A/N: So this is another chapter. Second within five days! I went from not really posting, to posting fairly quickly! I hope I can keep this up. I think as long as my class work doesn't take up too much time, I can keep posting often. I know what I need to write now, and I think the writer's block might be behind me *KNOCK ON WOOD*.

This chapter is a little nicer and a little sweeter than the past couple have been. It's some fluff and stuff and not really action packed, but for all you who like Carlisle and Esme (like me) you find this chapter likeable. I hope you like it enough to REVIEW! And even if you don't like it, REVIEW and tell me what you didn't like and what I can fix. Just a few words, less than a minute of your valuable time. It'll take less time to review than it has to read this incredibly long author's note. I'm going to shut up now and let you read the chapter. I'm not one of those authors who holds the next chapter above your heads until a certain amount of reviews, but I'd like at least 10, if you can spare it!

Pretty please?

-Wish

Chapter 47: New Year

I knew after Alice and Jasper left that I needed to do something to distract Esme. Anything to get her mind off of the emptiness of the house. So the night after Christmas day, I began to make arrangements for a special, New Year's vacation. I took off for the rest of the week and the next week. I'd been working longer hours than any other doctor in CMC and had plenty of vacation time to use. Also, classes wouldn't begin for almost a month, so Cornell didn't need me. Esme did.

After taking off, I book two plane tickets to Rio de Janeiro for the day after tomorrow. I was taking her to her island. Isle Esme. It would be a good retreat from everything. Only Esme and I had ever been on Isle Esme. I'd bought it for her long ago as an anniversary gift. It was tropical, but removed so we wouldn't have to hide when the sun came out. The house there was kept up by two humans who came to clean and repair any damages, but I usually asked them not to come when I brought Esme there.

I heard Esme walking slowly down the hall as I printed the boarding passes for the flight. First class, of course. She knocked on my door as I tucked the passes into my coat pocket. I wasn't really sure when I would tell her about the trip. When the time was right.

"Come in," I said softly. I didn't know why she'd knocked. Esme was welcome in my office any time. I kept nothing from her.

Esme walked in and put an attempt of a smile on her face. I knew this was supposed to be for my sake. Esme was trying to put on a brave face for me. But I knew her too well to believe the smile meant she was truly happy. It didn't reach her eyes. There wasn't the typical spark in her topaz eyes as she walked around my desk. I pushed my chair back from my computer and pulled her onto my lap. She nestled her face in my neck and gave me a gentle kiss as I rubbed her back. Neither of us said anything at first; we simply basked in each other's presence.

Finally it was I who broke the comfortable silence between us, "I love you," I said simply.

"I know," Esme replied. "I love you too."

"I can stand to see you so sad," I admitted. "My angel," I whispered to her, kissing her hair, her forehead, her nose, her lips. She returned my kiss with less of her usual passion.

"I'm sorry," she apologized softly. "I don't mean to make you unhappy too."

"You don't," I replied quickly. "On the contrary, you make me the happiest man in the world when I am with you."

Esme smiled and this time, I saw a glimpse of it in her perfect, loving, kind eyes.

"I have something for you," I informed her, reaching to my coat pocket and pulling out the passes. I handed them to her and she looked them over for a moment. I watched her expression change as she read the destination and put two and two together.

"We're going to the Isle!" she said, enthusiasm in her voice for the first time in months.

"The day after tomorrow," I added. "I took off for the rest of the week and the next. I thought we could spend New Year's there, maybe see the fireworks in Rio and spend some time together. I'm sorry I've been so busy. I've neglected you far too much since we moved. I feel terrible.

Esme took my face in her hands and planted a firm kiss on my lips. "Carlisle, none of this is your fault," she told me. "You know that, right?"

I nodded, but I couldn't help but thinking, 'if only I hadn't moved the family'. It was my fault. But I was going to make it right. And this would be the first step. I would take care of Esme, and then I would begin work on the kids. I would bring this family back, somehow.

~*~

Esme and I packed our bags and locked up the house and got on our plane to Rio at 4 AM. I picked an earlier flight in hopes that there would be less people getting on. We didn't sleep, so it wasn't like waking up was a hard thing for us to do. Flying in first class helped too. There was more space between us and the other humans. I sat in the outside seat, Esme sat at the window. We talked quietly the entire way there. We talked about trivial things, how my classes were going or how her work on the house was coming. She was almost finished. All she had left was the exterior. Esme told me how she would have to replace certain spots of the wood where it had rotted and how she would probably try to paint it as close to the original colors as she could come. I offered to help her with that when we got back. Esme also wanted to plant some new trees and some shrubs and such to "frame" the house. She was considering hiring a landscaper for that part.

"I don't know very much about plants," she admitted. "I would hate to ruin it by doing it myself."

"You could never do that," I replied, squeezing her hand.

Esme turned to me, her expression suddenly offended. I reeled, trying to find something I'd said wrong. "Carlisle Cullen, you are a big liar." But she smiled and kissed me tenderly on the mouth. "But I still love you."

"Always," I whispered.

