Disclaimer: We all know that Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight. I couldn't help but to fall for Carlisle and Esme as the parents. This is my adventure to an already great story.

Chapter 17 - The Leader of the Pride

Carlisle POV

Edward and I returned to the manor where the kids and Esme awaited me. I was a mess and so Edward listened to everyone's thought only to find that they were staying out of my way to allow me a chance to get cleaned up he said. But I had other ideas, which I refused to think about near my mindreading son. He read me anyway, without me even thinking about it.

"They are giving you a chance to clean up out of respect, Dad. And to be honest, Jasper is forced to physically hold onto Alice as she is determined to see you right now," he informed me. "So how about we get you into a shower and I will discard those rags you are wearing. The Pixie has already brought a change of clothes for you."

I smiled at my son's use of the nickname we had all used at some point or another for my youngest daughter, Alice.

"I shall get ready as quickly as possible," I informed my waiting son. He led me to a room here my things were already laid out and let me know he was off to see his wife, Bella.

When I emerged from the bathroom, I found the clothes Alice had left and dressed quickly. A quiet knock on the door had me jerking my head in surprise. Alice would have seen I was dressed and barged in followed by Jasper. Edward was with Bella and would not be rushing back. I could hear Emmett and Jacob outside wrestling and cajoling with each other. And I did not, however, smell Esme's distinctive scent.

"Come in," I said softly knowing any vampire would hear me.

Alistair entered, "May I speak to you a moment, Carlisle?"

"Certainly, it is the least I can do for you," but he stopped me as I spoke.

"First I will tell you as I told your wife," he started quickly, to avoid my interrupting him.

"If I got hold of Victor, I would have to kill him myself. You don't know all that has happened here, but that man is no longer my son. I tried to raise him as a son and he rejected me on all accounts," I noticed the determined expression on his face. "He tried to take my coven from me and even had me and my mate marked for death," he continued.

"I am sorry to hear of your misfortunes. I must tell you if you don't already know that I had to k…"

"You owe me no explanation or apology, Carlisle," Alistair countered. "I announced to my coven that you were a friend and Victor ignored that. By doing that he broke my edict and thus destroyed any connection he had to this family for the last time."

"Thank you for your understanding, my friend," I said.

"No, thank you for allowing me to continue to call you friend in lieu of what my coven member did," he sighed with resignation. "I only hope that I live long enough to nurture my coven into the family you have been so successful at achieving."

"I am not sure how much family I will have when I return Alistair. I have broken more of my own rules than I care to think about. My children must be wondering what has happened to their father or at least they will be when they learn of what I have done and how I have behaved. I am truly embarrassed to face them now but alas I fear I can put this off no longer," I shuddered at the upcoming fallout I was expecting.

"You're joking right," Alistair admonished immediately.

"I beg your pardon, but this is no joke, Alistair," I corrected him with a snarl. "I have always told my children to abstain from violence unless absolutely necessary. I should not have killed your son. I should have returned him to you and let you, as coven leader, deal out his punishment as you deemed necessary."

"And I would have killed him. You merely saved me from the distasteful task of having to do the inevitable myself." Alistair hung his head in shame. "And for the record, Edward, Emmett and Jasper are sons to you. Victor was not a son to me; he was merely a member of my coven as he so often liked to point out and not a respectful one at that, considering his final behaviors to both you and me. You and your family are like a pride of lions and you lead them with love and nurturing as needed."

"I am not sure how they will feel about that right now," I responded quietly.

Alistair confirmed, "You are the leader of the pride, Carlisle. You have a family that is proud of you and will follow you to the end. You are their father, their teacher, their motivator and their leader. You are as you should be and nothing more."

"I killed a man," I hissed at him, angry at myself. "No matter what his intentions or motivations were; I took another person's life because I allowed my own primitive nature to take over instead of using my head and coming up with a more positive conclusion to a negative situation. I am a doctor who spends his time saving lives and look at me now!"

"You were protecting your family, Carlisle. Your honor and your life had all been threatened; any man would have done the same," he countered determined to get me to see reason and agree with him.

"Alistair, I. Killed. Your. Son! Don't you understand what I am saying to you? How can you be so understanding right now? If it had been Edward or even Emmett or Jasper, I would be at your throat right now!"

My throat tightened at the thought of one of my sons injured or killed and I visibly shivered. I truly hated myself even more as I faced this man with the truth of my feelings. He watched me quietly for a moment before he spoke again.

"That's the difference between us isn't it Carlisle? I am embarrassed to say that you love your boys with everything you have other than what you feel for your lovely wife. My son was leftover baggage from a former life that obviously did not carry over for either of us," he continued with painstaking determination at his own realizations.

"We were tied by memory and obligation, whereas you and your family are tied together by love. This I envy you the most. To have such devotion given to you by your wife and your kids is truly a wonderful blessing from God and I only hope that I can be allowed to live long enough to reach that type of blessing with my own family."

Esme POV

I listened to Carlisle berate himself about what happened. I could not be sure what he was hearing as he listened to Alistair, but I was sure he was not letting go; placing the blame on himself. These were the times that he and Edward were so much alike it was hard to believe that he was not the boy's biological father after all. I had to reach him. Bring him back to his family. I had to take a chance on what Alice, Bella and finally Alistair said to help me come to terms with what I was forced to do. They were so caught up in their conversation that they did not hear me walk into the room. I saw Carlisle tense, so I knew he was aware I was there but he would not look at me. My heart broke. He obviously felt betrayed by me.

"He forced his affections on me," I said interrupting their conversation. They both started as I entered the room. "He told me that you were dead. He said he was going to take care of me from now on. He would not let me leave; he said that he could provide for me whatever I needed; that when he became the new leader of this coven, I would be his mate."

Carlisle growled but still did not turn around to face me. I was starting to loose it again, but I pushed on. He would find out anyway, Edward knew and so did Percy. Eventually, it will all be put together. Alistair excused himself quietly leaving us to have this conversation we both needed to have. I stood there with my head down ashamed and scared of what was coming next. Finally he spoke.

"Esme, I am so sorry, love. I let you down. I should have been there for you. I should have protected you better. I…" he stammered unsure of how to continue. Carlisle… Unsure? How is this even possible? The thought actually made me angry that Victor could even do this. It spurred me to continue on.

"And what did you do wrong?" I snarled. Oh God, I just snarled at my husband? "Did you know there was going to be a massive quake that would entrap you? Did you know that this man was a psychotic killer and usurper? How, considering the circumstances and entrapments Victor set up could you have done anything better? You did what you were supposed to do. You survived, you saved me and you brought our family back together as it should be," I continued. "What more could you have asked of yourself?"

"Esme, I should not have put us out here unprotected like this. I selfishly wanted to spend time with you and nearly got everyone killed," he said quietly looking at the floor instead of me.

"Carlisle, are you saying wanting to spend some alone time with your wife is a mistake? Surely that is not what you mean!" I snapped angrily at him. He flinched at my tone and finally looked at me.

"Sweetheart, Love, I am just saying I may have put us in unnecessary jeopardy because of my desire to be alone with you instead of taking the precautions to keep you safe," he breathed out an unnecessary breath. "Had I exercised on the side of caution as I should have, we would not have found ourselves in the situation we did."

"Carlisle, surely you are not about to let the machinations of a madman second guess the desire to share a second honeymoon with your wife? I do love you as always; nothing has changed that, whether you will accept my love again or not," I added not quite as sure of myself as I was when I began.

"Esme, I don't deserve your love," he countered sure I was not understanding the full impact of his transgressions. "I have been incompetent and selfish and negligent due to my own lack of willpower and selfishness. Look at what it has cost us. I have killed a man, taken away a father's son and a family's brother and almost allowed him to harm you in one of the worse ways possible." At that statement his breath hitched as if he would break down at this very moment.

"You do realize that the same son and brother you so brokenly describe is the same being who tried to force his affections on me against my wishes? What do you wish to have happened?" I asked him vehemently.

I could feel my anger building and realized my husband though it was directed at him.

This had to stop. We were both behaving foolishly and only hurting ourselves.

"Carlisle, do you not love me anymore?" I asked him quietly. "Is it possible that the kiss Victor forced on me has shattered everything we had? I swear to you, I thought I had no choice."

"No!" he growled, as I held my head down feeling remorse for my actions.

I knew he was angry now. He never growled at me. I had to finish my apology before he stopped me. I wanted him to know how sorry I was so I continued.

"He told me you were dead," I could not hold in my sobs anymore facing him with this admission. "It was the only way to say goodbye to the kids. I was scared and desperate."

Then for the first time since we were separated, Carlisle grabbed me and put his arms around me and held onto to me tightly. We both started talking at the same time, overlapping in our apologies.

"Oh God, I am so sorry Esme, My love. I love you so much. I am so sorry." His shoulders shook as he cried also and we felt each other's pain for what we both had experienced. "Oh baby, please forgive me. I am not angry at you I am angry at myself for allowing harm to come you. How can I considerer myself a good husband, a good provider when something as heinous as this could have occurred to you under my watch?"

"I would have tried to get away eventually but I was trapped by him and I thought I was alone," I cried tearlessly in his arms. "I am so sorry. I am so very sorry you had to be hurt and alone and go through all that without me to help you through it. I love you, Carlisle, more than my very own life itself. Please forgive me."

"No. No don't you dare apologize to me. I left you with that monster. I hate myself right now. That's why I don't feel like I deserve your love," he admonished.

"No, Carlisle, you cannot be held responsible for his plans. I am embarrassed for not waiting for you. I didn't feel like you were dead so I should have known."

With that he chuckled. I looked at him curiously. "Can we perhaps agree to disagree on who blames themselves more?" and then he smiled that dazzling smile that always took my breath away.

"No, I am going to insist that we both agree to not blame ourselves at all." I countered with a dazzling smile of my own.

And with that I pulled him down to me and reminded him of the benefits of being married and in love. I kissed my husband with all the passion of a woman who knows her husband loves her and she loves him back just as fiercely.

"Wow, you win Mrs. Cullen. Whatever you wish; I will not allow either of us to blame ourselves for what has transpired over these last few days. So tell me, what do we do now?" He asked leaning his forehead against mine.

"Well, I don't know about you but I am ready to go home. Let's first go face the children, assure them we are both fine. Then we need to go spend a few hours packing up the cottage and return to the hotel to join the kids so that we may all return home together. Will that be okay with you?" I asked sweetly as I gazed up at him through my lashes.

I felt his body tense and the reaction I was hoping for. He smiled his dazzling smile again and crushed his lips on mine. He kissed me passionately and thoroughly and although I did not need to breathe, I was breathless when he was done. I smiled and took his hand as we walked out of the room.

"You know it will not take hours to pack up the cottage," He said quietly.

"Ummm, and this is a problem because…?" I purred.

A/N: Thank you to my faithful readers. We are almost done. I have discovered a few more stories hidden inside me and will continue to write after this. Thank you Totteacher my wonderful Beta and all my fans I seemed to have developed. I am so looking forward to hearing your input on my new stories.

I have a couple of upcoming camping trips and a spring break to look forward to right now but…"I'll be back!"

And by the way there will be a short Epilogue to follow this just wanted a sense of closure for the family. Hope you like it.

Remember read and review as always.