Your wish is my command. Quick update- yay! I know, but I seriously couldn't stay away much longer.

A sincere request again: Please do, DO review. I REALLY need to know what you lovely readers think of the coming chapters, because the style may change a lot, keeping vampirisms and changing eras in mind. Hope I've done justice to this chapter!

INTERLUDE

Esme

The sound of the water gurgling in the sink as I washed my hands soothed me. It had been a hard night, but a successful one. Tonight I'd attained one of those rare, risky victories that a doctor lives for. And the thought of another saved life cheered me. Just like any other human doctor.

I glanced at a clock in a corridor as I made my way to my office from the Operation Theatre. Just past midnight. I hoped Edward hadn't been too bored at home. A frown creased my brow as I thought about Edward. The boy really needed to go out a little. He seemed… restless, all alone at home. Even though I urged him to, Edward maintained that he still wasn't strong enough. Even after it being more than two years since I'd changed him.

My frown deepened. Edward really underestimated himself too much. And took things in a more complicated, disturbed outlook. I really wanted to help him, but I had no idea where to start. Especially since he could see every move I was planning to take to make him feel better. That sort of defeated the purpose.

I sighed to myself as I entered my office. Quickly, mechanically, I packed my case, cleared the few papers on my desk, signed on a few. In all of five minutes I was done. Still thinking about Edward, I walked out of my office, case in hand, when I heard someone call me.

"Dr. Cullen!"

I turned. It was a Head Nurse, thankfully sixty-year old Nurse Leeds. I really didn't feel myself up to facing any of the flirtatious younger nurses. "Yes, Nurse Leeds?"

Being physically old enough to be my mother didn't deter her heartbeat from hitching up a little. A flush descended on her pale, withered cheeks, and I sighed again internally. These infernal vampire looks!

"A little formality, Doctor. The coroner just finished the PM for the Burns case. He'll need your signature on the report."

Great. Edward would have to wait a little more. "The morgue. Right. Thanks, Nurse Leeds."

"Oh, anytime, Doctor."

I sighed again and turned away from her eager face. I quickly made my way to the morgue, moving just a little unnaturally faster if I didn't sense anyone in the next corner; just to go home sooner to Edward.

There was no one in or around the morgue when I reached it. I smiled briefly, realising that most people stayed away because it was around midnight. I wondered what they'd think if they knew one of their worst superstitious fears actually worked in this hospital and treated the patients!

I pushed the double doors open briskly and strode in. With a quick glance at all the bodies, I found the one I needed and made my way towards it. I picked up the chart and drew out my pen from my pocket.

It was while I was signing the report that I heard it. I actually stopped mid-signature.

It was a heartbeat. There was someone alive in this room.

I whipped around, sniffing, listening.. The smell was a medley of several types of congealed blood. But my ears didn't fail me. The heartbeat led me, a light, fluttering, tired thrum. The person was on the brink of death. I followed the sound to a cot placed in the far corner, against the wall. My olfactory senses began to filter the smells, and I began to smell blood that was very, very familiar…

I reached the cot, where the unfortunate person's body was laid, covered by a white shroud. I whipped the sheet away, and froze.

Lying before me on the cot was a broken, dying dryad. Her features were mangled, but I could have recognised her anywhere.

Esme Platt.

The realisation hit me like shattering glass.

"Esme!"-I exclaimed, reaching for her hand. She was a mess. There was blood all over her. Her head was bashed in, and she was still bleeding from that wound. There were scratches and wounds on every inch of her body, and her leg lay twisted in a very odd angle, and her spine- I could tell by the way she was lying that her spine was broken before I even had to feel her back to confirm it. She was well and truly broken. What had happened to her?

It was the first time in my immortal life that I actually came close to feeling like crying. I hadn't realised until that moment how much I thought of her, what an impression she had made on me, how much she meant to me. Esme was everything wonderful and alive in this world. To me, she embodied every good and beautiful thing there was on this earth. She couldn't be lying here like this. She couldn't die.

I sank to my knees next to her bed, her limp hand still in mine. "Oh, Esme," I murmured, pain tearing me apart. I wanted to save her so badly that my mouth was already filling with venom. It was nothing to do with the perpetual thirst in my throat. This was Esme. Beautiful, adorable Esme.

But I couldn't sentence her to- what I was. Though I'd had the same qualms when I'd changed Edward, this was different. I didn't want to doom her into a lifetime of being a murderer. Not sweet, gentle Esme. Not my Esme.

At that I took a ragged breath in, shocked. My Esme. I thought her mine? Of course I did.

Then the voice in my head, the selfish one, told me shortly and succinctly, 'Look. Either she's dead, or she's yours for all eternity. Which do you choose?'

