Esme POV

Esme took a deep breath as she sat in the car for a moment, steeling herself up for a walk through the hospital. It would look strange for her to never visit her husband at work, and with the nurses it was a good idea to remind them she existed once in a while. It wasn't that she didn't trust Carlisle, but the man was too sweet for his own good at times and he didn't need the nurses stalking him.

He'd called to say he was going to be working a little late tonight, but she'd missed the call because she'd been hunting. She had a fake dinner prepared, in case he meant really late. She grabbed the bag and got out of the car, remembering to pull the coat she wore closed, even though the cold really didn't affect her.

She smiled at the receptionist and noted how her eyes widened a little at her approach. They all did that still, somehow Carlisle had put them at ease, but Esme wasn't sure why she wasn't able to succeed at calming the humans as well. "He's with a patient in an exam room Mrs. Cullen."

"Thank you Sarah." Esme smiled at the woman as she internally groaned at being forced to wait around in this place longer. It was his passion, and his calling, but the blood of the hospital was something she never risked without a quick hunt beforehand.

"You could wait in his office if you'd like." Sarah offered the normal solution and she just nodded as she smelled some human coming toward the front doors with some sort of bleeding wound. Esme stopped breathing and made her way to the relative safety of Carlisle's office for now.

She was slowly flipping through a magazine when she started to hear Carlisle's voice coming closer as he talked with some patient of his. Even with so many other voices in this place, she'd always hear his. "Bella, I am concerned about your living with your mother and I hope that if she becomes more difficult to live with you will tell Charlie."

"I can do that." The girl sounded young, perhaps a teenager and Esme's heart ached that a mother would ever be an issue.

He opened his office door a crack and led the girl inside. "I just want to put your file away before we go find your father." Carlisle spoke to the girl behind him, but he looked at her. She'd known Carlisle a very long time and one look was all that was needed to know this was a very special case and that this girl had sparked his curiosity and concern. Esme made sure to put a soft smile on her lips, without showing any teeth for when the young girl noticed her.

She was adorable, but teenagers don't like being called that. Her brunette hair flowed down her back like a silky curtain and her skin was a shade of pale that even the humans in this rainy town didn't often reach. Esme watched as the young girl's eyes widened when they caught her there and in that wide eyed look Esme recognized her. It was the young future interior designer. The girl that stumbled over her words in the grocery store.

"Oh, Bella, this is my wife Esme." Carlisle introduced them.

"We've met." Esme smiled a bit more at the girl and noticed the blush on her cheeks. Did she surprise the girl again? Bella's eyes were moving a bit fast, glancing at her and at Carlisle, clearly searching for something. Esme almost wished Edward was here, because clearly a lot was going on in the girl's mind.

"Hey," The girl finally spoke, that strange nervousness in her voice again. "Nice to see you again."

"Clearly I'm missing something." Carlisle smiled and tilted his head, a silent request to be filled in.

"I bumped into Bella at the grocery store the other day." Esme filled in, but she wondered where the confident sounding girl she'd overheard in the hall went when she was in the room. Her teeth gritted as she wondered if Bella's problems with her mother were so bad she had problems with women in general. That was a truly disturbing thought. She forced her gentle smile back to her lips as she spoke to Bella, "You have an interest in interior design don't you?"

"I like design." She just answered more straight forward and it seemed Bella was starting to calm down. Esme wasn't sure if it was the normal nervousness some humans felt around their kind or not, she suspected this was something different and she gave Carlisle a questioning look when Bella wasn't looking. "I want to decorate my own house someday. I watch a lot of HGTV."

"Do you have a design style you like?" Esme asked, but most teenagers wouldn't know what she was talking about.

"I like modern, a little bit of contemporary with the art, and some really subtle organic elements." Bella replied so easily and Esme found herself starting to smile for real at that. She'd had design clients that couldn't commit to any ideas like that. It was intriguing that Bella had learned enough to say that already.

"I should really return Bella to her father." Carlisle spoke up and Esme nodded, sitting back a bit, preparing for a wait. Carlisle spoke vampire quiet and fast, so Bella wouldn't hear him. "Bella is Chief Swan's daughter." Esme's eyes widened a little and she nodded goodbye to the girl as she slipped out of the office.

It turned out that Bella was the only reason that Carlisle was working late, so they both left after he got back. Esme really wanted to ask about Bella and what her situation was at home, or why she needed to see him, but if Carlisle didn't volunteer information about his work she left it alone. It was just a bit harder this time.

Esme pulled up to the house shortly after Carlisle had and followed him into the house. When Carlisle passed by Alice, who was reading a magazine on the couch, Alice inhaled deeply. "Wow, you're smelling awfully good today Carlisle." Alice smiled and Esme rolled her eyes. Bella had apparently been hanging all over Carlisle, because he still smelled of her. It was unusual and sweet that she was comforted by his presences enough to seek it out like that. Even for Carlisle that was odd for a human to do.

Emmett didn't even pause the video game he was playing with Edward as he laughed. "Send a whiff of that this way pops."

"My 'cologne' is none of your business Emmett." Carlisle teased back, before walking passed the boys.

Esme heard the controller crack and felt like growling at yet another one this week breaking. "Emmett!" She turned to scold him, but then paused as she saw Edward staring down at a broken controller oddly, breathing heavily.

"That scent." Edward's voice was a little higher than normal and Esme tilted her head as she studied him. "How is it even possible?" She took in his pitch black eyes when he looked up. He'd gone hunting just yesterday.

"Edward?" Carlisle asked and Esme looked at her husband to see he also noticed Edward's eyes.

Emmett clobbered Edward's character and turned to gloat, but even he stopped as he took in those eyes. "Aw man, you got the munchies." Esme shook her head at Emmett's teasing.

"I've never smelled anything like this." Edward looked so vulnerable staring up at Carlisle like that and Esme felt uneasy.

Carlisle looked at his shirt sleeve and then back at Edward, clearly thinking hard. "A singer?" Edward muttered and Emmett's grin faded. Esme waited a little impatiently for them to actually speak so all of them could follow this conversation.

"Aw man, we just got here. I don't want to move already." Emmett grumbled.

"We aren't moving." Edward finally spoke up. "She's visiting, she'll leave." He was clearly sharing a conversation with Carlisle silently.

Carlisle looked over and her and Alice, but Alice had already sat straighter, probably having heard the words as Carlisle decided on them. Some times it wasn't fun being the only one not getting the conversation. "Bella is apparently Edward's singer, her blood calls to him."

Esme's eyes narrowed as she thought about that poor girl. "Edward, if I have to confine you to the house while she is here I will." She growled and the males in the room stared at her. "That poor girl is clearly going through enough. You will leave her alone."

"She wants to move here." Carlisle spoke and Esme watched Edward's jaw clench. "I had been trying to convince her to tell her father, Chief Swan, how she is being treated at home, based on what she's told me I suspect emotional abuse. Children never tell the full story." Esme moved her hand over her mouth again as her heart ached for the girl. "She developed amnesia this summer, and her mother is pressuring her to remember her life, but she can't. I can't see why she lost her memory, she shouldn't have, but there is little doubt that it is gone. There are clearly other issues as well."

"She just doesn't remember her life at all?" Alice asked, her voice softer and quieter than normal, more subdued.

"Aw man, if you snack on her and I think mom and Alice will tear you apart." Emmett chuckled.

Quite possibly, Esme thought and saw Edward turned shocked eyes to her. She wouldn't kill her son, but she would punish him, Esme thought with more darkness and feeling than she normally let herself indulge in. Bella was helpless, lost, and so alone. She did not need some bloodthirsty vampire after her as well.