Esme Pov

It was a few hours after Esme got back from Bella's when Edward had come home. They now sat around the dining table again, and Edward sat, without blinking, as they filled him in on what had happened since he left. Few words were spoken after they'd stopped talking and Edward had gleaned the story from their minds as well. Esme felt apprehensive, because his jaw was clenched and his fists sat on the table.

"So we have a human that knows what we are, knows personal things about us, and somehow you all voted when I wasn't here, to stay, in spite of all of that." He hissed out his words, so even though he wasn't yelling it was clear how angry he was.

"We knew your vote, it was counted. You wouldn't have listened to reason, or paid any attention to our opinions so it was easy to know how you'd vote, you've been going on and on about leaving for months." Rosalie spoke in a flat voice, clearly unhappy and somewhat angry herself. "It just didn't make a difference."

"Does Bella Bear really count as human?" Emmett asked. "I mean isn't she kinda more of a body snatcher?" Esme watched him start to grin, and she could tell his mind had gone on to think of ways to tease Bella.

"She is more dangerous to this family than we could have ever anticipated. She admitted she brought the Volturi down on us in that 'story'." Edward spoke and Esme frowned.

"She said no such thing. That Bella went to the Volturi, she never said if we were involved at all." Alice spoke up just before Esme could. "And it wasn't her in that 'story', it was the original Bella."

"You can't believe she just took over someone's body? She pushed the original Bella's soul out of her own body? That's insanity. She's had some sort of break with reality, maybe her powers caused it, but regardless, she is delusional if she thinks she took over a new body. Reincarnation doesn't exist, and even if it did it wouldn't work that way." Edward spoke and Alice growled and hissed at him.

"She is not insane and neither am I!" Alice's eyes were black as night and it happened suddenly. Esme sat up straighter and watched carefully to make sure things didn't escalate.

"Why won't she tell the story then? Is it because it is so obviously made up we'd never fall for it, or is it because she causes our deaths? She's keeping secrets and she's already proved to be dangerous. I say before you all decide to stay, you force her to talk." Edward spoke far too passionately, but then he sighed heavily. "This is a disaster in the making and I'm trying to warn you. You won't listen because you all are so enamored of the human, and it isn't natural." Edward glared at Rosalie and turned that glare to Alice. Esme noticed that even though she fully supported staying she hadn't gotten glared at as well, Edward rarely glared at her.

"What isn't natural is that you can see with your head so far up your ass." Rosalie hissed at him. "That's what isn't natural. You are such a controlling piece of shit,"

"This is supposed to be a discussion, not an attack." Carlisle spoke up, interrupting Rosalie and Esme was grateful, because this discussion was going downhill fast. Edward and Rosalie continued to glare at each other, and Esme could tell that the insults had just gone quiet, but they were still being yelled at Edward in Rosalie's mind.

"I don't understand what there is to discuss." Edward glared around the room. "We should be leaving, leave her to her human life and she'll adapt eventually, but none of you have any sense left."

"I'm not leaving, and I don't think I'm alone in that. She is in danger, and we may not have the entire story, but we know that much. Even if she weren't in danger, I wouldn't leave her. She already knows, so leaving would serve no purpose." Esme spoke slowly, staring at Edward. "Many humans think they know what a vampire would be Edward, we've all heard the stories. Don't make assumptions about other supernaturals and think you are right. I believe Bella, I believe she woke up in that body, and perhaps that isn't how it normally is supposed to happen, but for her it did. I don't want to hear you telling her she isn't reincarnated. You are not the expert on that." It was disrespectful and arrogant of him to think he could disregard Bella's experiences because they didn't fit his world view and Esme didn't like seeing that in Edward.

"You can't believe reincarnation exists. Heaven and Hell, but not that." Edward insisted and Esme sighed at his blindness. Proof was available for only one of those and Bella herself, the one who died and was reborn, didn't believe in Heaven. Edward managed to glare at Esme when she thought that, but she wasn't apologizing.

"Man, I have no fangs, I have no coffins, I can't fly, and I sparkle in the sun. If other people stuck to what they read in books I wouldn't be a vampire." Emmett spoke with a bit of bored irritation. "Give it up, my Bella Bear's back from the dead."

"That book is the Bible, it's a bit more reliable than Bram Stoker's Dracula." Edward hissed.

