I would like to thank you all for the reviews I received for the last chapter. (: In return, I'm giving you all a really quick update… this is a record, its only been like three days xD I hope you all enjoy reading this one, cause I loved writing it. (:

Esme Platt

The soft light of an early summer morning leaked through the curtains, casting warm rays of sun across my just-awoken face. After blinking away the overwhelmingly bright light from my eyes, I sat up and tossed the thin sheet from my legs. To my surprise, it was nearly nine o'clock in the morning, a rather late time for me to wake up on a normal weekday. Although, school had ended a month ago, what was the difference? Quickly dressing myself, I hurried downstairs only to find my younger sister already stuffing her innocent face with store-bought chocolate cookies.

"Alice," I scolded gently, "what did I tell you about eating sweets for breakfast?"

"You never told me anything," she replied around a mouthful of cookie. "And Dad never said that I couldn't, either."

I halted for a moment at the mention of our father, attempting to conjure up a good enough comeback to her defense. "Well, Dad isn't here right now, so I'm in charge. You do what I tell you, and I'm telling you that you can't eat those cookies for breakfast." I successfully hid my triumphant smirk, taking the box of sugar-filled sweets from her grasp to hide it in an unreachable place on top of the refrigerator.

Alice pouted for a second in an attempt to shake my decision, but gave up a millisecond later and turned to bound into the living room where I could hear the sound of cartoons emanating from the television. Just as I relaxed back into one of the creaky kitchen chairs, my cell phone vibrated, notifying me of a new text message. The screen read Carlisle's name, as per usual, so I flipped open the phone to read what he had needed to notify me of. The message read:

'Hey, would u mind meeting me the park around 2PM? I have somewhere I want 2 take u.'

I smiled at his invitation; he'd just been released from the hospital last week, surely he shouldn't be taking me into town with his condition? I slowly typed back a response (I had never been the fastest at text messaging and things of the sort) and headed upstairs to ready myself into a more presentable state, wondering about the day that Carlisle had in store for our enjoyment.

# #

It was around 1:15 when I had finally finished readying myself – and Alice, I had arranged for her to stay with a friend – for the rest of the day.

"Okay, wait here for Cindy to pick you up. I need to start walking down to the park," I informed, slipping on my sneakers and getting my last-minute things ready.

Alice completely disregarded my statement, and instead responded with, "Have fun with your boyfriend." I simply rolled my eyes at her teasing, giving a slight wave goodbye as I exited the house.

I made it to the entrance of the town park just minute before the time struck two. My gaze searched for Carlisle amongst the many people that occupied the area, finally finding him sitting on an empty bench near the gazebo.

"Esme!" The cocky grin I had grown to love slid onto his face as he stood with slight difficulty. He walked towards me with a small limp on his left side; a result of the damaged nerves in his brain. Luckily he still had use of the left side of his body rather than not, but it never failed to make my heart sink at the sight of his struggles.

"Carlisle." His grin, I must say, was nearly always contagious. My lips curved into a smile when he leaned in to place a light kiss on my cheek. Always the gentleman. "You were only discharged last week; shouldn't you still be resting at home?"

He let out a short sigh at my accusation, rolling his eyes, "Please, I've been in that hospital for so long that I've lost track. I think I've done enough 'resting'."

"Fine, fine," I giggled, "I just don't want you to overdo yourself. I mean, getting shot in the head is a pretty malignant injury."

Carlisle smirked, waving it off, "Yeah, whatever. The doctor said that it didn't damage anything majorly important or traumatizing. Nothing that would stop me from walking or talking."

"Oh, yes, God forbid you stop talking," I joked sarcastically, earning a light chuckle from each of us.

"In all seriousness, though," he began after the laughter had faded, "I do need to talk to you about something before we start our day." He wrapped his hand around mine and limped back towards the empty bench, gesturing for me to take a set next to him.

"Shoot," I said, intending for him to begin, before adding, "no pun intended."

He cracked a half-smile, before running his free fingers through his tousled blonde hair, which caused an air of uncertainty to inch into the back of my mind at his distressed habit. "Well… it's about the whole thing with my dad. He… he wants to leave for New York at the end of the month."

If it were possible, my jaw would have dropped a mile into the ground. "Car… Carlisle, that's only two weeks away!"

"I know," he murmured, not bothering to avert his gaze from its place on the ground below. "And I have to go with him. My parents have the verdict; I have no authority over their decision."

"Yes you do!" I retorted, maybe a bit too quickly for my own liking, "you're their son, and most importantly, you're a human being. You have thoughts and emotions too, and they should respect that."

"They should, but the point is that they don't." He paused his sentence to let go of my hand to instead loop his arm around my torso.

I gently leaned into him, resting my head comfortably on his insignificantly weakened shoulder. "I'm going to miss you," I whispered, fighting back the tears that I so desperately wished to hide.

"I'll miss you, too," he murmured in response, "but, hey. It won't be for forever. Only two years; maybe less if I do something that will make him want to send me back," he chuckled. A small laugh escaped my mouth at the thought of Carlisle getting himself into some sort of mishap that would get him sent back home. He was too much of a goody-two-shoes to do such a thing; what would he do, try to be a rebel by refusing to clean his constantly spotless room?

