Esme POV
Seeing Annie cry when Carlisle told her that her parents were gone was heartbreaking. I wished so much there was a way to take her pain away. I tried to cheer her up a little by showing her the clothes Alice and I had bought for her. I laid out a few of the outfits on the bed.
"Which one would you like to wear today?" I asked holding her up so she could see. She sniffed and studied the outfits for a few minutes before pointing at a simple green t-shirt I had laid over a pair of jeans. I quickly helped her get dressed and took her into the bathroom to brush out her hair.
"Miss Esme?" Annie asked a little hesitantly. I smiled at her manners.
"Sweet heart, you don't have to call me "Miss" Esme." I said.
"What do I call you then?" She asked frowning. I thought for a second. Even though I was going to be her mother, I didn't really know if it was too soon for her to call me that right yet.
"Just Esme ok?" I said. She shrugged and nodded. I laughed a little. "Did you want to ask me something?"
"Can use the bathroom?" She asked quietly.
"Oh yes of course." I said quickly, putting the brush down and putting Annie back on her feet. It was going to take some time getting used to having a human child in the house and her humanly needs. A few minutes later we joined Jasper and Alice in the kitchen.
"Where did Carlisle go?" I asked.
"He went into his office. He asked if you would join him for a minute when you came down." Alice said.
"Annie, will you stay here with Alice and Jasper for a minute?" I asked kneeling in front of her. She looked from Alice to Jasper then nodded with a shrug. I kissed her forehead before going down the hallway. I waited until I was out of her sight before I ran at vampire pace to Carlisle's office. I found him sitting at his desk staring at his computer screen.
"What's wrong?" I asked shutting the door.
"Well, we're going to have to sit down with them family soon. If we are going to keep Annie, and it's already been decided that we are, then we are going to have to move again." He sighed leaning back in his chair. I moved around the desk and sat on his lap. He wrapped his arms around my waist and sighed again.
"Any idea of where?" I asked.
"Well we could go to Seattle." He said. "Or Alaska."
"If we go to Alaska then we could be close to the Denali's." I thought out loud.
"Yeah. I'm wondering what they would think of us adopting a human child." He thought out loud.
"I'm sure they wouldn't mind. And even if they did, it's not really their choice."
"Yeah, your right." He intertwined our fingers and I smiled down at them. I pressed my forehead to his and kissed him lightly.
"You know, we never did celebrate our Valentine's Day." He muttered with a little smile.
"I know." I smiled back.
"What do you think of, after everything get's settled here, me and you take a week and escape? We can go to our island?" He asked kissing my cheek.
"That would be nice." I sighed.
"It would be perfect." He kissed my neck.
"We might want to go back to the kitchen. I don't want Annie to be uncomfortable." I sighed. He nodded and I got up from his lap. But when we returned to the kitchen I found that Annie was doing pretty great. Alice had bought a box of crayons and a Disney coloring book the night before and she sat with her knees tucked under, her humming to herself, and coloring. Alice sat next to her, helping her and Jasper was handing her the right colors that she asked for when she wanted them. We stood in the doorway watching for a few minutes. Carlisle tucked me into his side and I lay my head on his shoulder and smiled. Jasper was much more relaxed, even smiling when Annie reached out her hand and said "green one please". She stopped and looked over her shoulder at us and waved us over.
"Look what Alice found me!" She said enthusiastically, lifting the book for us to see.
"I see." Carlisle chuckled.
"Want to help?" She asked.
"Sure." We sat down with her and she handed me a blue crayon, telling me to color in the bluebirds flying around Snow White.
"Green." Annie said holding out her hand to Jasper and he frowned.
"You already have the green one." He said.
"The other green." She said. He shrugged and looked in the box and pulled out a darker green. She froze halfway to his hand and raised an eyebrow.
"Wrong again." She said shaking her head.
"There are four different greens in this box." Jasper sighed. Annie sighed and stood up in her chair to look inside the box. She shook her head with another sigh and pulled out a lighter color green. Jasper raised an eyebrow at her and she shook her head and went back to coloring. Carlisle shook with silent laughter beside me and I bit back my own laughter.
"Carlisle!" Alice gasped suddenly, making Annie jump. She slapped her hand over her mouth and looked at us with a panic stricken face. Carlisle pointed towards the hallway and Alice got up and ran as fast as she could at human pace to hallway. Carlisle glanced at me curiously before following quickly.
"What's wrong with her?" Annie asked curiously.
"Alice drinks too much coffee." Jasper said quickly. Annie looked at me and I nodded. She shrugged and went on with her coloring.
