Disclaimer: I do not own anything Twilight, all rights go to Stephenie Meyer.

Chapter Four, Is It For The Best?

Carlisle's POV:

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence." Helen Keller

"I don't want you seeing this girl anymore." He said with his stern voice, glaring at me as if I was a demon.

"With all due respect, that is not happening." Although my words were confident and finale, I wasn't sure what he would do to keep me away from her. But I silently promised her and myself that I would never leave her, not unless she asked me to.

"You have a life that doesn't involve a messed up girl!"

"How dare you? What do you know about what my life will involve!" I retorted angrily.

He gasped, shocked. "Are you telling me you are walking away from your faith? B-because of some girl!"

I took a calming breath after seeing the worry in his eyes; but I was still outraged on how he was referring to Esme. "I'd never walk away from God. I thought you knew me better than that…and also, who are you to say Esme and I aren't part of God's plan for our lives?"

"You are staying home, the rest of the weekend. It'll give you time to think about what you are doing to your life. These friends of yours are obviously a bad influence."

"Yes sir." I said shortly.

"Yes sir, they are a bad influence?" My father, surprised.

"No. I mean, yes sir I will think about my life this weekend." I'll give me time to figure out how to bring up the whole doctor situation.

His eyes turned to steel, and he turned on his heel walking out of my room. I knew we were never going to see eye to eye on this. He is only seeing me sneaking around, getting caught after curfew. I can't tell him what I was actually doing, and I'm afraid if I do he will not allow me to ever leave the house. He doesn't even know about me wanting to become a doctor, and I can't imagine the reactions I will get after that conversation. I don't understand when doing the right thing became a matter of walking away from your faith. But I think my father may like to put God's Word into his own ways and distort them to what he believes to be right.

I sat down on my bed, thinking over what has happened the past week. All the things my father is angry about; which are the completely wrong things to be so angered about. Esme has a terrible father; he beats her and threatens her. But how did we turn out being the bad people in trying to stop it? Even Esme is upset. Running my hands through my hair, I found a couple leaves.

"Ha…I thought she was kidding." I mused to myself.

I frowned though, remembering the encounter with Esme earlier this night. All week we had been trying to find a way to have an intervention for her about her father, she become suspicious and we all thought she had been catching on… she wasn't just catching on. That girl is smart, uncannily so. Maybe intuitive would be a better word, like how mothers are about their children; they just know. That is exactly how Esme is and it's intensely attractive, but also kind of scary. I smiled at the thought of Esme mothering the five of us. It was a sight to see, although she was furious, it was beautiful in a way.

I grabbed the icepack and placed it over my swollen eye. Sighing, I pulled out my phone to text Charlie.

To: Charlie

Stuck at home, got caught. Don't think I can make it tonight, but that works because I can just watch Esme's house instead of Renee.

Sending the text quickly, because I knew they should be on their way to pick me up any minute. My phone buzzed only a minute or two later.

From: Charlie

That works. I'll tell Renee. We will drop off the binoculars though, and Garrett's camera. If we are going to do this, we have to get it right.

Charlie didn't know that Garrett had lost his camera yet. I was starting to feel like a liar by omission and I didn't like the fact that we are spying on Esme… that we have been doing so since we saw her for the first time when she got out of the hospital. It felt wrong, like we were violating her privacy. We all agreed that looking into her room was not allowed, but we kept an eye on the family room through that front window, and when Charles leaves and returns. Since I live right across the street, I have the job of spying on her house… which probably destroys every possibility of her ever feeling for me like how I feel for her. But if this is the only way to keep her safe, then it's worth anything. Charlie is right, we only have one shot to give the police solid evidence of Charles' abusive behavior.

To: Charlie

Put it in the backyard. I'll get it once my dad falls asleep. Be careful, and safe.

I really need to shower… I thought, suddenly. I got up off of my bed and grabbed some clean clothes. Walking into the bathroom, I looked into the mirror. My right eye was swollen and I had a cut under my jaw that was ten times deeper than the thousands of tiny scratches all over my face and arms. It's a good thing I thought to wear jeans, just wish I would have brought a sweatshirt or worn long sleeves.

Today has been the craziest Saturday of my life, but all of these scratches and my swollen eye were worth it. We got something good on Charles. The only thing that was a downer was Esme's reaction to our intervention. It admittedly wasn't the most tactful intervention ever done.

FLASH BACK TO EARLIER THIS MORNING

Garrett's car rolled into my driveway the moment my dad's car had left. Dad had counseling meeting today and won't be back till about dinner time. I was supposed to be staying home this weekend and doing my homework and narrowing down which pastoral seminary school I will be going to. If my dad only knew that I had already applied to many colleges, just not doing what he wants me to do.