Emmett gave a grin that Esme knew spelled trouble and she didn't manage to stop him in time. "I dunno, Jesus dead for three days, sounds to me like he was the first recorded vampire." Edward's eyes narrowed and he hissed at his brother.

"Don't taunt him." Esme muttered, but she wondered as well, if the Bible had any truth in it, it couldn't all be true. Esme knew for sure that Edward's version of religion wasn't healthy at all. It wasn't right to assume you were damned regardless of how you lived. It was an argument she'd had to give up decades ago though, because Edward was stubborn and unable to listen to other opinions on those topics.

"I don't want to stay here. She's a demon sent to tempt me if she's anything supernatural and I want to leave." Edward sat stiffly.

It was hard, it was painful, but if he wanted to make her chose, he wasn't going to win. "If you can't stay with us here, I'll understand. I'm sure Tanya would take you in."

Edward's eyes widened in shock and Esme didn't let herself look down as his stare continued. "Really, if it came down to me or her, it would be her?"

"You have a family, you have the power to protect yourself, and she's alone and fragile. You more than anyone should know she is in danger if a human drinker gets within a mile of her, and there are three coming next spring. One of them is the vampire that hunted me." Alice spoke firmly. "You can hear our thoughts and you know what leaving Bella behind would do to us, and yet you argue that we should." Alice turned to Jasper. "Show him how Esme feels about Bella now."

Esme watched Edward's eyes widen.

"And this is Alice." Jasper said just that and Esme knew it was over before it even hit Edward. Edward would have to stop arguing now.

"I'm not leaving her, I'm never leaving her. I can't keep my promise to make sure she's never locked up if I'm not here and I will never let her be locked up for any reason. She risked so much to give me my past and I can't betray that by not keeping my promises." Alice spoke firmly as Edward got a dose of her love and commitment to Bella. Esme watched Edward's expression become defeated and helpless after the smile Jasper put on his face with Alice's emotions disappeared.

"This is a disaster and it won't end well. You all aren't thinking rationally, and this is wrong. We are vampires and somehow you managed to forget that. That poor human will pay the price, when someone loses control of their beast, and then you'll see I was right. We can't live with humans, we have to be separate for our sake and theirs. I lost the vote, I'll accept that, but you will all see what a mistake this is." Edward mumbled as he left, but Esme wasn't going to ever agree with that statement.

"I think Edward should be forced to keep that opinion to himself. It is so irritating having to listen to him repeatedly put us down for wanting Bella in our lives." Rosalie spoke harshly, her eyes on Carlisle. "Or are you unwilling to say anything to your favorite?" Esme grimaced. It was an unfair comment, but Esme had wondered at times if it was accurate. Edward was the first, and too often his opinion was heard first and the others were in the position of having to defend their own.

"I'll deal with it." Esme offered up, helping Carlisle save some face in this conflict, but they would have to talk about how they treated the others. This was the first time it was so very obvious how much influence Edward normally had in the family and something had to be done about that. It was hardly fair.

"As for his claim there will be accidents, we'll make sure everyone hunts when they should, no pushing it." Rosalie spoke firmly to the rest of them after Edward left. "Especially him, he's the most likely one." Esme considered what Bella had told her about the 'story' Edward testing himself with the other Bella's scent, tormenting himself most likely and putting that Bella at risk. No, Edward was not going to miss a single hunting trip, and now that it was in the open that Bella knew, they could ask for her bedsheets, or pillow case, to work on Edward's control with her scent, but he was never setting foot in Bella's bedroom himself.

Jasper spoke up after a moment. "We do need that story of hers though. It may not be completely accurate anymore, but if there is as much threat as she hinted to we should start planning soon."

"We should give her some time to recover before we go asking for it. Today was very hard on her." Rosalie spoke softly, now that the tension was gone, but Esme wasn't happy that the tension had a name and she was going to have to find a way to not make Edward feel unwelcome and yet still make sure he knew that leaving was not an option for the rest of them, that Bella was family, regardless of where she was living or that she had a beating heart.

They started to wander away from the table, everyone going in their own direction now that the meeting was over, but Esme put a hand on Emmett's shoulder before he could get up as well, remembering something. "Your taste in décor needs some work." Esme said softly and watched his face screw up in confusion. "That piece with the pale woman in the black teddy, can you get any more like that? I don't like Bella having to settle for the other tacky pictures you got her, and she seemed to like that one."

Emmett looked sheepish and ran a hand through his hair. "I guess I could look for some."

