A big thank you to EvilPumpkin and HoHoCullen for a great beta job on this chapter, even if it did give me sleepless nights! After much screaming and pulling hair out, I settled down and made this a better chapter thanks to you.

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Unfortunately, I still don't own anything or anyone. I certainly don't intend to infringe in any way.

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Chapter Three. Can We Keep Her?

Carlisle's POV

I'd spent the morning at the hospital finding out as much information as I could. I had been relieved how well she'd responded to my treatment, and had been fairly sure she was 'out of the woods' by the time I left for work. On my way home, I tried to work out the best way to handle Emmett. I approached the house cautiously, listening for clues as to what everyone was doing.

Good .Clearly, Emmett was in the garage talking to Rose.

Let's see if Edward's home. Edward, I thought, can you please find Esme and ask her to meet me at the backdoor? I skirted round to the other side of the house, arriving at the backdoor as Edward and Esme came out.

I beckoned for Esme to follow me, until we were far enough away not to be heard. "Thank you, Edward, but I need to talk to Esme alone; please, go back to whatever you were doing."

"I wasn't really doing anything. Jasper has taken Alice and Bella shopping and I want to know what all this cloak and dagger stuff is all…" Edward's eyes widened in embarrassment . "Oh! Okay, see ya later."

As Edward hurried back to the house I let a small smile creep across my face. Some things had gotten harder since Edward and Bella got married, but luckily having his own sex life hadn't stopped Edward from being embarrassed by thoughts of mine - a sure fire way to get him to disappear.

"Carlisle, I reckon even I can read your mind right now, and I hope you don't think your fantasy is coming true tonight after what you just did to Edward." Esme was shaking her head at me in disapproval, but she couldn't hide the sparkle of amusement in her eyes.

"Of course not, Esme, I have plenty more fantasies…" Esme's expression changed to the lovely coy gaze that played havoc with my insides, and I had to fight the urge to sweep her into my arms. I turned away from her to regain control. "I really need to talk to you alone before Emmett realises I'm home."

"It's not good news, then?" Esme asked sadly from behind me.

I turned back to face her. "That depends on what you think of as good news."

"Come here, darling." In a flash I held Esme round the waist, her arms around my neck. I nuzzled her neck, finding comfort there, as always, while her fingers stroked my neck then, turning me around, began to knead the tension from my shoulders. As I relaxed, she put her lips to my ear and whispered softly, "now, tell me."

"There's not much to tell really; it was the right car crash, as I said the guy was DOA. The woman hasn't regained consciousness and it doesn't look likely she will; in fact they're doing brain stem tests starting tomorrow and talking about donation. The couple's family came in from Seattle today, seems they haven't seen them in years; apparently they took off to live in a commune out of State. Nobody has mentioned her and there was no sign of her presence in the car."

"That's fantastic!" Esme almost undid her good work, jumping for joy onto my back.

"Esme, we can't possibly keep her," I said, pulling her round to stand in front of me. "I was banking on your help to break that to Emmett."

"No, Carlisle," Esme said, running her hand lovingly down my cheek. "There is no way to do that. He's totally smitten, she even peed on him this morning and he couldn't get out of the shower quick enough to take her from me!"

"Okay, I get that he's taken a bit of a shine to her." I caught Esme's hands and clasped them gently.

"Carlisle, the others were all laughing at him, falling down on the floor laughing in Edward's case, and he ignored them!"

"Wow! This is going to be so much harder than I thought." I sighed, turning away from Esme slightly to rest my head in my hand in contemplation. It seemed things had progressed further than I would have thought possible in a few hours.

"Carlisle, you can't." Esme pleaded, grasping my arm, "you can't do this to him."

"Esme, I really need you with me on this." I held her face, looking her in the eye. "We can't keep her."

"I won't go against you, Carlisle," she faltered, "but I don't see how I can help you either." Esme should never be made to choose between members of her family, and I would not put her in that position. Her presence would be support enough, so I smiled to tell her I was okay with that.

"Come on then, let's get it over with," I sighed, slipping my arm round Esme's waist. As we approached our home, Edward came bounding over.

"You're wrong Carlisle, Bella is ready to cope with her proximity. Your best bet for an ally is Rosalie, and yes the others are still out."

Good, let's catch them in the garage then, I thought for Edward's benefit, as he had obviously been reading my mind. Please don't say anything to encourage Emmett, let me handle this.

"Hey, Carlisle, come to check on her? She's doing pretty well, I got her to eat and drink," Emmett called out cheerfully.

"Let me see." I gave her a quick once over. "She's doing fine, son." I paused for a moment. Before I spoke the words to break his heart, I grasped his shoulder. " You know we can't keep her."

"Oh. Her family want her back." Not a question, but he looked so crestfallen. I felt his chest deflate and squeezed his shoulder in sympathy.