I ran outside to meet Garrett. "Hurry up; we have to get to the police station."

I hopped into the passenger seat. "Garrett, he is a cop… don't you think he knows you have been following him all week?"

Garrett scoffed, "I'm good at tailing people."

"Mhm, yeah how many people have you tailed before?"

Garrett shrugged and mumbled, "No one." He cleared his throat, "Still, I don't think he's caught on."

I leaned back in my seat. "I really hope not."

"Charlotte and Renee are going to go over to Esme's. They are going to try and butter her up before we have the intervention thing tonight."

I smiled at his calling it an "intervention thing". "Yeah, I'm not even sure what we are trying to accomplish with it."

"Other than telling her that we know about her dad… I guess we are trying to convince her to tell her the truth."

I sighed, "I don't think she will." I admitted.

Garrett was quiet for a few moments, "Truthfully… I don't think she will either. And when she finds out we all know, she is going to want to protect us."

My chest constricted at the thought. "So is this intervention really helping?"

"We are the only two who don't agree with it, we are outnumbered. But I keep hoping that she does listen and finally tells someone what has been really going on." Garrett's face was hard as he spoke, but his voice gave away his emotion. He was worried, just like the rest of us, but it also seemed like he knew something the rest of us didn't.

~000~

"Garrett…" I said carefully.

"I didn't lose him!" He growled.

He sped around a corner, obviously furious. We had lost Charles about two blocks ago. He had been at the police station all morning, but then a black SUV pulled up and he left with the driver. Garrett tried, but the SUV managed to lose us even on a none busy road. They went down some alley, and when Garrett turned down the alley as well, they were gone. He has been driving around for about twenty minutes now circling through these couple of blocks, over and over again, as if we would magically find them again.

Seemingly losing steam, Garrett slowed down to a stop. "Now what?" He dropped his head onto the steering wheel. "I don't even know what the heck I am expecting to catch him doing! Selling drugs, picking up prostitutes, running a mob! What are we even doing? We are so far in over our heads! There is a reason no one has anything on this guy! He is the perfect man everywhere, but when he steps into his house; like he just saves all of his evilness for Esme!" Garrett looked over at me, rage and hopelessness burning in his face. "What are we doing?" He asked me quietly.

I looked out through the windshield, thinking of Esme, thinking of seeing her broken and bruised. I opened my mouth to speak, but then I saw Charles walking down the sidewalk behind us in the review mirror. He wasn't facing us as he walked down the road behind us. He was walking with a purpose, his stride long and fast.

"Garrett! Look!" I pointed in the mirror.

Garrett looked, and all but jumped out of his seat. "Alright, we will follow him on foot!" Garrett opened is car door and jumped out. "Carlisle! Let's go."

I got out of the car, getting a bad feeling about following this guy. What if he really is into some bad stuff; like a mob, or selling drugs like Garrett had said? I shook off my feelings of uncertainty as I followed behind Garrett. I knew Garrett had his camera in his pocket, it wasn't exactly good for spying on people, but at least it was better than our cameras on our phones.

We followed him to a blue little house. We were able to follow him from behind a tree line across the street. It was a sheer blessing that the forest happened to be this close to the neighborhood. We stayed out in the forest for about an hour while Charles was in this house. We sat there, at first we stared intently at the house, waiting for him to come back out. But after forty minutes we just sat and thought to ourselves as we waited. But after that hour, Charles appeared out of the house with a woman. We were too far away to see her clearly, and Garrett pulled a tiny pair of binoculars out of his pocket. I almost laughed at the convenience of it. But then Garrett gasped loudly, and fumbled around for his camera.

"What?" I asked, straining to see Charles and the woman, looking for whatever made Garrett freak out.

"I-I can't be sure." He said, as he pulled his camera out of his pocket and peered through his binoculars again. His face contorted into disgust, "That…that's Esme's mom."

At first I didn't understand why this was such a big deal, but then it hit me. Esme thought her mom left, like far away left. And that she had left Charles for good, so why was Charles at her house; and better yet, why was Esme's mom living so close and without Esme knowing? Anger boiled in my chest, what kind of a parent does that? Esme's mom was almost as bad as her dad…no she was worse. She lives so close, yet leaves her daughter wondering where she is, and left her with that monster of a father!

I could see Garrett's anger rising up too. He took a step out of the tree line to get a good picture. This was something I could see the rest of the group not believing unless they saw it with their own eyes.

"HEY!" The strong, deep, authoritative voice was what I would imagine the devil would sound like.