"Somehow they were all able to get an earlier flight." Alice whispered to Carlisle.
"So they will all be home tonight?" Carlisle asked slowly. Jasper winced and I knew if I had a heart beat I would have stopped.
"Yeah. In fact they will be home in about two and a half hours." Alice hissed.
"I'll be right back." I said standing up and going into the hallway.
"What do we do now?" I asked.
"We just act normal for Annie. When they get here, Alice can take Annie upstairs and then we will talk to them." Carlisle said. Alice nodded and headed back into the kitchen.
"Hey Annie; want to come watch cartoons with me?" She asked. Her answer was the sound of a chair scooting fast over the wood floors and Annie's excited "Yes!" Alice came back with Annie on her hip, which still clutched her coloring book and a hand full of crayons, and headed to the living room. Jasper followed soon after.
"Should I stay down here when they get home?" He asked.
"Yeah, you might need to help keep the place calm." Carlisle said. Jasper nodded and headed towards Annie's excited babbling. I sighed and folded my arms. Carlisle pulled me into his arms and kissed my forehead.
"I hope it doesn't get too bad." I muttered.
"I'm sure it will be fine. Alice didn't say anything about it being a catastrophe." He said against my hair.
"It's just… it's going to be a big shock for them."
"I think it was for all of us." Carlisle chuckled lightly and I smiled slightly.
"Yeah I guess it was." We stayed in the hallway for a little while longer before joining everyone else in the living room. After three episodes of the Rescue Rangers, we figured out it was one of her favorites, much to Jasper and Carlisle's dislike, Annie's eyes were beginning to get heavy and she leaned more into me on the couch. She hugged a pillow and slipped her thumb in her mouth, and a few seconds later she was out.
"This is good; I just hope they won't be too loud." I muttered dropping a kiss to her forehead before Alice took her upstairs. Carlisle took Annie's place and I leaned my head on his shoulder. He pulled me tight against him and Jasper went to stand at the window. Alice came down a few minutes later and stood with him. I looked at Carlisle nervously when we heard a car coming up the driveway. Carlisle kissed the top of my head quickly and pulled us both to our feet and towards the front door. We went out and stood on the front porch as Edwards Volvo skin to a stop in front of the house, spraying my roses with gravel. I winced but ignored it as in a split second he was out and on the front porch. I could tell he hadn't wasted any time coming home. His button down shirt was badly wrinkled and his hair was disheveled. If it weren't for the fact that this was a serious time I would have laughed.
"What happened?" He asked. I winced at his yell, hoping it didn't startle Annie awake. Edward frowned at me. "Who?" I bit my lip, cursing myself.
"Something happened yesterday…" I started. I didn't really know what else to say. Carlisle tightened his arm around my waist.
"A vampire slaughtered a couple of people. Esme and I found them when we were hunting." He said. The images came back to my mind and I winced.
"Oh my God." Edward gasped looking at me in horror. I nodded sadly.
"There's more." Alice said. I saw her excitement in the way she was beginning to bounce on her heels. Edwards gaze snapped to Alice and they narrowed.
"Who is Annie?" He asked.
"The couple had a little girl, and she survived." Carlisle continued. Edward looked at him then at me. Then the realization hit him.
"Carlisle you're not serious." He whispered. I opened my mouth to speak when Emmett's Jeep sped up the driveway and stopped right before he hit the back of Edward's car. Then everyone was speaking at once.
"What the hell Alice!"
"What's going on?"
"Carlisle this is ridiculous! You can't be even considering it!"
"Will somebody please explain to me what's going?"
"Shut up!" Alice screeched and everyone went silent. Rose glared at her and crossed her arms. Emmett looked amused.
"Carlisle, think. We are vampires." Edward hissed.
"I've already seen the future Edward; it's going to be ok." Alice said. Emmett and Rosalie looked more confused than they'd ever looked. I opened my mouth to speak when a piercing scream interrupted me. I don't know who got there first, Carlisle or me, but the next second we burst through the door to our bedroom to find Annie laying on the floor sobbing. I knelt beside her and she reached for me. I picked her up and rubbed her back, whispering soothingly to her.
"What happened?" Carlisle asked her gently, looking her over.
"I-I f-fell!" She cried harder and buried her face in my neck. I rocked her gently back and forth and smoothed her hair.
"What the hell?" We turned to see that everyone had followed us, and now stood at the doorway, looking angry, confused, and curious. Except Edward, he looked furious.
