I posted a picture of what Caleb might look like in the future.. tell me whatcha think! I'll leave it as my avatar for a few days.

Chapter 26

Two weeks later

Masen heard the familiar knocking on the front door of his house and knew his mother was making her daily rounds to see him. He looked at Leah, who was cuddled up on his chest as they watched the tail end of a movie and sighed.

"Stop..." Leah scolded him with a grin. She placed a hand on his face and kissed him.

He smiled back at her, "My mom seriously needs therapy." He let out a laugh and Leah continued to shake her head.

"She almost lost you," she reminded him, "It's only been two weeks."

Masen adjusted as Leah stood up from the couch where they sat and went to go get the door. He followed close behind, shutting the door to Cassandra's room where she slept, and joined his wife in the kitchen.

"I'm just bringing over some junk food and some more clothes," Esme told, as Leah invited her in, "Bella and I took a trip to Port Angeles today, and a few things caught my eye."

Masen rounded in to greet her with a hug and a smile. Esme grinned back at her son, knowing what he was going to say.

"Mom..." he told her, beginning to shake his head.

"Masen..." Leah said back with a similar ring to her voice.

"I love you both, but Leah, you can't encourage Mom's crazy behavior." His eyes shifted to meet Esme's and he laughed.

"She's not crazy," Leah told her, putting her arm around Esme's shoulders, "She loves you."

"What if I was trying to put the moves on Leah?" he said, "You just interrupted our alone time. Cassie's asleep and-"

"Oh, shut up Masen," Leah said, then turned to his mother, "He's lying."

Esme laughed, "Well I guess that didn't really come to my mind. You're right. I have to stop coming by here every day."

"No you don't," her daughter in law said.

"Yes, you do," Masen laughed, then hugged his mother again, "I'm teasing."

"How come you don't give Emmett a hard time?" Leah asked him.

"Emmett's been coming down here too?" Esme asked them.

Masen and Leah both nodded before Leah added, "Once a day since everything happened."

She smiled to herself at the thought, "Well, I'll be on my way," she looked at Masen with another smile, "I was just dropping these off."

"You don't have to go," Leah assured her, but Esme waved her hand at them.

"Give Cassie a kiss for me," she said before deciding to head back home. A smile spread across her face as she left, hearing their playful argument as she went before getting out of an ear's reach of their conversation.

On her travels, she stopped by the hospital, knowing Carlisle had about an hour left on his shift. She crossed through the parking lot, leaving a footprint trail in the fresh snow that began to fall over the area. She reached in the pocket of her jacket and placed a note beneath the windshield wiper on the driver's side and left for home.

When Esme arrived, Rosalie was laying across the couch with her feet on Emmett's lap. Caleb laid peacefully on her chest, barely moving as the three of them watched the movie Grown Ups.

William and Maddy entered the living room at the same time as Esme, joining their parents for the start of the film.

"Do you want him back?" Rosalie asked, hoping Esme would say no.

Esme grinned and walked in to join them, kissing Caleb's cheek before finding a spot on a comfy chair across the way, "You can have him for a little while longer," she told her with a smile, "I wasn't gone for as long as I thought."

"They kicked you out, huh?" Emmett asked, smiling wide.

She nodded, "Masen kicked me out."

The two of them laughed together before glancing over toward the kids. William looked like he had something to say.

"What's up?" Emmett asked him.

He shrugged, "I'm sorry we didn't tell you about us getting married."

Rosalie didn't move, though switched her eyes in his direction.

"Yeah," Maddy added, "We want to have another ceremony with everyone. It was... impulsive of us."

Emmett and Rosalie exchanged glances and Esme studied their expressions, neither of which looked even remotely angry at the mention of their impromptu exchange of vows.

"It wasn't the best way to do it, and it wasn't fair to you guys, especially you, Mom, " William admitted, "But I never did get to explain myself. I love Maddy. I'll never, ever want anyone else except for her. I don't even see any other girls. She's it for me. It will never change."

Maddy smiled at his praises about her and sighed happily.

"I just looked over at her on that day and thought to myself, I want to marry this girl," he looked over at her, "I couldn't wait, so we did what we felt was right. I'm sorry if we hurt your feelings by doing that."

Rosalie sat up, still holding Caleb tightly to her body. William seemed to be waiting for her less than happy response and almost winced at the waiting game of her words. To his surprise, she smiled, "I understand."

Emmett snickered, looking over at his typically feisty wife. She looked over at him, then back to their son, "I think it was very impulsive," she told them, "I think you should have waited so all of us could have witnessed the ceremony. I was very angry at first." She ran her hands along Caleb's arms, "But it's not about what I think, really. It's about the two of you, and no matter how much differently I would have done things if it were the two of us in your situation, I still support it."

The two of them smiled and William grabbed Maddy's hand.

"Can you talk to my mom?" Maddy asked her sheepishly with a grin.

Rosalie let a half smile take over her face, "Your mom's just fine. We'll put on a ceremony for the two of you soon."