"Please do, there is no need to be tacky to make her point. There must be a few artistic pictures of women you could give her." Esme almost offered to go with him shopping for them, but then remembered how inappropriate that would look if anyone saw her picking out seductive pictures of women with her 'son'. "Send pictures to my phone before you buy anything, I want to make sure it will go with her room."

"Aren't you going a little far with the decorating dear?" Carlisle spoke up and Esme could see his teasing smile.

"If she's going to have art on her walls, I want it to at least be somewhat artistic." Esme told him and ignored the teasing look he gave her.

After she was done talking with Emmett, Esme did manage to talk Carlisle into a quick hunt. They'd need some privacy to discuss the issues around Edward, and Esme was going to make sure Carlisle saw that it was an issue. They'd indulged Edward too long and now he seemed to be acting like he thought he was the leader in this family, deciding to go to Eleazer, arguing about staying well after the vote was done, and his attitude was poor to say the least.

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Emmett Pov

Emmett gave Rosalie a guilty little smile after Esme left. He was a bit surprised to be sent shopping for 'art' again. "Did you want to come with me?"

"I had better, or you'll spend forever looking." Rosalie sighed, but he noticed a hint of a smile that told him, his wife was amused with his little task. "Tomorrow?"

"Can't, Bella Bear needs a ride into town. She's gonna start job hunting." Emmett reminded her and she nodded.

"Thursday then," Rosalie offered. "Do you have the Anita Blake book I lent you? I'd like to finish it and get it back to Bella."

"Oh, sure." Emmett tried to remember where he'd put it. He also kind of liked that so many of them were reading the same books, so hopefully they'd continue. It was starting to get a little sexy in the last two books, so it would be nice to continue with Rosalie at least. Emmett went outside to get a book out of the Jeep, once he'd remembered it was there.

As he walked to the garage he thought about the meeting they'd had and he was not surprised it hadn't gone too well. He'd actually expected Edward to take the offer to leave for a moment, once it was out of Esme's mouth, and he'd been stunned she'd actually said it. Esme hated when the family was separated, it worried her even though they were vampires.

"I'd find it more likely Bella was a demon sent from Hell to torment me than her story about reincarnation." Edward spoke up from his Volvo, his window down, before stepping out of it. He was whispering and Emmett studied him carefully. It made no sense for him to be out here.

"Bella Bear is no demon, but even if she were it wouldn't matter." Emmett told him and watched Edward grimace.

"Are you even aware of the effect that human is having on this family, on your WIFE?" Edward whispered with a hiss and Emmett knew Rosalie was in the house and wasn't hearing this little betrayal. "She's a human, and the thoughts about her being a part of this family, or being anything to us are unnatural, but Rosalie's are among the most unnatural and you need to stomp that out fast."

Emmett stepped forward and leaned down, his larger frame hovering menacingly over Edward's smug little face. His words were just as quiet a hiss as he leaned down and glared into Edward's face. "Keep your mental powers to yourself and don't go trying to cause trouble in my marriage. You think I don't know? You think I'm so stupid I don't see? I don't care, I love Rose and I don't care so fuck off, it's none of your business." He knew his eyes were black with his anger, imagining the scene Edward was trying to create with his comments. "And if you bother Rosie with your accusations I'll rip you to shreds, do you understand?"

"What kind of a man are you, to let your wife have thoughts like that?" Edward hissed and Emmett just shook his head.

"My wife can have any thoughts she wants." Emmett would love to slam him head first into his precious Volvo, but he took a step back. If it weren't for Esme's likely reaction he might have taught Edward what happened to boys who tried to cause trouble.

He grabbed the book he came out there for and did his best not to slam his Jeep door, before giving Edward a glare and leaving the garage. It wasn't the first time Edward told him he should 'control' his wife, and it was disgusting to hear every single time he heard it. Rose was an Angel, a Force of Nature and no one should ever 'control' her.

He made his way to the living room and handed Rose the book, before moving to sit on the couch with her. Emmett sighed and Rosalie moved on the couch, shifting so she was leaning up against him. He wrapped an arm around her and hugged her to him. "I love you, you know that?" He whispered into her ear and watched her soft smile grow. His Rosie could have any thoughts she wanted, and Emmett really was okay with that. Knowing Rose though, she'd only had a fleeting thought, and dismissed it as impossible. The thing Edward didn't get was that given time his Rosie would tell him her thoughts if they were serious, and that was as it should be.

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