I felt my body tense, and saw Garrett from the corner of my eye freeze.

"HEY!" Charles called out again, and came jogging towards us.

Whatever had a hold on Garrett and I's bodies broke, and we scrambled deeper into the forest.

Garrett was cursing under his under his breath was we ran. Fear crept into the back of my mind, what is he going to do if he catches us? Garrett seemed to be having the same thoughts, for we both began to run faster simultaneously.

The branches were wiping back at us as we ran stung sharply on every patch of skin they passed. But the sting was nothing compared to what would happen if we stopped. We broke out into a clearing, and I didn't know my way around Forks like Garrett did; but when I turned to him he looked lost.

"What do we do?" I asked, my voice sounded strange.

Garrett was frantically looking around, mumbling under his breath.

"Garrett!" I whisper yelled at him.

"I'm thinking!"

"We don't really have enough time for that!" I was terrified if Charles caught us…he knew we are Esme's friends, what will he going to do to her if he gets a good look at us?

Garrett's eyes were frantically sweeping around the area; his usually tall and lean figure was hunched and nervous. He was not the Garrett I was used to seeing, all confidence gone and replaced with panic and insecurity.

"Garrett… you can do this. Just where do we go?" I said, trying to sound confident in his ability. He just needed to gain back focus.

He looked at me, seeming to calm down some. After a split second determination filled his face and he turned to the left and started running. I was taken aback by his abrupt running and quickly ran after him.

"Oof!" Escaped my lips as a stick hit me in the face, knocking me down on my back. I had to hold back any other cries of pain.

"I'm sorry Carlisle, wait here for a moment! I'll explain once we get back to the car." Garrett said as his voice faded with the sounds of his feet pounding loudly on the ground.

What in the world? He hit me with a stick and then runs off? Explain what? My thoughts turning bitter about being smacked in the face as I sat up, trying to look around. I couldn't see out of my left eye, and could already feel it starting to swell. Along with the swelling I had a searing headache forming.

"Alright, let's go." I felt Garrett grab my arm and help me up. "Hurry!"

"Yeah, okay. I'll hurry as much as I can with half of my sight!" I retorted rather heatedly.

We managed to run back to the car without further incident, and Garrett immediately starting driving away; trying to manage his speed so we didn't look suspicious.

"Are you going to explain what the heck that was about?" I asked, flipping down the mirror to see how swollen my eye was.

"Well, when I hit you with the stick it got a good about of blood on it, and I put it in the opposite direction and trampled all over the ground so he would think we went that way. I mean he is a cop and he would be looking for signs showing which direction we went." What he said sounded logical, but completely insane at the same time.

"So you hit me in the face?" I asked, "You couldn't just trample all over the ground?"

"I got us out of there, didn't I?" He asked, but a smile appeared on his face. "Yeah, okay maybe the smacking you in the face was overkill, but at the time it seemed like a good idea."

I was having a hard time smiling about this, but I took that as his apology and gave him a small smile anyway. "Sure, but next time I get to hit you."

Garrett laughed, "Deal."

We pulled into his driveway after the fifteen minute drive. We had kept an eye out for any vehicles following any of us, and he circled around a few times before actually pulling into his driveway. We just sat in the seats for a moment, trying to comprehend what we had seen.

"How are we going to tell Esme and the others what we saw?" I asked him after a couple minutes.

Garrett sighed, "The picture is certainly going to help." He went to go pull the camera back out of his pocket, but he only had his tiny binoculars.

The tension in the car was as thick as fog. How are we going to explain what we saw? Who should we tell?

END OF FLASHBACK

I sighed as I thought over what had happened with Garrett as I climbed into bed. We decided that it would be too hard for everyone to accept without proof. Not because they didn't trust us, but that it was such a horrible thought to think Esme's mom lived so close and left her with her abusive ex-husband. We could just take them all to Esme's mom's house, but we decided that this hard truth needed some time to be thought out. We didn't want to hurt Esme, but she also deserves the truth. We thought about going to see her mom to see if she would go see Esme herself. But even that seemed hopeless. Was it really going to be good to let Esme know her mom is so close and hasn't come to see her daughter once, even after the nasty accident that lead her into the hospital.

It was all too painful to process. How could someone do that to their daughter? I felt sick just thinking about it.

A/N Happy Monday! I hope you liked the chapter! Please let me know what you guys thought! I love hearing from you! Next Monday will reveal what went down at the intervention at Esme's house; which will be completely in Esme's POV. Then the week after that will be explaining what Carlisle did exactly to get caught out past curfew and what he and the group's plan is later that night. (: Love you guys!