A/N: Warning this chapter will continue into chapter 18, it was way to long to post and let sit. At the end of 18 I will have a longer A/N Thank you and enjoy!

"How is he?"

I looked down at the small portable cage for a second, before glancing over at Carlisle.

"Nervous…" I replied "he's really antsy."

"Well, do you blame him?"

I chuckled

"Guess not then again he probably would've been better if Alice hadn't insisted that she and Jasper put him in his cage."

Now Carlisle chuckled

"Yes, I was wondering about that, why did Alice insist on doing that for you?"

I shrugged and reached through the latch to try and calm Charlie's racing heart

"I have no idea. Actually I think that Alice is on this, 'if the rats like me, they should like everyone in the family' kick and since I haven't exactly told her no…and the worse that the guys have done so far is shake the whole time, I see no signs of her giving up."

Carlisle raised an eyebrow as we changed lanes on the highway, headed towards the best small animal vet in the pacific northwest in Seattle, a nice rainy no chance of sun Seattle morning, apparently it was supposed to get sunny later in the afternoon according to Alice at least, so Carlisle made the appointment as early as possible and we took his car because it has the darkest tinted windows, just in case the sun poked out before we made it home.

"Um, do I dare ask?"

"I told her that Chaplin let Jasper pick him up off my shoulder a few weeks back, he was kind of stuck in my hood with no chance that I could get him and Jasper got 'em for me. Since then, she's convinced that she can get both rats to accept Jasper as they have her." I glanced into the cage "though, this experiment probably would've been better if Charlie was himself and not already stressed from being separated from his brother and forced to new surroundings, on top of not feeling well."

"Has Chaplin been involved in this experiment?"

I rolled my eyes remembering.

"Yep, only you know Chap, he's more of a wimp then Charlie so he completely freaked when Jasper walked in my room. I thought he was going to wedge himself in his food bowl to hide." A thought crossed my mind and I groaned

"What?"

"What are the odds do you think that Alice will try the same said experiment only using Charlotte and Peter?"

Carlisle chuckled and thought that over

"I'd say very good," he replied

"Perfect." I sighed "my rats are going to have a panic attack and need therapy for the rest of their lives."

"So, the Mustang is looking great," he said, obviously changing the subject "have you and Rose made any progress on what the original color was?"

I shook my head

"No and determination of it's future color is at a stalemate."

"How so?"

"We cant agree. She wants red, I want black, and she's going with the 'I'm going to win this argument because I'm older and am right' mentality."

"Do you think determining the original color will have any effect on either of you?"

"Not likely."

Carlisle raised an eyebrow

"I thought you both agreed that if you could find the original color you would go with that."

I grinned

"Yeah about that…" I started to say, before leaving that sentence unfinished for a moment.

"Chris, you both agreed to share this car, and I told you guys that you need to have some sort of compromise."

"We are" I reassured him "problem is neither of us is willing to admit what we think the original color was. Partly 'cause we're mortified at the idea."

"I thought you just said you haven't made any progress with that?" he asked chuckling, obviously confused.

"It's not definite, but I have a nasty feeling that it was yellow, Rose thinks the same thing, but we won't admit it to each other 'cause neither of us want it to be yellow." I shuddered picturing our Mustang and it painted yellow. "I mean seriously Carlisle, can you imagine a yellow 'stang sitting in our garage" I shuddered "not to mention yellow is a magnet for mud, I'll be washing it every time I take the bikes or the four wheelers out. Just so Rosalie doesn't yell at me 'for dirtying 'our' car"

Carlisle rolled his eyes, but laughed just the same. Rosalie and I always amuse him when it comes to our obsession with cars and our willingness to get into arguments with each other over them, even over the smallest detail. Like when Carlisle's 'cedes needed an oil change and we got into a huge argument of the better brand to use.

Charlie ran under my hand, cowering against my palm as I felt his body twitch with more sneezing.

I sighed as the Needle came into sight, a sure sign we were nearing Seattle, Carlisle glanced over at the sound of my sigh, his face full of concern.

"Chris?"

I looked down at Charlie then back at Carlisle,

"He'll be all right, wont he?" I asked "I mean, animals get ill, like people, but recover too."

"I'm sure it's just a cold, or even allergies." I raised an eyebrow and looked at my father as he continued "I read somewhere that certain bedding can cause this kind of reaction in small animals, we may just need to change the bedding we are using."