Well, put that way…

I gazed down at her mashed in face again. I remembered every line of her face as it had been, the way her cheeks dimpled and her eyes sparkled, the way she sent her lip out in a pout when she was worried or frustrated- the kind of pout that made me feel things I never thought I'd feel…

Slowly, I bent over her, still remembering her the way I'd seen her that summer's night nearly ten years ago. And I bent closer and closer, the smell of her sweet blood hitting me like a heat wave. Hmmm. Her blood had always smelt so good. Some light, pretty flowery scent… mixed with the deeply sensuous smell of red roses and musk. Irresistible.

I leaned in further and further, as though to kiss her. I remained in that position, remembering every curve of her lips when she smiled, when she pursed them tightly with anger, when they trembled with some deep emotion- oh, her lips. Then I shifted. Her fast stuttering heartbeat woke me from my trance. There wasn't much time left. Quickly, I tore away the remains of her coat and her inner dress covering her chest. Then I bent over her and bit her on the chest, just above her heart. In quick, deft, unthinking moves, I bit her in other places- her wrists, her neck, her thighs.

I was saving her life. It was all I was doing. I was doing the very scientific and rare procedure of changing her. But it didn't feel like one. For some strange reason, the taste of her blood in my mouth, the feel of her skin against my lips- everything seemed so… sensual to me. Madness.

As I stood back and gazed at her, I gave a short bark of laughter.

Two whole centuries, Esme Platt. You took your time. But now that you're here- goddamn me if I'm letting you go…

The key fumbled in the lock. I swore, a first for me. Finally, after some supernaturally fast rattling, the lock clicked open. I pushed opened the door slowly and swept inside in a flash.

"Edward?"-I asked uncertainly, coming to a halt in the middle of the sparse room. The man in question was sitting in a chair next to the fire, the flames making shadows dance across his statuesque features.

"What did you do?"-he asked as a greeting, a semblance of horror in his tone. I realised he could smell the blood from the car outside.

"No," Edward said in answer to my last thought. "Your clothes."

I looked down at my chest. My front was covered in Esme's blood obtained while I was transporting her.

Edward cocked his head curiously. "Esme?"

I sighed. "Edward-"

"Sorry," he said quickly, lowering his eyes. I had asked him to try and keep from reading a person's thoughts. If not that, atleast to wait for a person to speak out whatever they were thinking.

"I-I changed her."-I said, hesitating a little. What would he think? Would he be angry that I subjected another poor soul to this life of immortal inhumanity? Would he be jealous and resent the new company?

Edward smirked. "You know me too well," he said. Sarcastically. I think.

Edward sighed. "Of course I don't mind, Carlisle. You don't need my approval, in any case." I relaxed a little and smiled at him with some relief. They'd get along very well, indeed.

"She's the one," Edward said suddenly. "The woman you keep thinking about."

"Yes," I admitted. "I didn't know it myself."

Edward smiled, shaking his head. "Incredible. Get her in. I'll pack."

Thank you, I thought.

He flashed a quick nod in my direction and flew out of the room. I watched him go with some sense of pride. Edward had adapted to vampire life almost immediately, and he was a fine specimen indeed. I was proud of the boy.

The very next moment I swept out of the house again, opened the car door, and lifted Esme's limp body out in the space of a second. The next second I had her inside and laid her carefully on the sofa by the fire. Her heart was pounding with unnatural rapidity, struggling to force the venom through her veins. I watched her with some concern; she still wasn't awake or she'd be screaming. To think that she had been that far gone, that I'd have lost her had I been even a minute or two too late…

"Edward," I said quietly, I knew he could hear me. The soft patter of clothes being quickly thrust into a suitcase stopped and my son appeared in front of me in a moment.

"Yes, Carlisle?"

"I need you to do me a favour."

His eyes narrowed as he read what was in my mind. "No."

I sighed. "Edward, please."

"I'm not strong enough, Carlisle," he said slowly. There it was, that tone. The self-effacing, despondent tone.

"Only you can go. I have to stay by her side." -I told him.

"She's not going anywhere. I'll stay."

Come on, Edward. People in town know me. I don't want anyone gossiping about her and besmirching her memory. You just have to find out where she lives and get her things. That's all I'm asking. I watched him anxiously.

He sighed, frustrated. "Is it even important?"

"Yes, it is. She has a large family. They'll need closure. They have to know what happened to her, considering her circumstances."

"What do you mean?"-he frowned.

She has recently given birth.

The frown faded from his face. He looked embarrassed. "Oh."

What do you say?

Edward shook his head slowly. "I can't. I'll stay-"

I stood up in a flash. "I'm not leaving her side, Edward." -I said quietly, with a cold finality about it.

Edward sighed, then shrugged. "You do everything you can to torture me, don't you?"

