Kay, so… chapter nineteen….here it is. Being updated at 1:08 in the morning. Yes. So, I would go on about how I'm like really excited that this is officially my longest fanfic, at least chapter wise now…but… I'm tired and don't feel the need to bore you all with my crap about that so… I'll leave you guys to enjoy the chapter. I apologize if the ending is a bit, well, absolutely terrible, cause it is a little after one in the morning and my writing skills are a bit…iffy…this early, so yeah.

And as always, thank you all for the lovely reviews that I received on the previous chapter. They are always extremely appreciated, and will continue to be…appreciated…yeah, I'm just gonna post this and go to bed cause I'm delirious.

Carlisle Cullen

"Esme, who is this?" Loosening my arms from around Esme, I looked at the man who stood only about five feet away. He was short, probably only two or three inches taller than Esme at most. His eyes were a deep hazel colour, his hair a light, dusty brown that was cropped close to his skull. His muscled arms were crossed over his chest, his foot tapping impatiently on the ground.

"Um…" Esme paused for a moment, chewing on her bottom lip as her gaze dropped to the carpeted floor. "Jason, this is Carlisle. Carlisle, this is Jason." Jason. His name was Jason. He looked like a Jason, someone who was desperate for any sort of relationship, no matter what it entailed.

He nodded and approached where I was standing, holding out his hand to shake my own. He had a firm, vigorous shake, one that symbolized that he was trying to appear as the alpha male in the situation. "Nice to meet you, Carlisle." He sneered my name, a slight smirk twitching at the corner of his mouth.

"Pleasure to meet you, too." I faked a warm smile, gently nudging Esme in the arm. "Can I talk to you for a moment… alone?" She looked up at me and nodded, discreetly taking my hand and leading me behind a bookshelf while she gestured at Jason that we'd return in a few moments.

"Is he your boyfriend?" I blurted out in what was almost a hiss, being sure that Jason was out of earshot.

"Well… yes," Esme replied. "We've been together for a couple of months now. He's a nice guy, Carlisle – well, at least for the most part."

"What do you mean, 'at least for the most part'?"

"Well, he has his moments, just like everyone does." She stopped speaking to study my expression, her eyes focusing in on mine which probably held a disarray of wild emotions. "Does that upset you, Carlisle? That I'm with him?"

"Uh…" Did it bother me? Was I the one to be upset after I'd simply left her behind? It had to be expected that she'd try to move on, that she'd find another man. Of all things, I should not be the one to be upset. "I… not… necessarily. I mean, it's not your fault… I was the one who left. I can't blame you for moving on."

She exhaled out of her nose, keeping her gaze fixed on mine. "It's upsetting you. I know it is."

"No you don't."

"I know you, Carlisle. I know when something is bothering you."

Running a hand through my hair, I attempted to stifle a sigh. Who was I trying to fool? "Do you plan on staying with him?"

"I… I don't know." She twirled a strand of hair between her fingers, her gaze tearing itself away from my face to find fascination in scanning the bookshelves. "I would love to break it off with him now that you're back, but… what if you leave again? I can't risk that. I've risked too many things, Carlisle. I can't do that anymore. To put it metaphorically, being in this… relationship… it's almost like falling. It starts off with just taking the plunge, and then you just continue falling. At some points, it's like floating, because you think that you've found something to hold on to. But when that thing is suddenly gone, you're right back where you started. Falling. Plummeting, even. Then at the end, after the plummeting moments and the floating moments, everything is suddenly gone. And that's when you hit rock bottom, that's when things are over. I don't want that to happen. I don't want to hit the ground and reach the end. So, I… I'm just afraid. I'm not saying that I don't want you to stay, Carlisle, because I do. I'm just worried that we'll be floating for a while at first, then we'll both start falling again, and eventually the two of us – and the relationship – will just hit the bottom and crumble. 'Cause when you hit the bottom after a long fall, you break a lot of bones. Your bones are the foundation, the innermost structure of everything. I don't want our bones to break when we crash."

I said nothing for a few moments while my brain analyzed the paragraph she had just spoken. Falling, floating, crashing; what had brought all this on? Did she view me – or just the both of us in general – as a failure already, or something that was inevitably going to perish? Inhaling a shaky breath. I gently turned her head back around to face me, "We're not going to crash. Hell, we're not even falling, Esme. We never were. We've got our feet on solid ground, and Jason, well, he's just a little pebble that needs to be kicked out of the path. I know that I left, and I regret that. I know that I disappointed you – well, I'm sure that I did much more than merely 'disappoint' you. But I'm not going to again. Nothing is going to crash and burn, no bones are going to break. Okay?"

"But how can I trust that? There's no way to predict the future, Carlisle."

"No, there isn't. Although, a good start would be to go back around the corner and speak to your boyfriend there," I responded. She heeded my advice and gently brushed past me, walking back to where Jason stood by the leather armchair. Grabbing onto his wrist, she begin towing him out the back door, gesturing for me to follow. Once we had reached the far end of the parking lot, Jason tore his arm from her grasp and turned around to face her.

"Is there a reason that we're outside?" he inquired, glancing around the nearly deserted area. I kept my distance, standing rooted to the ground about five feet away.

"I thought it best to come outside instead of disturbing a quiet bookstore." Esme nervously kneaded her hands together, looking up at the – in comparison to me – scrawny man before her. "Jason, I don't really know what to say, but… I don't think… well, I've told you about Carlisle before, at least briefly. And now that he's back, I just don't think that –"

"You're dumping me." The three words he interrupted her with were not a question, but a statement. "You're dumping me for him. The guy who abandoned you for years. That's the guy that tore your heart out of your chest and stomped it into the ground, and you're leaving me for him?"

Esme brushed a stray piece of hair behind her ear, dropping her gaze to the pavement. She took a discreet step back, leaving the three of us enveloped in silence for what felt like millennia. "I knew that you wouldn't take it well," she whispered, keeping her gaze fixed on the ground.

"Then you know me quite well, Miss Platt." Jason's voice was what seemed like a growl, his eyes glazing over with pure rage as he approached the place where Esme stood. She shrunk back from his slowly approaching form, giving him the opportunity to seem as if he were towering over her. It all happened very quickly then – he pulled back his arm, aiming for the perfect blow to Esme's flawless face. In an instant, I had him slammed against the wall of a dumpster, his back pressing into the cold, hard metal as the echo of the impact made its way into the air.

"Don't you dare lay a hand on her," I warned, my fist gripping his shirt collar as I set my intense glare upon his face.

"I'm allowed to do what I please with my girlfriend," he managed to growl in response despite the force I held upon his neck.

"You speak to her like she's your property."

Jason had no answer to this. He simply softened his hard gaze and ceased his struggles, forcing me to let him go as he no longer posed a threat. He looked at me, then at Esme once more before he angrily threw his foot against the side of the dumpster, storming off in the opposite direction while mumbling what sounded like an extensive string of profanities.

"Well… hopefully he won't be bothering you again any time soon," I concluded, making my way back to where Esme stood, still rooted to the concrete. She managed a small nod, carefully looping her arm with mine.

"I… I want to go home," she stated softly, fixing her eyes on the path before her.

"As you wish," I replied, beginning to lead her across the parking lot and back towards my car. "But may I ask you something?"

She took a moment to glance up from the ground and lay her eyes upon my face, giving me permission to continue with my question.

Allowing a small smile to creep onto my face, I asked, "Is it all right to say that we're floating now?"