Thought I'd give a quick shoutout to Sara K M who has been faithfully leaving me feedback for a long time and who's reviews I am always so so thankful and happy to receive. I officially finished writing this story and the final chapters in the following weeks. Thanks again to those of you reading :)

Carlisle POV

When I get back to our hotel room Esme is curled up on the couch with two mugs set in front of her; she's watching some sort of cooking show, the volume set low so she doesn't wake up our kids. As soon as I open the door all of her attention is focused on me, a million questions etched across her pretty face. I can tell she wants badly to voice all these questions, but she holds back- knowing I'm as worn out as she is.

"I made you coffee." She says instead, offering me one of the mugs (luckily we'd brought a couple from home) that's contents happened to be the perfect temperature. How Esme managed to know what time I would be home at exactly and made sure when I came a fresh pot of coffee was waiting for me was something I summed up to her super-awesome-wife abilities.

I take my jacket off and hang it over the arm of the couch, setting my laptop down on the coffee table before sitting down next to my wife on the slightly ugly hotel sofa and kissing her gratefully on the cheek.

"Did you have a good day?" I ask her.

"We had a quiet day." She tells me. It's strange to think we can have such a normal conversation when our life is so chaotic. "How was the hospital today?"

"I wasn't allowed to see Rosalie today; however, I did meet someone interesting who might be able to help us." I said, explaining my brief talk with Rosalie's aunt.

"I think its definitely worth looking into."

"I actually already did look into her before I came back to the hotel." I paused, waiting for Esme to nod before continuing. "She graduated top of her class, with the highest GPA any student has had in years. She worked alongside a few well known lawyers as an assistant while she was still taking university courses and received positive feedback from all."

"She's really serious about getting Rosalie back to us?" Esme asks, reaching for my hand for comfort.

"How about we set a time for the both of us to meet with her tomorrow morning?" I suggest. We were hopeful we could get a court hearing as soon as possible but it was important we found the right lawyer to represent us.

"Let's do it." Esme agrees.

I text Tanya and sort out all the details and then turn off my phone.

"I don't think I can sleep." I tell her truthfully.

"Me either." Esme says, cuddling up against me.

We end up talking for four hours; about the hearing, about Rosalie, about where we want to vacation once everything is sorted out, we talk about anything and everything. Just content to be in each others company after not being able to spend much time together for weeks. Eventually both of us fall sleep; still curled up together on the couch.

Rosalie POV

I don't sleep at all. How can I? Not when I could be living with complete strangers in as little as a week. I'm also worried if I do try sleeping I'll have a nightmare; and with no one around to comfort me if I needed it nightmares become much scarier.

When the morning sun comes so does my social worker and one of her co-workers. She doesn't point out the bags under my eyes or the fact I obviously got no sleep the previous night and instead focuses on making my day worse.

"The police are going to be speaking with you today after lunch Rosalie. They have lots of questions that need answering and you need to be completely honest with them when answering them." Edna says firmly.

I pretend I can't hear her and keep my eyes trained on the window on the other side of the hospital room. If she wasn't going to listen to me, why should I listen to her? Plus I was kind of hoping my giving her the silent treatment would make her mad.

"Rosalie please acknowledge me when I speak to you." She says eventually, sounding impatient.

My eyes don't stray from the window and my social workers frustration with me grows. I was glad Alice had told me all about the silent treatment (one time she'd ignored Edward for a full two hours after he'd stepped on her favourite Barbie, he was pretty much in tears by the time she finally forgave him and ended up buying her a new one.)

"Rosalie? Are you listening to me? You had better answer me Rose!" Edna says, glaring at me.

I keep my lips tightly closed and stare at her in a way that says 'make me.' Edna frowns in a very unhappy way and the expression does not make her pudgy face look any better then usual.

"Rosalie." She says warningly.

I wish she would stop saying my name. It sounded horrid coming out of her mouth, I hated it.

"Maybe she'll be more willing to speak is someone she is comfortable with is there." The other CPS worker -a dark skinned man named Dustin- suggests lightly. "Her interview with the police is essential to the trial and we won't prove anything if she's not speaking."

"No. She's just going to have to suck it up."

I forced tears to come to my eyes and began to loudly sniffle. Putting on the saddest face I can muster up.

"Your making her cry Edna!" Dustin exclaims. "Don't cry sweetie. We'll get someone to come with you while the police talk to you. How about your auntie?"

I shake my head and mouth Carlisle, looking at him hopefully.

"Carlisle? Do you want him to come with you?" He asks. Ignoring the angry look Edna is sending his way.

I instantly cheer up, nodding happily as I wipe the tears off my face.

"Edna?" Dustin asks, looking to her for approval.

"Fine." She hisses. "I'll call him in."