"Wait till you see my torture chamber," I said shortly, playing along.

He let out a loud bark of laughter at that. "I sure can imagine what that would be like." He turned away, ready to leave.

I wonder what he imagined.

Edward took his time in coming. I was worried, so worried, about so many things. What if Edward really wasn't strong enough? What if they connected mine and Esme's body's disappearance at the hospital? What if I was still too late? Esme still hadn't woken up, one other thing that worried me immensely. With the pain that was raging through her body, she should have been screaming murder by now. Even Edward, who had also been dying when I bit him, only held out for a few minutes. He was fully awake and fully alive to the burning pain within him in no time at all. But Esme…

Another thought nagged me. What if she did survive? What if she hated me for giving her a life she didn't want? I wondered if she even remembered me. I stroked her forehead slowly, which was already smooth and healed under the congealed blood. So the venom was working…

It was at around half past four in the morning when I heard our car return. I stood up slowly, using all my senses to make sure it was Edward, and Edward alone, that was coming to this house so far away from town.

It was him. I didn't go outside to meet him, just stayed where I was, remaining standing.

Edward entered with a trunk in one arm, a solemn expression on his face.

He let the trunk drop- it fell to the floor with a crash- and himself collapsed into his regular armchair.

"That was… bad," he said simply.

"Was it too hard?"-I asked him quickly, worried, afraid I'd pushed him too much.

"No, no, not that. The thirst was manageable. You were right- you always are," he added, smiling briefly. "It was the whole… messenger of death part that bothered me."

I sat on my chair facing him, my hand automatically travelling to Esme's forehead.

"I see," I said quietly. "Was it too hard to find her?"

He burst into speech, explaining in detail, "Not much. Not many people who knew her, but I finally found a boarding house for war widows where she stayed. She's made quite an impression there. Was good friends with a woman she was staying with, left behind a whole class of doting primary school students."

"She was a teacher." The fact didn't surprise me. Somehow, Esme had always given the impression of being able to fraternize with children easily.

"Yes. There were quite a lot of tears."

"I'm not surprised." Of course there'd be tears when a woman like Esme would be thought dead.

Then Edward hesitated. "She did really jump off. Her baby died."

I closed my eyes for a moment and nodded. Esme Platt's child. The poor thing.

"What about the story? Were they convinced?"-I asked softly.

"Oh, yes," he said dryly. "They were a rather belligerent lot. Quickly agreed to everything I said without the least suspicion."

"What did you tell them?"

"That I was her brother, that I'd stay behind until they'd release the body, and would they be kind enough to send a telegram over to my parents in Columbus?"- he narrated promptly.

"Good. You remembered the address I gave you, of course."

"That goes without saying."

I nodded. "Thank you," I said fervently.

"You don't have to, Carlisle. She's family now." He sounded so sincere that for a moment all my worries were obliterated and I was just purely happy.

Then Edward's features froze; he looked like a perfectly carved marble statue of some Greek God.

"What is it?"-I asked, features tensing.

"She… she's waking up."

I turned to her in a flash. Her eyes were still closed, her face just as expressionless as before. But Edward should know.

I turned back to him. His eyes were wide open, with horror it seemed. He answered my question before I asked it.

"She's remembering the leap… she thinks she's dead. She doesn't understand…" I listened, enthralled. Then, suddenly, "She's thinking about you." I started. Had I had a live heart, it would have been thudding like a brass band.

"Now she remembers her son… and…" His voice trailed away. There was a mixture of curiosity and confusion on his face. "She's thinking of… Edward. Over and over again. The same name."

My dead heart died a little more. Oh dear God. She was married, of course she was married. She probably loved her husband very much. How could I make her love me? How could I be so cruel? How could I be a bigger monster than I already was?

My hand left her forehead; both my hands now covered my face as I placed my elbows on my knees in a posture of despair.

"No! Carlisle- it's not her husband." I looked up at Edward slowly. Of course he knew everything happening in my head. "Edward is- was her brother. A child."

I sat up straight again. Esme didn't have a brother when I last met her, but I remembered that her mother had been expecting a child. Of course.

"And now it's you again," Edward said. "She's thinking about you." My heart, which seemed to have sunk into a dank pit, suddenly rose into existence again. It was strange, really, how much a dead heart could still feel.

"She'll wake up soon," Edward said. Then he looked up at me. "I can't take any more."

I nodded. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he said, wryly. "Not that I can help reading her mind." I only smiled.

There was a moment of companionable silence; then, with a quiet sigh, I stood up. "It's time to leave."

Edward stood up in a flash, grinning boyishly. "Finally," he said, his voice excited.

The excitement got to me. I smiled, too. "Finally."

Yes. Finally, she was mine.