A/N: Okay this is a middle chapter that hints towards some of Bella's feelings, but mainly it's family fluff with some Carlisle and Esme. Next chapter will be the birthday party where everything goes wrong. I promise.

As always, Read, Review, and Pass it On, but most importantly REVIEW!

-Wish

Chapter 39: Reluctant

We were spending the last night before the first day of school as a family. Or, at least, as much of a family as we could be. Rosalie and Emmett were in Africa. But if anyone outside the family asked, they were on the East Coast, attending their first year of Dartmouth. Jasper was supposed to be with them, but he sat on the love seat with Alice. Jasper would never leave her. On the next couch over sat Edward, with Bella.

After the events of last March, Edward had rarely let Bella out of his sight. All summer they'd been inseparable. It had been wonderful, seeing Edward finally happy. For so long, Edward had been alone and miserable. Bt Bella had changed all that. Jasper, in the past, had stayed away from Edward because of his depressive moods. But now, Jasper spent more and more time with his brother, hunting or just sitting in the family room reading.

Bella fit in the family. Everyone, with the exception of Rosalie, loved her. Already, I thought of her as another daughter, the third daughter I'd waited for. We wanted her as part of the family. If Edward ever agreed to change her, I would do it in a beat of her heart, since mine no longer pulsed.

But Edward was adamantly against Bella being changed into a vampire. It all came back to Edward's beliefs about himself. He was a monster. He had no soul. He was damned. I'd tried to convince him otherwise many times. We'd talked for hours about the idea of God and a soul. We'd talked about Bella. I firmly believed that, like many other mythologies of vampires, the idea that we had no soul was false. My own family was an example of this. We worked to be better than our circumstances; to not fall to the temptation of the thirst. We lived and loved. If we had no soul, neither would be possible.

My thoughts were turned away from Bella and Edward as Esme joined me, stretched out on the floor with our shoulders and heads propped against the couch behind us. She nestled into my shoulder with a small sigh as the opening credits of the movie played. I didn't know what Alice had put in, and honestly, I didn't pay much attention to it anyway. The movie could've been pornography (though Alice knows better) and I would not have known. I had eyes only for my angel, wrapped in my arms. She was my movie. I watched her expression build as the movie plot thickened, then her surprise as it twisted, her curiosity as the mystery unwound, and finally her joy and relief at the happy ending.

"Did you like the movie, Carlisle?" Esme asked, jokingly. She knew I had barely seen a glimpse of it.

"Yes," I replied simply. "It was…very entertaining," I told her, laying a kiss on her nose. I wanted to continue down her lovely face, but Edward cleared his throat behind us. I was reminded, we still had company. I would have to wait to be alone with my lovely, alluring—

Edward nudged me in the back with his foot, so quickly I doubted Bella even noticed, but it would have been enough to break a bone or two in a human.

I am sorry, Edward, I apologized silently. But in my defense, I am, biologically, only 23 years-old.

Edward only hissed one word back, barely loud enough for Esme and me to hear. "Behave."

Esme smiled up at me, laughter in her darkening, almost onyx eyes. We would have to hunt soon. I should not have let her become this thirsty, especially with Bella spending more time at the house. I had hunted with Edward earlier in the week because I'd had night shifts, long hours, and five surgeries that week. I wanted to be cautious, but in my cautiousness, I'd neglected my wife.

"We'll go hunting when Bella leaves," I whispered to her. She nodded and glanced backwards to where Bella's very human scent permeated. We were all getting better at controlling our thirst on a day to day basis.

"I can't believe we're finally going to be seniors!" Alice squealed from her spot with Jasper.

Edward laughed. "We've been seniors plenty of times before, Alice."

"But Bella hasn't," Alice pointed out.

All eyes fell on Bella where she nestled in Edward's arms. She groaned softly. "Don't remind me."

"You don't want to be a senior?" I asked.

Bella opened her mouth to reply, but seemed to think better of it. "It's complicated." She looked back at Edward and I think I understood why Bella was reluctant to become a senior. Because, really, Edward would never be old enough to graduate. He would never turn eighteen. Bella still could.

I had never thought too much about age differences. Age was an illusion to us. Physically, I was 23 and Esme was 25. But really, I was over 200 years older than her. The difference in our physical age had never been an issue. The fact that we'd grown up in two completely different time periods had mattered more. At first, Esme had admitted, she'd felt almost immature, comparing her 25 to my 281. I had lived many life times, she hadn't lived one. But as the years went on, our actual ages didn't matter so much either. We loved each other. That was all that mattered. And really, that was all that mattered between Bella and Edward. That they loved each other.

"Well I'm excited," Alice continued. "You're going to love senior year, I guarantee it."

Alice babbled on as Esme and I excused ourselves. We're going to hunt, I told Edward. He nodded once. Out the kitchen door and we were free.

Esme and I ran through the trees, the stars and the moon over our heads. It was a clear night tonight, but tomorrow the clouds would roll back in. It was trickier to avoid the sunlight during the summertime when it was more common. I tended to work night shifts more often and we sometimes made the excuse of a family vacation.

We came across an elk in the mountains southeast of Forks. Esme drank most of it. She needed it more than I did.

"Better?" I asked when she sat back. Her eyes were once more topaz. The proper color. The one they were supposed to be.

"Better," Esme replied.

"I'm sorry. I—"

Esme laughed, "Carlisle, don't start now. I'm over 100 years old. I think I can take care of myself." She picked up the remains of the elk, slung it over her shoulder and walked off to take care of the body. I stood rooted in place, watching her go with admiration. When I didn't follow her, Esme turned to look back at me.

"Are you coming? You are a better digger than I am."

I laughed and she joined me beneath the stars and the moon against the deep, midnight blue sky.

A/N2: I know there's some fluff at the end, but who doesn't like Carlisle and Esme fluff? Next chapter, the ill-fated birthday.