"She's human Carlisle." He hissed.
"For crying out loud Edward! What are we supposed to do?" Alice threw her hands up in the air and glared at him. "She's homeless, they had to move quickly before he came back and a human already found the crime scene. There's already a search party for the child. How would we explain it?"
"We could think of something. Or just leave her at the police station and leave." He crossed his arms stubbornly and I glared at him over the top of Annie's curly head.
"Can someone just please start at the beginning and explain what happened?" Emmett sighed leaning against the door.
"Alice, take Annie in your room." Carlisle said. She nodded and I kissed the sniffling child on the forehead before handing her over. Alice whispered soothingly to her and everyone parted for her to get by. I sat down on the bed and the rest of them stepped into the room.
"Explain." Rosalie hissed. Carlisle raised an eyebrow at her but did as she said. He told them about how we had smelt the blood and followed it to the campsite. How her parents had been brutally murdered by a vampire and the only thing we could think to do at the time was bring her home. We told them that Annie had no living relatives. And about how Alice had already seen into the future and saw that Annie was going to be part of our family.
"How could you make this kind of decision without us?" Edward hissed.
"Edward… she needs us." I said gently.
"We could kill her." He muttered.
"We won't. Alice said everything would be ok." Jasper said. Edward sighed and ran a hand through his hair in aggravation.
"Just give her a chance Edward." Carlisle sighed.
"What about the rest of you?" I asked, looking at them.
"If Alice says she's going to fine with us, this I'm for it." Emmett said with a shrug.
"I don't know. I'm kind of with Edward. I don't want to hurt her." Rosalie said softly.
"Why don't we give it a few days? See how everything goes?" Carlisle asked after a few moments of uncomfortable silence. Edward sighed and left the room.
"Does that sound fair to you Rose?" I asked.
"I guess. But if it doesn't go good…" She asked.
"Then we will figure something out." Carlisle assured her. I was sad because I was hoping they'd all go for it like we did. I understood why they were worried though. I was still worried about that too.
"I like the idea." Emmett said, eyes shining.
"You're such a child Emmett." Rosalie sighed. We fell into silence and I heard Annie giggle. I couldn't help but smile at the sound.
"Can we meet her?" Rosalie asked quietly. I smiled and stood up.
"Yes, you're going to love her." I said leading her to Alice's room. Alice was sitting cross-legged on the bed. Annie sat facing her. I stopped in the doorway. They didn't do anything, just sat there staring hard at each other. Both of them weren't blinking. Alice blinked fast and cheered, bouncing up and down.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"We were having a staring contest." Alice explained. Annie turned and grinned widely.
"And I won!" She shouted. I laughed and sat down beside her. She crawled into my lap smiling happily. Emmett cleared his throat and Annie looked at him. She sank back into me and looked down shyly.
"Annie, this is Emmett, and Rosalie. Two more of my children." I introduced. She buried her head in my shoulder and Rosalie smiled, expression softening.
"Oh don't play shy." Alice smiled and nudged her shoulder. She giggled and looked up at her. "Say hi." Alice whispered playfully. Annie glanced over her shoulder at Rosalie and Emmett before wriggling her fingers in a slight wave. Emmett chuckled and she buried her head back in my shoulder. I motioned for Rosalie to come closer. She frowned and Emmett shoved her lightly forward. She glared at him.
"Do that again Emmett and your dead." She hissed. Annie giggled and Emmett winked at her. She sat up a little more. Rosalie walked slowly the rest of the way to us. Annie stared up at her she stared back, looking a nervous.
"Hey Annie." Alice broke the silence. "You want to go color some more?" Annie looked at me and I smiled and nodded. Annie slid off my lap and Alice stood up. Annie stopped looking down at her feet in front of Rosalie for a second before looking up.
"Want to come?" She asked shyly. Rosalie looked at me with a little bit of a shocked expression.
"Sure." She said slowly. Annie smiled up at her and reached up for Alice to carry her. I followed them out of the room. Annie pressed a little closer to Alice when they passed Emmett and he just smiled gently at her. I sighed. It was going to take a while for all of this to feel comfortable. Downstairs we passed Edward and Carlisle. From the looks of them they'd been in a heated conversation. He glared at Annie when Alice passed him before stomping out the front door, slamming it shut behind him. I sighed and Carlisle came to my side, dropping a kiss to the top of my head.
"Don't worry; she's going to melt his stone cold heart." Alice smiled and winked at me over her shoulder.
"I know you've never been wrong about your visions so I hope you don't start now." I sighed.