She storms out of the room and I silently cheer. I couldn't wait to see Carlisle!

-/-

It's even harder to answer the questions then I thought it would be. Carlisle sits beside me the whole time and holds my hands in his own, squeezing them occasionally when they'd begin to shake with nervousness at a certain question. Like promised I started speaking again as soon as I saw Carlisle. My rooms feels a lot less quiet and lonely when I'm not the only one in it. I'm so glad he's here. Without him I'd be lost.

The police officer questioning me is very through, and asks lots of questions that I don't expect him too. He isn't mean though, and for that I'm thankful. A woman who introduced herself to me as Annie is recording everything happening, and jotting down a few notes as I speak. They don't comment on anything I say- just listen closely to all the answers I give.

It's when they start asking questions about Royce that answering gets really hard. I have to pause lots and sometimes Carlisle has to encourage me to keep speaking when my mouth seems to refuse to keep moving.

"Can you tell me why Royce King would kidnap you?" Officer Peters asks.

Fifteen minutes later I finally have told the officer all about the night Royce nearly killed me, well at least the parts I remember about it. I don't know how I mange to shove the words out of my mouth but I must have because Carlisle looks absolutely heart broken and Officer Peters tells me he knows everything he needs to and that I did a good job.

I curl up on Carlisle's lap and hug him, knowing that my mean social worker was going to make him leave me again. What if this was the last time I got to see him? I couldn't handle that.

As if on cue Edna re-enters the room and immediately approaches me and Carlisle.

"It's time for you to go." Edna says, glaring at Carlisle and ignoring everyone else in the room.

"I'm not leaving." Carlisle states simply. Both Edna and I look at him in shock.

"Excuse me!?" Edna hisses. "Do I need to tell my boss about this and have him put your other children into the system too?"

"I would love for you to call your boss. My lawyer and I had a talk with him this morning and he seems far more reasonable then you. Everything has already been sorted." Carlisle states, still holding me in his arms. Using one arm he pulls an envelope out of his pants and holds it out to my fuming social worker.

She rips open the envelope and stares at the paper she pulls out from inside it for a few minutes before folding it up and looking back up at me, her expression unreadable.

"My wife and I agreed to your bosses conditions, so we have been granted temporary custody until the trail. Unless we violate the terms we've agreed to you are not allowed to take Rosalie or our other children from us. We are innocent until proven guilty Ms Ross." Carlisle tells her, his tone professional. Inside I am jumping with joy and excitement; I was staying with the Cullen's!

"I understand quite well Dr Cullen." Edna says cooly. "Just know we'll be keeping a very careful eye on you."

"Of course." Carlisle says. "If you don't mind...I would appreciate some time with my daughter."

Edna nods stiffly exiting the room and not looking back. Carlisle was definitely the coolest dad ever!

Tanya POV

When I was a little girl me and Laura would spend hours slaving on our family farm. Our parents -who had wanted boys- were never happy with our hard work. Neither of us were built for the lifestyle, and our mother and father were two of the worst people I have known in my life thus far. Our dad a drunk and mother a complete whack job. Laura and I quickly grew tired of always being hungry, of owning only a t-shirt, pair of ratty jeans and hand me down sweater that didn't fit.

One day my sister and I made a pact that we would never let ourselves become as worthless and frowned upon as our parents were. We agreed we'd both do something worthwhile with our lives.

When I was eight (and Laura fifteen) our parents died in a tragic house fire. The two of us had been out cleaning the stables when the sound of sirens made us race back through the field and towards our house. The flames were huge, it took the firefighters forever to put it out. They told us it was a fluke accident, and eventually our grandmother was granted custody of us.

We called her mother. Our real mom was young too and so our grandmother wasn't much older. Our new mother gave us everything we wanted. She lived alone, and told us her husband had left her when their daughter (Laura and I's real mom) went insane. She treated us fine, though she was distant and cold towards us we were never starved or mistreated.

It was at a party that Laura met Richard Hale. The two seemingly fell in love over night. I was a bit of skeptic but my sister was happy and so was mother so I kept my mouth shut.

"I'm beautiful, he's handsome. We make sense." Laura had told me, while getting ready for a date with Richard. Her hair falling in perfect waves down her back. "The Hale's are very wealthy."

The day Laura married Richard and became a Hale was the proudest moment in her life. It was her way of making good on the pact her and I had made as children. My proudest moment was becoming a lawyer. I wondered what Laura and Richard would think of me helping Rosalie after all the crap they'd put the poor kid through.

I was doing my very best to fix the mess my big sister had created. I wanted to fix things with Rosalie. Keeping her with the Cullen's and out of foster care was a priority so I knew I had to win the court case; so that exactly what I was going to do.

WOW. Two chapters to go! Let me know what you think; thanks!