"I'd like to see that one happen," I laughed in response. "You trying to be a rebel to get shipped back home."

"I have my ways, you know," he replied with a snicker, "you'd be surprised at what kind of tricks I have up my sleeve."

Jokingly rolling my eyes at his comment, I changed the subject, "So you said that you had somewhere you wanted to take me… are we just going to sit here all day?"

"Oh, yes, yes. I do have somewhere that I want to take you." He stood up from his seat on the bench, dragging me with him. "You're going to love it, I'm sure. But I'm warning you that it involves a bus ride."

# #

"You didn't tell me that the bus ride was going to be that long," I half-complained with a smile.

Carlisle wore the same smile on his face as he led me towards wherever our destination happened to be, "I never said that it would be a short one, either."

"Where are we going, anyway?" I inquired, my eyes wheeling around the environment to absorb our surroundings. We were somewhere near the coast, I knew that for sure. The tides rolled upon the ocean, like the softest of feathers upon the lush grass of the hills that sat far above the shoreline.

"I won't tell you until we get there." Carlisle grinned to himself, satisfied with his expertise at keeping secrets.

Dusk was just falling upon the sky when we finally reached our destination, which happened to be the top of one of the large hills surrounding the area. Carlisle took my hand and lowered us both to the grass, comfortably positioning himself so he was able to watch the darkened sky.

"Okay, we're at the top of a hill. Is something supposed to happen up here?" I pressed once more, leaning into a position similar to Carlisle's.

"You'll see. It's supposed to start in a few minutes, just be patient."

"You know that I have issues with patience," I mumbled around a smirk, my eyes searching the sky for what was seemingly supposed to appear. Several minutes passed by, and just as I was about to open my mouth to question Carlisle of the event once more, the blackened sky lit up with several faint specks of orange that rose from the ground to the peak of height.

"What are those?" I breathed, watching as more and more of the specks rose into the air.

"Lanterns," Carlisle answered, his eyes set on the sight with as much awe as mine were. "They do this is Taiwan, and I guess they adopted the same sort of thing here in California. It's some sort of annual lantern festival they hold every year in the middle of summer. My dad took me here once when we were on a summer vacation. I was about seven at the time, and I just never forgot how… breathtaking it is."

"They're beautiful," I commented in awe. "You were right. I love it." Once again, my head fell to rest on his shoulder. The two of us sat in silence, occupied by the thousands of orange lanterns that floated into the sky and rose above us. I could never begin to explain the breathtaking beauty that rose into the sky before me; it was as if each one symbolized a care, a memory, or even a life just rising into the sky, leaving everything else behind on the ground that lay miles beneath.

Though my mind was nearly completely overtaken by the gorgeous sight of the light-filled sky, a small sliver of doubt wedged itself into my thoughts. "Carlisle?" I asked softly, my eyes still fixed on the lanterns, "What if you… don't come back?"

"What makes you say that?" he replied, his gaze fixed on the sky as well.

"What if you decide that you like New York… or someone there… better? What if, like these lanterns, you leave and just don't return?" My voice cracked slightly on the word 'return', my wide eyes suddenly closing into a squint.

Carlisle shifted onto his side, tearing his gaze from the sky to fix it on my face instead, "Esme," he began quietly, "I'll come back. You believe that. I took a bullet for you; do you honestly think that I would let someone else… replace that? Replace what we've been through, what we have?"

I closed my eyes for a second, before opening them once more to look up into his, "No, but… people change, Carlisle. Anything is possible, you know that."

"Whoever says anything is possible has obviously never tried slamming a revolving door." He grinned at his own joke for a second, recomposing himself a moment later. "Don't think for a second that I won't come back, Esme. I hate that I have to leave here – leave you – in the first place. We both know that if I had a choice, I'd stay."

"Yes, but –" My voice was silenced by Carlisle's finger pressing to my lips, keeping me from contradicting his statement.

"No buts," he whispered, "I. Will. Come. Back." Before I even had a chance to respond, he leaned his face closer to mine and closed the distance between our lips with a gentle, tentative kiss. The contact was never broken for what felt like ages, and for the first time, things just seemed to fall into place. For the first time, everything just seemed completely right. No one was taking a bullet to the head, we weren't inside a claustrophobic hospital room, we didn't have the worry of another being ruining our moment; we were just there. We were just Carlisle and Esme, caught up in their own moment of what was surely meant to be.

After what seems like hours, Carlisle was the one to grudgingly break the contact and open distance between our lips once more. He kept his arm looped tightly around my waist, a soft smile resting on his mouth.

"And you know why I'll definitely come back?" he asked, his whisper being carried away in the light breeze.

"Why?" I replied, my eyes poring into his, searching for an answer.

"Because I love you."

… I have no idea if they have lantern fests in California, I just thought it was romantic. xP So what do you all think? I'd love to hear your thoughts! (: