Author's note, Thanks for the reviews. If you're wondering why I didn't reply, read my profile. Sorry, but thanks, anyway. By the way, this story is set in 2009.

'Your brother?' I asked in surprise. There were no more McCarty children on the list.

'Yes,' Emmett said. 'My brother.'

'How old is he?' Carlisle asked.

'Fifteen last month.'

'Okay;' I said. 'What's his name, Emmett?'

'Edward. Edward McCarty.'

'Right. Where is he?' Carlisle said, shifting Alice to his other hip.

'Upstairs, In the-'

Whatever Emmett was about to say was cut off by a woman in her mid thirties poking her head out the door. She waved a wooden spoon around madly, and called something out to the two kids setting the table behind her. Then she turned back to us. 'Lunch is ready. Ferdy, Emily that means now. Freya, you can pack up the board game later. Joshua, be a dear and go get Nigel and Eliza and the rest; Emmett, stop bothering the nice people. Come get your lunch, and Alice, darling, do you want milk or water?'

Carlisle placed Alice on the carpet, and she toddled off toward the woman, who I assumed was Amy the cook. Alice kept yelling 'milk' and waving her arms in the air. She looked very cute. Emmett smiled at us uneasily.

'Thanks awfully… Mr and Mrs…'

'Cullen.'

'Cullen. I've got to go to lunch now, and I have to get a seat by Alice so she doesn't throw the potato at Phillipa again. Anyway, thank you.'

I grinned, and assuring him that there was no need for thanks, turned to Carlisle.

'What are we going to do?'

'It'll work out, Essie.' He hadn't called me Essie since the time he nearly lost his job because of staff downsizing. I frowned, because it meant he was obviously upset.

'Hey, you two.' Amy called. 'You might want to go see Antonia an' Harold in the office, because seeing this bunch eat will put you off kids for life.'

I smiled at her, and Carlisle and I left. We passed Eliza and her friends rushing towards the building, and we waved. When we reached the office, Antonia was waiting for us. 'Well,' she said, beaming in a slightly forced way. 'Did you find any children you'd like to look at the files of?'

'We would like to discuss a few of the children, yes.' Carlisle said carefully. 'In particular, the McCarty kids, Emmett and Alice.' He paused, 'and Edward.'

Antonia sighed. 'Yes, the McCarty kids are so sweet. They've had a rough hand dealt to them, though. Their father died when they were little, shortly before Alice was born, and the hit was hard. When Alice was a month old, Ms McCarty remarried, William Hyde, more for financial then personal reasons. He was not the nice man he appeared to be. He took drugs, smoked –both cigarettes and crack- and was constantly drunk. When Alice was six months old, her mother started to smoke. Edward, who was at that point twelve, was forced to take care of Alice and Emmett. By the time Alice was one; both her parents were alcoholics who smoked. Mr. Hyde took drugs as well.

'About six months ago Emmett started missing school; his mother always said he was sick. Edward began to skip school too, and a young teacher, Miss Melbourne, came to investigate. She found the cigarettes, but as smoking isn't a crime, and Ms McCarty wouldn't let her inside, she couldn't prove that anything was going on. She reported everything to the school principal though, Mr. Kensington.

'Five months ago, on a school day, Mr Kensington paid a visit to the McCarty house. Ms McCarty and Mr Hyde were out, but he found a spare key in lone flowerpot by the front door, and he let himself in. He found cigarette packets, and what was later tested to be drugs, in the lounge and kitchen. The bathroom was an unspeakable mess, and the downstairs bedroom bed was not made up, though it was midday.

'He went upstairs, and found a playroom. It was empty and gathering dust. The upstairs bathroom didn't seem to have been used in a while, and there was no towels, no toilet paper, nothing.

'At this point in time, the two boys hadn't been at school in three weeks. Anyway, worried, Mr. Kensington found that in the upstairs cupboard there was a door, and it was locked. The key he had let himself in with opened the door, and when he went in…'

'What?' I asked, taking a seat in the ring of chairs in the office, 'What did he see?'

'Emmett was sitting on the floor with a small chapter book, and Edward was changing the Alice's nappy. She only came out of nappies two months ago, so at that point she still used them. That's not the point though. The bedroom had two single beds pushed to either wall, a tiny slat window way up high, a cot and a chest of drawers.

'Edward seemed really surprised to see Mr. Kensington. He was fourteen, and had moved off the little kids' campus that year. He attended High School at the adjoined school. Emmett had just turned seven… he didn't even look up when George Kensington entered.

'Mr Kensington asked how long they had been in that room. Edward said it was their bedroom, but that over the past couple of months Mr. Hyde had begun to lock the door. He only let them out once a day to use the loo get Alice a couple more nappies.

'He asked how often they got fed, it was the same. One meal a day. As they filed back in the room from the bathroom break, they got handed a bag with a sandwich and a cookie in it, and a drink of water. Each time they left the room they handed the bag back in.

'The kids were so skinny! A sandwich a day is not enough for kids to grow on. Mr Kensington was horrified, but he couldn't do much other then leave, lock the door again and phone the police.

'Two months on from that, the police and an ambulance were seen leaving the house. It turned out Alice and Emmett got nightmares- they all did, I think, but Alice screamed the loudest. One day she fell asleep, about four o'clock, pm. Alice screamed, and William Hyde got so annoyed. He was drunk- and angry. He marched upstairs and lunged for Alice.

'He probably would have killed her, so Edward dived in the way. He got three shattered ribs, and two other broken ones. His arm snapped and a leg bone shattered. The sheer force of William- so horrible,' Antonia paused and wiped her eye. I realised I was blinking back tears myself.

'He ended up in hospital,' Antonia whispered. 'Four weeks of lying there, and all he talked about was his siblings, asking if they were okay.'

'Which hospital?' Carlisle asked, his face gaunt.

'Not yours, I think, Dr. Cullen. A small, community run medical centre. Ellen Humphreys Community Hospital.'

'How did you know I was a doctor?' Carlisle said, frowning slightly.

'I did some research, looked through your file. I have to, you know- It's my job to make sure the kids go to a good home.' She sounded a little defensive.

'Of course,' Carlisle smiled. 'Now, back to the subject at hand. What of the children? Where is Edward?'

'Edward's upstairs, above the playroom, in the hospital wing. He's recovering very well, but the doctors said it would be at lest another fortnight before he was back on his feet. He's been in bed for three months now, two months here and one in hospital. All the clean brakes healed a while ago, but they had to do surgery for all the shattered bones. They're all healing well, apparently, but another two weeks.'

Carlisle looked at me, and I bit my lip. 'Antonia…'

'Yes, Mrs Cullen?'

'Esme.'

'Esme.' She repeated.

'Antonia… are the McCarty kids available for adoption?'

Antonia blinked. 'Yes, they are…'

'Could we… could we look into adopting them?'

'Yes, but Esme, I must warn you. Emmett and Edward will be scarred for life, and who knows how Alice will turn out? Edward won't be entirely independent of prosthetic aid for four months at least, hell; he won't be out of bed for two weeks. The children are behind on schooling, and medical care will be quite expensive.'

I looked pleadingly at Carlisle. He nodded, and spoke. 'Antonia, at this point we don't care what it will cost, or what sacrifices we have to make. That's part of becoming, of being, a parent, right?'

'Yes…'

'So when we say we want to adopt these kids, we mean we want to adopt these kids.'

I smiled and patted Carlisle's hand. We waited for Antonia's response. 'Very well, I'll leave you to look at the kids' files. First you foster the child for a one month trial, and then it's possible to adopt.'

'Antonia?'

'Yes?'

'Is anyone else looking to adopt the McCarty siblings?'

She pursed her lips. 'No. Well, there was one couple. Mr and Mrs-' She broke off. 'Sorry, that's confidential. Anyway, we thought… They did half the one month trial, but they just weren't right, you know? They struggled, Alice was so little, and Emmett needed constant attention, and they couldn't forget Edward, who was still in hospital.'

'So it didn't work out?' I said, both hope and dread bubbling inside me. Hope, there was no one else interested in adopting the McCarty children. Dread, others had failed before me.

'No,' Antonia whispered. 'It didn't work out.' She sniffed, and smiled at Carlisle and I. 'Well, now. Browse through the files, and ask Harold here if you need anything.' She stood and left. I heard excited chattering outside the door, and Antonia shushing the children.

Harold gave us three files before returning to the desk he had been working at. I picked up Emmett's file, and began to read. It contained a more factual and less personal version of the story Antonia had told us, medical history, school records, a character reference and parenting tips for adoptive parents. The file didn't contain much that I was interested in, so after about fifteen minutes I put it down. Carlisle was tutting over the medical section of Edward's file, so I turned to Harold.

'Harold?'

'Yes, Esme?'

'Why are all the girls in yellow dresses, and all the boys in blue suits?'

'Dunno, Miss. Bad uniform choice, I guess. It was the uniform when I came here, nineteen years ago.'

'Are you an only child? Did you come here alone?'

'With me sister, Bethany.'

'My sister,' I corrected softly.

'My sister, Bethany, she was two an' a half years my elder. Well, we were fostered a lot, and when I was eight and her nearly eleven, we got adopted. Ms Kentucky, and her fiancé, Bruce. Well, they got married. When I was twelve I got a brother, Joseph. Mom, my adoptive Mom, died last year.'

'I'm sorry.' I whispered.

'No, it's Joseph you should feel sorry for, he's only eleven. Bethany's married with a daughter, Ellen, and my girlfriend's four sisters dragged her off for a trip to France, but she'll be back next week, and then I'll go home to Mercer Island. I just come here when I'm lonely. I help with the little kids. They need it, someone who doesn't just sympathise, but understands.'

I smiled. 'Yes, I imagine that is helpful.' I paused anxiously as I stood up. 'Harold?'

'Yeah?'

'Did… was your adoption successful? Did you connect with your parents? Or… or…'

He grinned at me. 'Esme, I'm sure things will be just fine. My adoption worked out well, I'd already moved out when Annie, Mom, died. The worst point was probably when Joseph was born, and everyone was very conscious of not playing favourites.'

'No worries of that with me.' I said bitterly.

Carlisle took my hand, and I jumped, having not noticed him coming up behind me.

'Well,' Harold said. 'I assume you want to visit Edward?'

'Yes,' Carlisle said immediately, 'Poor kid.'

Harold nodded, and walked to the door. 'Follow me.'

We walked back to the room where the children were eating lunch, but we passed them, through the playroom to a little half hidden door. It opened onto a spiralling wooden staircase, and we trooped up the stairs.

Up the stairs was a second door, Harold opened it and we all stepped through. The room was small, but not cramped. One window was open, and the curtains billowed aimlessly. The walls were wooden, and the floor covered in threadbare rugs. Three beds were visible, and the one furthest away had a white curtain on a frame around it. Harold strode over to it, and pulled the curtain back to reveal the form of a sleeping boy.

I gasped.

Author's note. Please review. I'm lacking reviews… but thanks to those who did! Thanks very much. :)

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