We arrived in Rio de Janeiro without mishap and passed through customs quickly. I hailed a taxi and directed the driver to the marina where we always kept a boat in ship-shape for excursions like this. Esme and I climbed aboard and she stowed the suitcases as I ran through the checklist. Five minutes later we were sailing out of the harbor and then we left Rio behind. It was a nice city, but Isle Esme waited. I struggled to keep my anticipation in check as we skipped over the waves. I steered the boat over the water with ease; it wasn't too choppy today. Soon we docked on Isle Esme, just below the spacious house I'd had built for us. It was twilight. The sun was a thin, half circle of light just above the distant horizon. The sky was orange and yellow with hues of a brilliant pink with a deeper purple creeping in. Esme sighed as we climbed off the boat. I grabbed our bags and we strolled up the path to the house.

"I've missed it here," Esme commented. "It's been so long."

It had been a very long time since we'd visited Isle Esme. We hadn't taken the trip since moving to Forks, and had only come down once during our time in Denali, Alaska. This was a much needed break from the problems back home.

The time spent on Isle Esme was the best week and a half of that January. Esme and I were together and we didn't need to focus on our work or the house or anything other than each other. We watched the fireworks out in Rio from Isle Esme, a feat not possible for humans. We only left the Isle twice to go hunting, once during the middle of the stay, and once at the end, to be prepared for the trip back. The time on the island was the best I'd had with my wife in a long time and I never wanted it to end.

But the days passed all too quickly and soon, Esme and I faced our last sunset on Isle Esme. I lounged in a hammock strung up between two palm trees, Esme tucked to my side, and we watched the sun sink below the horizon one last time. The weather had been clear almost the entire time, a welcome break from the cloudiness of Ithaca, New York. As Esme watched the brilliant colors streaking across the sky, I watched the last rays of light as they glistened off her perfect skin. It was a peculiar thing, the way sunlight interacted with our skin. It sparkled like diamonds, yet diamonds sparkled because of their facets. Our skin was smooth and hard like granite with not a single imperfection. It didn't make sense. And why did only sunlight act like this. Diamonds could shine in artificial light too, yet all artificial light did was make us look even more sickly, bringing the dark circles under our eyes and the paleness of our skin into stark contrast.

Esme turned her head slightly to look up at me. "What are you thinking?" she asked, smiling.

I smiled back. "What makes you think I'm thinking?" I asked her, teasing.

"You have the look on your face," she replied, matter-of-factly. "It's the look you get when reading your medical journals, or when you are trying to figure out how best to help a patient. I don't know how to really describe it. You look…pensive." She shrugged.

"Pensive," I repeated. "Hmm…well if you must know, I was wondering about you. I was admiring the way the light reflects off your flawless skin."

Esme turned further so that she was almost on her side. It was not an easy feat in a hammock, but we were vampires. We wouldn't fall. She studied my face and I recognized the same look in hers as she was trying to describe in mine. It was a look of almost intense curiosity and concentration. But there was something not so uptight about it. I wondered vaguely if it was a look she'd learned from me, or one I learned from her. It wasn't unheard of, for a couple to pick up each other's mannerisms as they stayed together longer. And Esme and I had been together for about 80 years.

"Now what are you thinking about?" I asked her. To my dismay, she frowned. It was the first time I'd seen her do so since we'd arrived at Isle Esme. "What's wrong?" I asked urgently.

"It's just, I was thinking about us."

"What about us? We're both right here, enjoying a wonderful sunset."

"Not just you and I," she corrected. "I mean us, as in the entire family."

I understood now why she'd frowned. I'd tried my best to distract her from thinking about the family while we were here. But Esme was concerned. It was natural for her. The family that she loved so deeply was in ruins.

I wanted to change the subject, like I'd done whenever we were coming close to talking about the family any other time while we were here, but I knew I couldn't. We were leaving tomorrow, and then the status of our family would be a worry once more.

"I was thinking, maybe we could give Rosalie and Emmett another call," Esme suggested. "Just to see how they're doing. They might be inclined to come home. I miss them."

"I miss them too," I replied. "And when we get back, I'll give them a call. I think Emmett has his cell phone on him. They said they were in Barcelona right now?"

Esme nodded. "And Edward. Do you think he might need some help? We haven't heard from him since he left. Surely he would've found her by now."

I sighed. Emmett and Rosalie were one situation. They'd only left because Rosalie couldn't handle the family as it was. But Edward wasn't at home, so perhaps she'd be willing to come home, for Esme's sake. Edward, though, his problems were deeper. I knew the search for Victoria was a distraction for him. It was a way for him to feel useful to Bella, without actually being there, at her side.

"Not necessarily," I said, choosing my words carefully. "Victoria seemed to be especially adept at avoiding us when she was working with James. I don't think she would be an easy person to find. And Edward refused help. He's working alone. It might take a while for him to find her."

Esme nodded. I could tell that she was disappointed, but understood my reasoning. Edward's task was a difficult one. That she recognized.

"But Alice and Jasper should be home soon," I reminded her. "Alice said she wanted to check on a few things. They probably won't be much longer down south, and then they'll return."

Esme smiled at the thought. There was a strong possibility that she would get four of her children back within the next month or so. She looked forward to it, and hoped for the day Edward might come home too.

"This is a new year," I said. "We're going to start it off right. As soon as we get home, I'll contact Emmett and Rosalie and see if they can come home. We're still a family. I promise."

Esme stretched up and kissed my lips. I returned her kiss, pulling her closer. We lay like that, in each other's embrace until the last of the sun's rays had disappeared from the sky and the stars winked down at us from the heavens. "I know," Esme said, finally.

A/N2: Sorry for the second Author's note, but I need all of you to check out my profile for the poll queston. It's really important for all you Rising Sun readers. I really need your feedback!

-Wish