"Actually, no. They didn't survive." Emmett raised his head in expectation. "But it's just not practical," I insisted swiftly before he got his hopes up.

"We could make it work," he argued, "I'll look after her, and when her leg heals I can teach her everything she needs to know. Jasper already helps and the others will too."

"When her leg heals, Emmett, it's going to be harder to cope with her." I glanced quickly at Edward, before continuing, "the others may want to help, but it wouldn't really be fair on Bella, to have her under our roof." I know Bella would be okay, Edward, but that doesn't make it fair.

Rosalie slid out from under her car and I flashed an imploring look her way.

"She'd be a lot of work." Thank you Rose, I thought, smiling at her."And she's real messy," Rosalie said, as she wiped her greasy hands on a rag.

"I think we should let the authorities find her a nice family," I declared.

"Aren't we a nice family, Dad?" Emmett asked with a twinkle in his eye. Most youngsters would have whined; I had never heard Emmett whine, though Rosalie gave him more than enough reason to. Emmett just took things head on.

"Yes, of course we are, but not for her. She needs humans to care for her," I said, taking a step nearer Emmett, which he countered by holding her a little closer. "If you hold her too tightly, Emmett, you could crush her."

"I wouldn't!" he gasped, shocked, taking a step back.

"Not on purpose," I agreed, "but you could. Any of us could."

Rosalie put her arms around Emmett; peering over his shoulder, she conceded, "She is pretty cute, Emmett, but they don't really live so long you know, and she really will be better off with some nice humans."

"I guess, but..." Emmett was gathering his thoughts, and I couldn't bear this any longer. Sometimes being the parent meant it was down to you to 'rip the band-aid off', I had to cut him short.

"When her leg heals, she'll be running around. How much damage would we cause tripping over her?" Emmett's mouth was working silently, in the hope that his brain would send it something to say. I persisted, "if she bleeds for any reason, are you going to deal with that?" Emmett was upset and began slowly shaking his head.

I pressed the advantage, "come on, son, let's take her into town and get things sorted." I hated the look of defeat on Emmett's face and the slump of his shoulders, but this was the kindest thing for the long term.

Rosalie gave him a squeeze. "You know it's the right thing to do, baby."

And that would have been that, except before we could leave the garage, there was what can only be described as an Alice explosion.

"Look at all the stuff we bought! Aren't these the cutest little things? Just look at this adorable little t-shirt! We had such fun and we got everything you need, Emmett, because..." I could see Alice slowly register Emmett's face "I...could...see…" and she turned her full attention to me "that we were going to keep her, Daddy."

Daddy! She called me Daddy! Not fair, Alice. She saw my hesitation and took advantage.

"Jasper's got the sweetest little bed in the truck, where do you want us to put it?" Alice waved her hand in the direction of the door, as Jasper walked in and almost cringed from the jumble of emotions.

I glanced at everybody. Rosalie was wearing a not very becoming frown, Edward had a definite smirk on his face - enjoying my discomfort no doubt, Emmett flashed through every expression from hope to despair and back again, Jasper looked decidedly uncomfortable, Esme was trying to hide a smile, Alice was looking very determined and Bella…

Bella had a look of sheer horror on her face. "Do not tell me that I have suffered all that horrible cutesy dragging round the shops and having to give an opinion, for nothing!"

Well, that did it, once again, Bella reduced my whole family to gibbering laughing wrecks - or so I thought.

"So can we keep her? Please?" For once, Emmett hadn't been laughing.

The merriment ceased and eight pairs of eyes were locked on me. Seven intensely pleading and one just as intensely glaring.

Can I say no? Probably not. Can we do this though? Should we? I recognised that I hadn't convinced Emmett, only bullied him into doing the sensible thing. With so many of the family determined to give it a go, who was I to defy them? I may be the father figure, but I was not much older than any of them. Their opinions were as valid as mine. Besides, only an idiot went up against Alice.

"I know when I'm beaten." I raised my hands in defeat. "I'll give you all eight weeks to prove to me we can do this, but you'd better all pull your weight and help out." I looked at each in turn, emphasising my point. "Her leg should be healed by then, and if it's not working out, we can take her to the authorities."

"Is that a yes?" Emmett asked hopefully, with a look of disbelief.

"Yes, Emmett, I hope you realise we can't let her try and walk for four to six weeks, and I'll expect you to do some physio on her later."

"No sweat," Emmett beamed, barely refraining from throwing her in the air with elation.

" Jasper, are you going to show me this bed?" I enquired.

The whole room erupted as Jasper and I left, and I hoped the poor mite didn't get crushed by Emmett's ebullience or deafened by the loud shrieking.

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AN. Well, I hope you all liked this chapter. Please tell me what you think, I worked really hard improving it. How do you think they'll cope?

I hope to put chapter four up next weekend, even though I'm moving my Mum. They have internet on the Isle-of-Wight, don't they?