"If that was the case, wouldn't Chaplin have the same symptoms? He's been exposed to the same things, their littermates." I reminded Carlisle, though he didn't need reminding.

He reached over and patted my shoulder

"We will see what the vet has to say, I was just theorizing." Carlisle replied with a smile "as I said before Chris, I am not a vet."

I nodded

"I know. I'm sorry, I'm just worried that it's something serious and I'm worried that it's something that could have been prevented." I admitted, I have been worried since Charlie got sick that I was at fault for his state, I've just been to ashamed to admit it out loud.

Carlisle patted my shoulder again

"Chris you've done a superb job taking care of the rats, not that any of us had any doubts about that. Whatever is going on with Charlie has nothing to do with how you have been raising him. Things happen, people and animals get sick, the best physician in the world couldn't stop someone or something from getting ill."

I took a deep breath and sighed, nodding slowly, Carlisle was right of course, I was the son of a doctor and the adopted son of another, if anyone knew that Doctors did their best to cure the sick and did their best to prevent illness, but couldn't stop everything, it was a doctor's kid.

"Dad, can I ask you something?" I said softly, Carlisle looked over at me and nodded quickly

"Of course son, you know that."

"Its about Edward," for a brief second my father stiffened before waving his hand for me to continue "um, do you think he'd really take off…again."

"To be honest Christian…I don't know, I hadn't expected him to take off in the first place, nor did I expect him to suggest it again." That hadn't been the time I was talking about and I hated to correct Carlisle on something, but I had to know

"I meant…do you think he'll take off and be gone like he did…um…'fore Em, Rose, and I…" I couldn't find the words, Carlisle knows I usually don't have a problem finding the correct words to use, this gave him a clue however to what I was trying and obviously failing to get at.

"The situations are very different Chris, but to answer your question yes, I was afraid that Edward going to Alaska would be it, he would never come home." He paused and rubbed his chin "almost like when you took off, to go to the Volturi to protect us." I looked at him quickly

"That was different, you guys caught me,"

"And what if we hadn't? You are very fast Chris, what if we hadn't caught you before you hit the edge of Alaska? At least with Alaska we had a chance of catching you, we knew where you would head to leave the continent. After that all of Asia and Europe was open to you, you could have been anywhere. When you took off that time it was like Edward leaving us all over again, Esme was sobbing that we had lost you and I was afraid of the same thing."

I hung my head in shame

"I'm sorry, I never realized, I hadn't thought."

"You were trying to protect us, but it is nearly the same as Edward leaving us recently and his desire to do so again." Carlisle sighed "you may realize it because of your ability, but I'll repeat it, each one of you, Rose, Emmett, Alice, Jasper, Edward, and you are all very special to your mother and I we would be devastated if we lost even one of you. But you and Edward have a special place in my heart, he is my oldest."

"And I'm your youngest?" I answered

"Yes, but there's more to it than that, you are extra special to me because you are my Mini Me, you are the most like me of everyone."

I looked at my father surprised

"Be serious Carlisle"

"I am completely serious. When you were first brought to the hospital by the medics, I thought I was looking at myself as a fourteen year old again, and even after I told you your prognosis, you took it as I would have. Since that day in some way you have reminded me each day of myself and my childhood. In a way you remind me of what I always expected my son to be like, long before Edward and Esme were a part of my life, when I was on my own." He paused and sighed "even if Emmett has had way to much of an influence on you." I chuckled "that doesn't change the fact that I am proud of you and proud to call you my son." I looked out the window for a second and then looked back at my father

"Love you dad," I replied, Carlisle smiled at that and reached over to rough up my hair.

"Love you too Chris,"

Charlie in his crate was watching the two of us, his head darting back and forth before he stood on his hind legs, taking my finger in his tiny paws and licking it,

"Don't even think about it." I warned him "I know your hungry but you'll be in for a nasty 'bout if you try and bite that."

Carlisle chuckled at that and I joined him.

We walked into the large waiting room of the vet; we were not the only patients for the day, a golden retriever sat by its owner's feet, a Shih Tzu or something like that strained on it's leash trying to get to the golden just across the room. A couple sat on a bench with a cat carrier in between them and when the cat hissed, the Shih Tzu abandoned it's conquest to sniff the golden, turning it's attention to the hissing cat.

