps tore up floorboards and tossed splinters of wood around the room.

Edward's POV

A family. Carlisle wanted us to be a family. I had just lost my parents and discovered I had been transformed into a vampire and he wanted to be my father.

"I'm sorry for the damage." I stared down at the ruined floor in dismay. "I'm sure you can understand that this is all so much to absorb. It still seems like a nightmare."

"I never expected you to be able to take it all in at one moment."

"Why is my voice different?" I turned away from Carlisle and stared at my image reflected back at me from the large mirror over the fireplace. I was me, but I was different. I hesitated to admit that I was far more handsome than I had been as a human, I wasn't that vain, but it was obvious that the soft, boyish face I once had was no longer. "Why do I look different?"

"As far as I have been able to discern, it's part of the transformation. You are now, in your most basic form, a predator. The worlds most amazing hunter. A partial reason for the transformation is to make you attractive to your prey, so that you can easily draw them in. Your prey is , of course, human." Carlisle coughed. "At least in most cases."

I continued to stare at my image. I lifted my arm and brushed my hand across the reflection, frowning as the glass cracked under the tips of my fingers. "I look so different, my face, my body, my eyes…"

"The eye color will change, Edward, it could take up to a year though. It is caused by the residual human blood left in your body after your transformation." Carlisle left unspoken the fact that feasting upon the human while I was in the forest had added to the blood in my system. I heard his thoughts, of course, and I frowned again, turning to look at him.

"How will I be able to interact with humans with my eyes like this? They will know right away that something is different about me."

"I won't let you be with humans for at least as long as that Edward. No matter how good your self control is, you are still a newborn, mistakes can still happen."

"Like in the woods." Edward said, bitterly.

"You are not a monster. It was a mistake!"

"I am an animal though. The growling, the preparation for the attack. It's completely animalistic."

Carlisle's POV

I sighed. I didn't know how to convince Edward that he wasn't an animal or a monster, even though I had felt much the same way after my transformation. It took decades for me to come to terms with my existence. It was wrong to expect Edward to be completely comfortable after just a couple of days.

"Someday, I will tell you the story of my transformation, Edward. Hopefully, you will understand more after hearing it."

I saw his shoulders twitch and his forehead creased in pain as an image of a younger Carlisle lying at the base of a rocky mountain flickered though my brain.

"Where shall we move, after you've taught me the basics, as it were?"

"We can go anywhere, Edward. Really. Anywhere you'd like. There is only one thing we will need to do."

"You'll have to be some sort of family relation to me, otherwise people won't understand why a young man is staying with me."

"You are going to have me call you Father any way you can, correct?" Edward looked sceptically at me. "You look far to young to have a son that is 17 years old, Carlisle."

"A nephew, a cousin…"

"Something. Yes, I suppose we can work something out." Edward nodded his head.

"Does that mean…?

Edward turned to face me, his features still troubled. "What other choice do I have? If I leave you and venture out on my own, I know I will kill people. I don't want that to happen." His voice was firm. "I'm afraid you have a large task ahead of you…Father."