Transcendence
A/N: I just want to profusely thank my amazing beta Lemon-of-the-tent for all her work with my story. It wouldn't be the same without her.
Chapter 12
Belgian waffles with warm apple compote – Esme was definitely trying to fatten me up.
They were all in the kitchen when I entered. Carlisle stood quickly and just stared at me a moment. The longer I was here the more I became aware of how little they all changed. I would never have expected big changes, not in just five years. It was the lack of small changes that was so startling: he looked exactly the same as the day I was almost crushed in the school parking lot.
Exactly the same.
"Bella…" he seemed almost more apprehensive than Jasper had been. Was every one of them going to react to me this way? This tentative hesitance was strange. Part of me supposed, though, it would be hard to see the girl your son or brother cast off so cruelly five years after her life had been suspended.
"Hi." The awkwardness of the whole situation was rubbing off on me, too.
There was a moment of subtle decision making before he took the four steps across the kitchen and hugged me. "How can you even tolerate us?" he asked quietly. It was such a strange thing that his cold arms could give me this warm feeling.
Ah, drama.
"How can I not?" I didn't quite recognize the voice that escaped from me. How in the world did I sound so frail? Good lord what was happening to me? My life was becoming more and more confusing and distracting and…and… There was some realization harassing me. Something I needed, something everything depended on, hanging just out of my grip.
"Oh, Carlisle let the girl eat before her breakfast gets cold." Esme was smiling with her hand on his shoulder.
He pulled away, looking somehow less than calm.
"Yes, of course, how forgetful of me." Something was bothering him.
Did I really smell that bad?
No, it was something more than that. I saw the peculiar look he gave Alice as Esme lead me to the kitchen table. It was a glimpse of whatever he was thinking beneath the veneer of the benevolent patriarch. I didn't get a bad feeling from the short exchange, just a further feeling of something odd.
A moment later when he sat beside Esme at the table the mask was firmly back in place.
Mindless chatter eventually came to occupy the awkward silence that settled in as I ate until Alice announced it was time to leave.
She was a miniature whirlwind as she ushered me outside to her waiting car. The bright yellow car looked so garish in the drive.
"Alice... Seriously?"
"Don't you just love my baby?" she stroked the smooth paint. "It's a Porsche. She's so fast and sleek and beautiful." She beamed down at the mechanical creature as if it would soon call her "mommy" and ask for a juice box.
For a moment I was amazed that Alice was completely starry-eyed over a car.
"She would choose that damn car over me."
I jumped out of my skin as Jasper's voice emanated from my side.
"Sorry, I forgot about the… human… thing." He apologized. "Esme has a list for you." He said to Alice.
She pulled herself away from the vehicle and took the list from him, pressing a gentle kiss to his cheek. "I would always choose you first." She responded to his earlier comment as she melted against his side. He was trying very hard not to smile as their eyes met and I looked away at the first glimpse of the intensity of that small gaze. I didn't think I would ever share that level of intimacy in a simple look with anyone in my life again. I was now wondering if I ever really had. Alice's crystalline laugh broke my reverie as she grasped my arm and pulled me toward the car.
"Yeah, right. Don't hurt her, Ali. She's only human." He called as we pulled away.
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