Carlisle walked right up to the front desk and the receptionist looked up from her computer.

I followed him, mindful that all the animals in the waiting room were watching me with curiosity, the golden sat up and whined to get near me and the cat ceased hissing.

"Can I help you?" the receptionist asked, a welcoming smile on her face,

"Yes, I called the other day to make an appointment for my son's rat."

"Ah yes, Charlie Cullen correct? And you must be Dr. Cullen" Carlisle nodded, "I just need some paperwork filled out," she said handing Carlisle a clipboard. "Do we have an age on Charlie?"

Carlisle looked at me, nodding for me to come to the desk

"He's eight months," I answered

"And did he come from a pet-store or a breeder?"

"Pet store, but the owner was his breeder, and had all his information when we bought him."

She looked at Carlisle verifying my answer, my father gave a nod and I saw the receptionist nearly fall out of her seat she got so flustered.

"Ok then, Dr. Levine will be with you in a moment."

Carlisle nodded his thanks and headed to a bench away from the other critters. The Shih Tzu's curiosity towards the cat shifted and she wandered over to me, her owner wasn't paying any attention as the puppy came to a stop at my feet and jumped up on my legs.

Carlisle looked over at me and chuckled as he sat down, I felt the emotions of the animals shift to nervous, before going back to relatively calm, except for this Shih Tzu thing, she was all excited and jumping and crying trying to get me to pay attention.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the owner said finally looking up, "Mitzy come here." She called the puppy

"It's all right," I said, kneeling down to the puppy "may I pet her?"

"of course," the woman seemed surprised that I had asked, and was even more surprised when I held out my hand for Mitzy to sniff. She gave my hand a lick and jumped back in surprise.

"Little cold pup?" I asked, stroking her soft puppy fur, Mitzy sat down and looked up with her big brown eyes, eyes that were definitely to big for her head.

"That is the calmest I have ever seen her," the owner commented "she's such a wild thing I don't know what to do with her."

"How old is she?" I asked causally

"thirteen weeks," the woman paused and smiled "she starts puppy kindergarten next week and has to get her next set of shots before hand."

At the word shot, Mitzy's emotions went from excited to scared. Anyone who says animals do not understand human speech has never paid close enough attention to animals, never watched their eyes or even their body language.

It's something I've learned from understanding their emotions, most if not all animals understand every word that comes out of our mouths, they just react more to certain words than others.

Animals have learned to understand human speech over the thousands upon thousands of years humans have employed animals to work with us.

Most animals, Dogs, cats, horses, even rodents, and others, are perfectly capable of understanding human speech and differentiating between different words, animals such as cows, sheep, goats, deer…you know, herd animals, what predators tend to call dinner. Well they understand certain words that have been virtually drilled into them over the millennia.

But that puppy knows exactly what a shot is and she wined, cuddling closer to my hand, obviously uncomfortable with my cold touch, she was more uncomfortable with the idea of shots.

Carlisle was chuckling to himself as he filled out the paperwork for Charlie, and Mitzy looked over at him carefully.

Animals may be cautious around Carlisle, but they trust him more than they do my brothers, I think they sense the gentleness and overall caring nature that is Carlisle, it's the same way with Esme and Alice sort of, the rats love Alice mainly because she started bribing them from day one with treats, and I am not sure why my rats love Rosalie so much…it's just one of those things.

Sometimes an animal will sense when someone doesn't like them and keep their distance, while others will sense when someone doesn't like them and try like hell to be friends with them, such as what Charlie and Chap do with Rose.

I gave Mitzy one last scratch behind her ear, as a door opened and a vet poked her head out, she looked over at Mitzy and smiled

"Come on Mitz lets get this over with," she said as Mitzy's owner reached over and picked the vibrating puppy up.

"Thank you for letting me pet her," I noted as I headed to sit next to Carlisle, again the woman looked shocked at my politeness and smiled

"Anytime," she replied before disappearing into the room.

I slid onto the bench and stole a glance at Charlie who was finally asleep, shaking every now and then, but finally sleeping.

"No Chris," Carlisle said suddenly, as he signed his name on the paperwork.

I looked over at him quickly, confused

"No what?" I asked, seriously.