Alice scampered into the room with a quick, "Yay!" and left as quickly as she came.

"The Alice tornado," Emmett said with a smile.

"I can't believe he's going to age slower," Rosalie said, looking down at Caleb, who's eyes looked tired despite not being able to sleep.

"Me either," Esme told her, glowing at the sight of her healthy baby in Rosalie's arms. She played with her necklace and admired him from where she sat.

Rosalie grinned and stood up, "I've stolen him from you for long enough," she said with a smile, placing the baby in Esme's arms.

She laughed, "You can steal him any time, Rosalie."

"Hey, uh, in light of everything that happened," Emmett said, bringing Rosalie against him as she sat back down, "I think we're going to ask for the same wish that you and Carlisle got from Masen. It's the only thing missing from Rosalie's life, and mine. I think it's a miracle in itself that having children any at time like a human would is even possible."

Rosalie smiled and leaned in closer to him. William scrunched his nose and didn't look at any of them except for Maddy, who chuckled and ran a quick hand through his hair.

Esme sighed happily and gave all of her attention to Caleb over the next half hour as they all focused in on the movie. Carlisle entered the house about halfway through. He hung his jacket, kicked of his snowy shoes and walked over to Esme. He leaned down and gave her a kiss, spoke a few words to Caleb, and kissed her again several times.

"Thank you," he said to her, before placing a final kiss on her cheek, and waving to the others before walking upstairs.

Esme excused herself from the room and stood up with Caleb laying peacefully on her chest. She followed to where Carlisle was changing in their room and closed the door.

Since the incident with Masen, Esme sensed that her husband had had trouble adjusting back to normal. He hadn't been himself and she could tell from his words and his demeanor that he had been feeling somewhat responsible for not being able to help their son, despite being a successful doctor. She knew how much his practice meant to him and how much it began to weigh on his mind that he was unable to do anything medically for their son in his greatest time of need. He had also continued to apologize to her for lying in such a critical time, despite her repetitive claims that she was not at all angry with him for his decisions.

"You know how you had all those talks with me about not worrying, and to let things go?" she asked him.

Carlisle threw on a casual, plain t-shirt and looked at her with a nod.

"Can you pretend that my words have the same effect on you, like yours do to me?"

He smiled, "Your words have the greatest effect on me."

"Well, then," she continued, "You need to let this go. You're a great, smart man. This whole thing that happened was quite literally once in a lifetime, as of now. There's no way you could have found a solution to the problem. We don't even know if one exists outside of Caleb's healing abilities."

Carlisle sighed, "I know." He reached in the pocket of his pants that he had yet to change out of and held her note that she left for him, "This is what I said 'thank you' for downstairs."

Esme smiled, "I know." They stared at each other for a minute before Esme spoke again, "I hope you believe what I said in there. You're the smartest man I know, and the most caring. Stop feeling guilty for not telling me the truth when Caleb was born. I understand why you did it, and I know you want what's best for me."

"But-" he started.

"Stop," she said playfully, putting her hand in the air, "Just say, 'Esme, you're right,' and we'll be even."

Carlisle grinned and looked her, "Esme, you're right."

"Thank you," she told him, them walked across the room with Caleb and gave him a long, closed mouth kiss before pulling him to her in a hug, "I love you."

"I love you, too," he told her, "This note made me feel better. My mind was all over the place during the bouts of downtime at work. I had a lot of paperwork to do today down there, so it was easy to let my thoughts wander." His hand traced over her back before he kissed her once more, "Can I take him?"

Esme leaned back and handed Caleb to Carlisle.

"Thank God that Masen, Leah and Billy made that wish," he said, shaking his head.

She nodded in agreement, watching Caleb's facial expressions as Carlisle rocked him slightly back and forth. She looked at her husband's face, as well, seeing the genuinely happy expression in his features as he looked down at him. Caleb was the only thing, lately, that seemed to ease his mind, if only for a moment or two.

The two of them stayed upstairs for a short while before Carlisle's thoughts got the best of him. He stood up and kissed Esme on the forehead. She knew exactly where he was going.

"Back to do research?" she asked him.

Carlisle knew she was concerned with his compulsive research as of late. Like Esme's daily trips to the reservation, there was never a day that went by where Carlisle didn't find himself trying to solve the riddles of their miracle children for six or seven hours. He felt compelled to find a cure in case another emergency occurred, or at least find some treatable way to maintain the health of their children, and future children.

He sighed, knowing he'd been more neglectful of their time together in the recent weeks, "I'll only be an hour," he promised.

Esme smiled and looked at him, "You can't fool me, Carlisle."

"I mean it," he said, "I won't be in there for long tonight."

She perched herself on her toes and kissed him, "I'll be coming after you," she said playfully, then placed a hand just above his hear, "Give this mind of yours a rest."

Carlisle nodded and kissed her once before disappearing to the room he'd recently made his research lab.