Chapter Two
Edward POV
"First things first" Carlisle said, getting over his shock. After all, it had only been about three minutes since Alice had told us it was in fact a baby on a doorstep and not a casserole. "We need to get her inside, to a human, and a human baby no less it must be freezing outside, then I need to give her a check up to see whether she is healthy." "Alice and Esme, I need you to go to the 24 hour gas station and pick up some baby formula and nappies for a newborn." "Edward and Jasper, I need you to find and trace the scent of whoever left her here and see if you can establish why and whether she has any family who are looking for her." "Rosalie, stop growling at me, she's not yours and she may have frantic parents searching for her. Bring her up to my office. Emmett you come too, I may need your help controlling your wife."
Alice and Esme flew out the door and jumped into Carlisle's Mercedes, tearing off down the driveway. Jasper and I followed them out the door and began sniffing around the front door for traces of human. There was definitely the smell of adult human lingering, it was stronger and more potent than that of the small child now upstairs in Carlisle's office. "Smells kinda like the baby, but not as sweet" said Jasper "That probably means they're related." "Who ditches their kid on a stranger's doorstep ?" I asked him, "Someone who can't cope?" he shrugged. "Come on, let's follow the scent."
We followed it to a spot in our driveway across from the front door where it mixed with the scent of petrol and rubber and disappeared. "Car" he said. "Makes sense, it's not like we live close to town." We ran at vampire speed towards the small settlement near Denali, Alaska. We had just moved to the outskirts of town two days ago. We split up as we sniffed our way around the sleepy streets looking for the scent. After an hour with no luck I found Jasper and we decided to head home. We took a more direct path home than we had on the way to town, as we raced through the woods, I heard Jasper stop. Skidding to a halt myself, I turned to look at him and was hit with the smell that had stopped him as I did. It smelt like the baby, but more potent and without the sweet undercurrent. We followed it at human speed till we came to the edge of a ravine. Lying at the bottom was what looked to be a young woman. I couldn't hear a heartbeat, or hear an internal monologue. She was still. "Fuck" whispered Jazz. "Do you think she fell or jumped?" "Jumped" I said back. "Why the hell else would you ditch your baby on someone's doorstep and then take a walk in the woods off the track at 12.30am?" "Let's go see Carlisle. We can't call this in till morning or we'll have to explain why we were walking through the woods off the track at 12.30am" said Jazz. So home to Carlisle and the others we went.