He walked over to the desk and handed the receptionist the paper work before sitting back down next to me.

"You are not getting a puppy."

I grinned and looked over at the now closed door, which Mitzy had disappeared into

"Oh come on, you don't want a little mop running around the house?"

"Two critters getting into everything is quite enough. Can you imagine the damage a puppy could do to our house?" He followed my gaze to the closed door "especially something like that?"

"Charlie and Chaplin don't get into everything…" he raised his eye brow "mostly, ok maybe a little."

"Chris, every time they get loose, their trek to Rosalie and Emmett's room is made with a detour to my office and then to Esme's. I caught Chaplin a few times nibbling on the blueprints for our own house." Busted "not to mention, Charlie has somehow discovered a way into my desk" I winced at that, wondering what he could have possibly destroyed in Carlisle's desk when there are so many delicious and important documents to choose from, "and made a rat size nest of my papers."

"He didn't destroy them did he?"

"Thankfully no, he just fell asleep in them. My point is a puppy would have a field day in our house."

I nodded, knowing Carlisle was just joking with me about the puppy, as much as I would like a dog, it just wouldn't work in our family and I have never questioned that.

But we both find it amusing to imagine what our house would look like with a puppy and the reaction of said puppy with meeting the family.

"Charlie Cullen?" a new voice called. Carlisle and I looked up; another vet was standing in the doorway across from the one for Mitzy. We stood up and I followed Carlisle into the room, keeping Charlie's cage close to my body.

Inside I looked around, having never been in a vet's office and always remembering that this is the profession I would have chosen when I was human, I took it in.

His degrees were hung on the wall, from schools such as Tufts University in Massachusetts and another from Washington State. He also had photos of his own animals and his patients I'm assuming.

I carefully placed Charlie's cage on the metal exam table as the vet closed the door behind me.

"I'm Dr. Levine," he said to Carlisle

"Dr. Cullen," he replied, before placing a hand on my shoulder "and this is my son Chris,"

"Nice to meet you Chris"

"You too," I replied

"And this must be Charlie," Dr. Levine said peering into the cage, I reached over and lifted the still sleeping rat out. He woke up instantly and nearly had a panic attack, which he definitely would've had, if anyone else had taken him out of his cage, even if it had been Carlisle. I tried to keep him calm as I set him down on the table, but stopped as soon as he was on the table, keeping him calm would probably interfere with the vets examination. "So what seems to be the matter?"

"He's not eating, been sneezing, making these hacking noises when he breaths, and he's not drinking much either." I answered.

Dr. Levine nodded and began prodding Charlie gently with his fingers. Charlie's eyes went wide with panic as he looked around, trying to find a familiar face and seemed to calm down a bit when he spotted Carlisle and even more so when I came into his line of vision.

"How long has he been sneezing?" he asked as Charlie demonstrated the odd noises.

"About three days," Carlisle answered

"And you have another rat?"

I nodded

"Yea, littermates, Chaplin's been fine."

"We separated them as soon as Charlie started this." Carlisle explained and Dr. Levine nodded

"I also put him in the spare cage and I've got their real cage disinfecting in our garage, along with their bowls, water-bottle, and toys."

"Sounds like you guys are taking all the right steps." Dr. Levine noted as he put his stethoscope in his ears and listened to Charlie's heart, I kept my eyes locked on Charlie, so at least he wouldn't freak out at not seeing me or Carlisle.

"His breathing does sound a bit raspy, but it doesn't sound like there's any fluid in his lungs." He paused "he's about eight months you said?" Carlisle nodded "and how long have you had him?"

"Seven months," I answered

Dr. Levine leaned closer to Charlie, looking in his eyes; Charlie gave a panicked squeak as he lost sight of familiarity.

"Easy little guy easy." He paused "is he usually lethargic?"

I shook my head

"He's the hyper one, Chaplin is the laidback of the two."

Dr. Levine rubbed his chin thoughtfully, before turning to Carlisle

"do you think he will hold still long enough to take a radiograph?" Carlisle looked at me and I shrugged, he would if I calmed him enough, "normally we would sedate a creature this small before so, but I don't trust his breathing. We'll just have to see how he does,"

Quickly, before Dr. Levine picked Charlie up, I made sure he was perfectly calm; he looked at me with pleading eyes,

"It'll be ok, Char," I assured him as the vet carried him out of the room, I could hear his protesting squeaks long after the door had closed.

