"Oh Esme," his voice broke and he started towards me. I flinched back unwillingly. It was a stupid thing for me to do, but I couldn't help myself.

"Carlisle..." I whispered, heartbroken. "I'm so sorry." My shoulders hunched up and down, and the tearless sobs began again. My knees buckled out from under me and before I knew what was happening the grass was inches from my face, only my forearms supporting me up from the ground. I heard soft footfalls in front of me, followed by the brown leather shoes that enclosed his feet.

"Esme, sweetest," he whispered, pulling my hair away from my face. I didn't flinch this time. The emotion he put into those two words told me I was not about to be harmed, and I let myself fall into his lap. "Curse Charles Evenson, curse that man to the deepest pit of hell for what he put you through," he said quietly as he stroked my hair. I recoiled at his name. "My darling, I am so, so sorry. I swore to myself, that after hearing what that monster of a husband did to you, that you would never see me angry, never ever. And I let you down, dearest, sweetest Esme, in a way that I never should have. I am so awfully sorry, I must have terrified you. But please, forgive me. I don't know what I should do should you not be able to..."

I steadied myself, and sat up to look at him, my eyes wide as I took in his expression. His eyes were burning with remorse. "What that man did to me when I was human was never and never will be your fault. You know that. And neither is the effect the memory still has on me. No one should have to bottle everything up just because I cannot handle a blurry memory of a sick man, no one should have to hold anything in on my account. We are a family, and everyone needs to say how they feel. You have nothing to apologize for, my darling, nothing at all," I whispered earnestly.

"But Esme, I scared you, I totally terrified you. You left me..." his voice trailed off and he dropped his gaze

"Carlisle, please."

"Please what, my dearest?"

"Please let it go. I'm ok, I promise."

"I can see it in your eyes. You're not ok. Please, let me know how to make it better."

"Just promise me you will never leave me."

"I swear on my life I will never leave you. I swear by the stars in the sky, the waters of the seas, the air in the wind, that I will never abandon you. My heart belongs to you; without you, I am but an empty shell of life."

"That's alright then," I smiled slightly, bringing my head slowly closer to his, and rested my forehead on his. He moved his head slightly, breathing heavily and bringing his fingers so gently across my cheeks.

"Esme, I never intended to hurt you," he breathed, tracing his lips lightly across my face.

"I know," I sighed.

"I love you," he whispered on the side of my face. "I love you," the lobe of my ear, "I love you," the soft spot on my neck, "I love you," the edge of my collar bone.

"I love you too, Carlisle Cullen," I smiled properly and bringing his face up to mine. "With all my heart." My lips met his in a sweet kiss, moving with his perfectly, and I felt the pain he held over me pour out in this shared moment. I pulled away, my eyes wide. His face was sad.

"Oh Carlisle," I sighed, stroking his cheek sadly. "What are we going to do with each other?"

"I really don't know," he smiled. "I guess we're stuck with each other then."

"I'm not complaining," I smiled back, and leaned in to kiss my lover, my husband, my best friend, my soul mate.

"Ew, gross guys!" came a cry from the front door, followed by a "shut up Emmett, you freak!"

I almost chuckled, but was distracted as Carlisle wove his arms around me, pulling me closer to him. I found my fingers weaving through his hair as his lips parted slightly, my body reacting in a new way. I was vaguely aware of footsteps coming across the lawn, but ignored them as Carlisle leaned back onto the wet grass, pulling me on top of him, as his kisses hinted at more to come. His hands ran up and down my body, making me shiver, and all my senses began to cloud over...

"Ok, guys, now I know why you don't like it when me and Rose start stuff downstairs. It is pretty bad," came Emmett disgusted voice from somewhere to my left. I rolled off Carlisle, totally embarrassed and sat up, sorting my shirt back into place.

"Yes, Emmett?" Carlisle asked pleasantly, as if Emmett had disturbed nothing.

"Leave your nasty love life for later, we've got some family bonding to do," he said mock-enthusiastically. "And don't even bother to protest. It was Alice's idea. Enough said really."

I glanced at Carlisle, a little put out at out interruption, and more than a little worried about the 'family bonding'. He glanced back, looking equallyy worried.

"Should I ask...?" Carlisle said.

"I wouldn't," Emmett grimaced.

