Chapter 12

A day and a half had passed before Rosalie began speaking to Emmett again, and then took another full before deciding she was ready to continue her discussion with him. After lots of advice from Esme and Alice, and some time to cool off, she took it upon herself to drag him away for a few hours to truly have a one on one conversation.

Nicole kicked around a soccer ball with Michael, while Alice and Alexandra sat on the steps out back.

"Any minute now," Alice said, looking in the distance for her sister.

"Did they make up?" Alexandra asked, nearly whispering.

She smiled, and gave a quick head nod. When they came into view, Alice stood up from where she sat, causing Alexandra to do the same.

Rosalie and Emmett walked hand in hand toward the house rather slowly, both seemingly happily content as they got closer to the house.

Alice looked down at her watch, "Well, it's about time."

Rosalie gave her sister a closed mouth smile, then a hug, "Thanks, Alice."

Emmett quickly stole the soccer ball from Nicole and she was taken off guard.

"Hey!" she shouted through a smile.

"... is for horses," Emmett finished.

"Huh?"

Alice, Rosalie and Emmett all laughed.

"Nevermind," he said, passing the ball back. She kicked it hard toward Michael who leapt in the air to grab it before it sailed over his head.

"Are Carlisle and Esme around?" Rosalie asked.

"Inside," Alice told them.

Emmett put a hand on Rosalie's lower back and guided her into the house.

"Pass it over here," Alice said to her daughter as the two of them left them to their game in the back yard.

Rosalie lead the way to where Esme and Carlisle were already heading in their direction.

"Everything alright?" Carlisle asked them.

The two of them looked at each other with smiles, then they both nodded.

"We're sorry that our situation caused this disagreement between the two of you," Esme said.

Emmett smiled, "It's out of your hands. You don't have to apologize for our actions."

Rosalie agreed with a nod, "I'm sorry," she told them, "I know sometimes..."

"No need to apologize," Carlisle told her.

"Did you come to any conclusions?" Esme asked them, hoping they had.

"Kind of," Rosalie said, "We are going to wait until it get closer to the next eclipse to make a final decision. It doesn't have to be done right now."

Carlisle and Esme shared a quick smile. "Good," she said to them, "I think that's smart to think it through."

"We were also kind of wondering if maybe..." Emmett started. He looked over to Rose, "How do you word this?"

There was a silence that fell over them before Rosalie decided to continue.

"Well, since you're already in this situation, we thought maybe we could learn a little about it from you," she told them, "I know we talked about, well I guess screamed about, the possibilities of certain preventative measures that may or may not work for us."

"Could you try out a few of them?" Emmett asked, "I mean, while you're already preggers."

Rosalie looked at him with a smile at his word choice, and Carlisle and Esme each suppressed a laugh with little success.

Carlisle sighed and gave a shrug to Esme, then went to one of the kitchen drawers and found a piece of scrap paper and a pen.

"We have," she told them.

"This is strictly for informative purposes," Carlisle went on, finishing what he was scribbling on the sheet of paper, "I don't want to make a big discussion out of it if we don't have to." He folded the paper once and handed it Emmett, "That's what works and what doesn't."

Emmett unfolded the paper and Rosalie scooted closer to read it. They both looked at him and he gave another shrug.

"Pretty straightforward," Carlisle said, clicking the pen and putting it back in the drawer. He glanced over once at Esme.

"Hey," Edward entered the room and threw down a newspaper on the kitchen table, "Look at this."

Carlisle give him a skeptical look, though Edward quickly smiled, "It's a good thing."

The four of them walked over to the table while Edward pointed to a headline about a car accident.

Emmett read the headline aloud, "Man Saved By Officer After Near Death Experience."

"It mentions Masen," he told them, "Charlie gave it to Bella this morning when she was over there."

Carlisle scanned the article, reading every word intently until it mentioned their son. He read the line twice to himself, though not aloud, Local police officer Masen Cullen was the first on the scene and pulled the man from his vehicle just before it caught fire. The next line left him a little on edge, reading the man's quote who was said to have escaped the accident unharmed, I thought for sure I felt my ribs crack. I was worried about internal bleeding and I was also pretty sure at first that both of my legs were broken. I guess I was just panicking from the crash. The article continued to give details about the accident and named Masen one other time.

Esme read the same several lines at the same time as Carlisle and looked over at him.

"Our family hero," Emmett said with a smile.

"It's fine Carlisle," Edward assured him, "I just passed by Alice before I came in."

He sighed and nodded, "Yeah. Alright."

"Why don't we go over and see him?" Esme said.

"Okay," Carlisle agreed.

"He was on his way to Charlie's last I knew," Edward told them.

"Thanks," they both said.

Esme pulled out her phone, "I'll give him a quick call." She walked just out of the room so she would be able to hear him clearly above their conversation.

"This isn't anything out of the ordinary," Edward said to Carlisle, "Things like this happen all the time. And he's been working with Charlie, so that's even more back up."

"Yeah, I know," he said with a nod, "I just want to make sure he's being smart, that's all," then added, "Thanks for showing us this."

"You're welcome," he said back, "He'll do a lot of good as police officer, the same way you've done as a doctor. He'll be fine."

"Thanks, Edward." Carlisle patted his back once, "I just get nervous about getting too close sometimes."

Edward nodded, "I know. He's smart though. He knows."

Esme re-entered the room, "Want to go to Charlie's?"

Carlisle nodded and thanked Edward again, then looked at Rosalie and Emmett, "All set?"

They both nodded, "Might have some questions down the road, but we're good for now," Emmett told him.

Carlisle grabbed his keys and headed to where Esme was already walking out the front door. When they arrived at Charlie and Sue's house, they saw Masen's car out front. Charlie had left the door open, and called them in upon Esme's quick knock.

"Hey," Masen greeted them with a smile. He hugged his father and kissed Esme on the cheek.

Sue entered the room, "How are you?" she hugged them both and Charlie stood against one of the open doorways with his forearm leaning against the wall.

"Great," Esme said with a smile.

Sue waved her into the kitchen to chat while Carlisle, Masen and Charlie began to talk.

"There wasn't anything... obvious, that happened with the man in the car accident, was there?" Carlisle asked them.

Charlie shook his head, "Masen removed him from the car."

"That's all he needed to be healed," Masen told him, "I don't have to do anything special. But if the car caught fire while he was in there, I don't think I would have been able to save him."

He nodded, "That's all I really wanted to know."

"He's doing a really good job," Charlie added, "I think he... aided... quite a few people in the last couple of weeks."

"Discreetly of course," Masen added with a smile, "Like I said, it's nothing more than shaking someone's hand, or in this case, pulling them out of a totaled car."

Carlisle took in a deep breath, then nodded, "Thanks for looking out for him Charlie."

He shrugged, "It's what partners do."

"How are Seth and Lucy?" Carlisle asked.

Charlie glanced over his shoulder toward Sue before looking back in his direction, "They're alright. Visited briefly around Christmas, but distant. They found a place to stay not far from here. They say they need some time away, I don't know." He shrugged.

"How's Sue?"

"She's alright, I guess. She's gone to visit them a few times. Doing better now and trying to accept that he's growing up. I know the feeling."

Carlisle nodded.

Esme and Sue both joined back up with them, "We're going to a movie on Friday," Sue said, looking at Charlie, then Carlisle.

"The four of us," Esme concluded with a grin, "It's been way too long."

Carlisle and Charlie made eye contact and both smiled.

"Date night, yay." Charlie said, followed by a quick laugh.

Carlisle found his dry comment to be overly amusing and started to laugh.

Masen shook his head, "Alright. I'm out of here. Have fun on your... date night."