Carlisle and I exchanged a look and he raised his eyebrow

"What?" he asked.

"He was considering asking me to go with Charlie," I replied leaning against the wall "to keep Charlie calm." Quickly Carlisle's gaze went to the door "he was going to ask but decided to see if they could get it without me."

"Well, I'm glad he didn't."

I grinned

"Yeah, I'd hate to become radioactive," he shook his head "what?"

"Chris," he put his hand on my shoulder and guided me to the door which Dr. Levine had gone through, he opened it a crack and I was hit with a strong scent…blood.

They were doing surgery near the radiograph. I sniffed the air carefully, just enough to determine what it was on that table…a cat…three maybe four years old.

"Oo, talk about a close call." It was also a good thing I had gone hunting that morning, or else, yeah problem.

"Don't worry you would have realized before you made it back there." Carlisle replied sitting down in one of the provided chairs; I however stayed against the wall, nearest the main door, pretty much as far from the backroom door as possible.

Ten minutes passed…slowly. Well it could've been ten minutes, but in all honesty it felt like hours…If I got any closer to the door I'd be in the waiting room.

It wasn't the smell of blood that was the problem, oh no, I hadn't taken a breath in the whole ten minutes, uncomfortable yes, but better than smelling some poor animal's blood as it lay on an operating table. No it was the stress…

I could feel it all around me. Stress, fear, pain, sadness…all sorts of emotions were rushing me from the animals throughout the clinic.

From Charlie's fear at being somewhere new alone, to Mitzy's pain as the vet stuck a needle in her backside, to another dog, empathizing the stress of it's owner and it's own sadness as that owner contemplated putting the dog's companion and best friend, a 22 year old cat, to sleep, to end it's suffering, which…I could also feel.

I began to feel sick to my stomach, which only happens when to many emotions hit me all at once.

Jasper gets it too, since our abilities are so similar we often discuss them and the best way to deal with them, it doesn't happen very often, we're both usually pretty good at focusing on one emotion or the other, but with everything going on around me I couldn't concentrate.

I wrapped my arms around my body holding myself tight. I had to concentrate on something else…anything.

So I foolishly took a breath, the smell of blood hit me and it wasn't the cat anymore, someone in the room next door, a human, had just given themselves a paper cut, a nasty one. The scent of the blood was so strong it was emanating through the walls and into this room.

Carlisle looked up quickly, he too could smell it, though it didn't bother him in the least, he glanced over at me with concern, my throat was on fire and I could feel my body shaking.

"Carlisle…" I said softly "would you mind if I waited out in the car for a few minutes? I need to get some air."

I had to get out of this building, into the fresh air; 'tween the animals sending their emotions out at me, the cat being operated on a few feet from where I stood, and the person who had managed to find a band-aid for his finger, but had left the blood soaked tissue on the table.

I was feeling not only painfully thirsty, but very dizzy from all the emotions, which was a bad combo.

If I was concentrating on keeping the emotions at bay, then I wasn't focusing on ignoring the blood smell and if I was concentrating on keeping my mind off the scent of blood, then the emotions would invade and I'd lose my concentration all together probably not the best thing in the world.

Carlisle handed me the keys to the Mercedes, his face full of concern, he too could smell the blood in the next room, but his hundreds of years experience around blood and wounds had trained him well, and it didn't faze him a bit.

That of course did not stop him from zeroing in on one of his children suffering from the same smell that didn't bother him.

He also could figure out the other part of my problem, he knows me well enough and knows coming into a vet's office with so many different animals and so many different animal emotions, there was the risk of getting bombarded and having trouble dealing with it.

The pet store was nothing compared to this nightmare. To me, this many emotions is just as bad as I can imagine walking into a Red Cross blood donation center would be.

"Do you need me to come with you?"

I shook my head

"No, someone needs to be here when the vet comes back, Charlie trusts you he's gonna need a familiar face to calm him down…he's not gonna be happy, I'll only be a few moments,"

"If you are sure," Carlisle replied gently, to which I nodded my reassurance, true I'd rather be the one who was there when Charlie came back, but he wouldn't freak out to much at seeing Carlisle and not me.. "Chris, take your time. I'll take care of Charlie."