Curiosity pulled me up from the floor and led me to the house, pulling Carlisle to my side, not willing to let him go for a second. He rubbed my hand with his thumb soothingly, knowing that I was still a little emotional from earlier. When we arrived in the living room, Alice was bent over something next to the television, her body obscuring the object from view.

"Alice, seriously, what is the point?" Rosalie asked from where she was sat with Jasper on the sofa, playing slaps.

"Oww!" Jasper moaned as she caught him off guard, slapping his hand so hard it would have shattered the wrist of a human. "Just leave her be, Rose!"

She made a face at him, and caught his hands again.

"Ok!" Alice bounced up after a moment. "Well, I decided, that seeing as everyone has been down lately about Edward and everything, that we could do with some cheering up! And not to mention nights are never spent together as a family any more, because we all seem to have more entertaining things to do. So I bought a Wii, so we can play as a family!"

"A what?" I asked nervously. It didn't seem particularly appealing.

"It's a games console, Esme," Emmett sighed. "It's Alice's idea of fun."

"You bet it is Emmett!" she laughed. "Now lets get going!"

After half an hour of reading instructions, setting up profiles and re-reading the instructions, we were away with our first game.

"Now Wii Resort is a really good game, it's got loads of differant stuff to do, and you can play four ways!" Alice squealed with delight. I wasn't too impressed as I saw a computerised version of me waddle about the TV screen.

"I bet I'll your sorry ass Jasper," Emmett gawfawed, watching his own Mii wander about the screen. I saw Jasper throw Alice a glance, and she flashed him a grin.

"How much?" Jasper asked casually.

Emmett thought for a moment. "My 1968 baseball bat. And your 1957 baseball."

"You're on," Jasper grinned. Within moments they were both holding the Wii remotes as their Mii's battled in a jet ski race around what looked like a beach. Both their faces were wrapped with concentration. It was quite amusing.

"Aha, I told you I would beat you, little soldier!" Emmett laughed as his Mii zoomed ahead of Jasper.

"Oh is that so?" Jasper laughed triumphantly as he bashed Emmett out of the way and sent him completely off-course.

"Hey! Foul play!" Emmett moaned childishly. "Esme!"

"Hey, don't look at me!" I laughed. "It's a computer game Emmett, he can't cheat!"

"Can so," Emmett muttered while Jasper laughed, clearly taking the lead.

"In your face Emmett!" Jasper shouted triumphantly as his character crossed the line ahead of Emmett's. "Who's the soldier, who's the soldier?" he sang and did his happy-dance, moving his head and shoulders back and forth. We all laughed - aside from Emmett.

"Pay up bro," Jasper said and stuck out his hand for his prize.

"Fine," Emmett grumbled and darted upstairs. Alice winked at Jasper and they smacked fits.

"Oh guys you are mean!" Rosalie laughed. "You do realise I'm going to have to deal with that for the next decade!"

"Sorry Rose, but you married him!" Jasper laughed, as did the rest of us.

"Yeah, I guess." She rolled her eyes as Emmett ran back into the room and stood at the far end, before throwing the bat as hard as he could across the room at Jasper.

"Cheers mate," Jasper said cheerfully as he caught the bat in his hand just in front of his face.

"Be careful Emmett," I sighed. "You nearly hit your brother's face."

"Your point?" he asked blankly.

"Emmett!" Alice cried. "That's my husband you're talking about!"

"I know. Hey, Carlisle, I'll play you!"

"No, really Emmett, I'm ok," he smiled back as his arms around me tightened a little.

"Aww, c'mon, what's the harm? We can make it interesting," he said, a twinkle in his eye.

Carlisle shot a quick look at Alice, who nodded slightly and winked while Emmett set up the game. He sighed and stood up. "Ok Emmett, you're on."

"Great! You win, I behave myself for a month. No snide remarks, no trying to hurt Jasper, or Edward, no rowdy sex. I win, I get your white doctors jacket," he grinned, and shot a look at Rosalie, who gave him a look in return of her own.

"Why do you want... actually, I don't want to know," Carlisle concluded.

It was good fun to watch, they played 100 pin bowling, Emmett was impatient, and moaned about the little people that cheered on the bowling balls as they raced down the alley. The final score came up, followed by a cry of despair from Emmett.

"I can't believe it! I got beaten by a 400 year old doctor! A 400 year old doctor!" he exclaimed. "How messed up is that?"