Chapter 45

Carlisle sat at his desk filling out some last minute paperwork before he went home for the night. He looked over his work to make sure he hadn't missed anything and decided to call it a day.

He grabbed the jacket he'd worn earlier from the back of his chair and switched off the computer that glowed on the desk in front of him. Before he could hit the light, his office phone went off and he reluctantly answered it.

"Dr. Cullen." He listened to the secretary on the other end of the receiver with some confusion before a snowball unexpectedly crashed into his face completely catching him off guard.

Emmett couldn't help a loud laugh from out in the hallway and looked in at Carlisle, who's face still stung with surprise. He lifted his eyes to meet Emmett's and noticed Jasper as he slowly peeked his head in.

"What are you guys doing?" he demanded, brushing off face and the leftover snow on his shirt. He gave them a look and put his arms out to the sides to try drawing some kind of a response.

Jasper chuckled and ducked back out into the hallway and Emmett continued to laugh, "Just jokin' with ya, pops."

Carlisle looked down at his desk and wiped up where chunks of the snowball had scattered. When he looked back up, Emmett hurled another one in his direction, catching him on the side of the face as he attempted to get out of the way at the last second.

"Emmett!" he yelled, then quieted his voice to keep from drawing attention to them, "Stop."

The quickness of how he mellowed out made Emmett almost scowl though Carlisle still looked at him like he was crazy.

"Why are you throwing snowballs in here?" he asked him.

Emmett shrugged, "Starting a war."

"In the hospital?"

"Well it was either here, or at home... in the house." he said, then looked out of the corner of his eye at Jasper, "But I would have made Esme clean it up anyway."

Carlisle shot him a glare, "You mean she would have made you clean it up."

Jasper stayed behind the wall and gave his brother a look before he kept going.

"Yeah, something like that..." He waited for a moment before Carlisle shook his head and put his jacket on. When he didn't draw much of a reaction, he continued to think of other things to say to provoke him.

"You came all this way to do that?" he asked them, looking at Jasper as he rounded the corner.

"We were in the neighborhood," Jasper said, laughing as the last syllable left his mouth. Emmett joined in on the laughter.

Carlisle looked for a minute at both of them, still confused and beginning to get annoyed before a few of his co-workers passed by and waved. He forced a closed mouth smile and returned the gesture before eying the two of them again and leaving through the front doors.

Emmett and Jasper walked closely behind him, trying to communicate without him hearing them, though they were unsuccessful.

Carlisle stopped and turned to face them, "What are you guys doing?" He looked at both of their faces, each appearing as if they were in the second grade. "Is something going on at home and you're trying to stall me or something?"

His words made Emmett laugh harder, "No. Not at all. Go right home."

He kept his suspicions high, "Well... is anything out of the ordinary going on at home then?"

"Nope," Jasper shook his head with a grin, "You don't have to go home, though if you don't want to."

The two of them could tell he was beginning to lose his patience slightly by the way he let out a loud exhale through his nose. "Alright. I'll drive you then."

"Okay," Emmett agreed. He bent down to gather some more snow but Carlisle quickly stopped him.

"Don't," he said firmly, "I give up if that's what it takes, just get in the car."

Emmett dropped the snow he was about to turn into a snowball and did as he asked, hopping into the back seat alongside Jasper.

Carlisle took his time getting in behind the wheel, grabbing a handful of snow as he pretended to drop his keys. "No one wants the front?"

The two of them looked at each other and shook their heads before he put the car in drive without further questioning. Emmett turned to Jasper to whisper something and was immediately hit in the face with snow as he turned, leaving a stunned expression on his face.

Carlisle stopped the car and looked at him with a grin, "Don't start something you can't finish, Emmett."

Jasper started to laugh and Emmett took whatever snow he could gather off of his face and tried smashing it into his brother's. The two of them fought for a moment before settling down and looking out their separate windows.

After a few minutes of silence, Emmett texted Jasper, who looked down upon feeling his phone vibrate in his hand. His eyes shifted with an accompanied smile toward Emmett, who's message read: watch this.

"Esme's going to pay for that one later," Emmett said, shaking his head.

Carlisle snickered and continued to drive.

"Yep, gunna hit her right in the face with a snowball when I get home," Emmett continued, "In the house, too." He looked down at his shoulder and brushed a few leftover snowflakes from his hooded sweatshirt.

Jasper looked up and tried to read Carlisle's expression, seeing he had a half smile on his face.

"I'm not playing these games," he said calmly.

"You're not... Esme will have to though."

Carlisle laughed again, "Okay Emmett."

Jasper's phone went off again and he looked down at Emmett's message. I'm really gonna do it. He leaned across to whisper to him quietly, "Breaking out the big guns, huh?"

Both of their eyes looked into the rearview mirror and met Carlisle's.

"Whatever you're doing, it's not going to work," he told them with a quick laugh, "And if it does, you'll wish it didn't."

The boys exchanged a smile in the back again, before remaining quiet for the rest of the ride home.

Carlisle kept a closer than normal eye on them until he pulled into the driveway. He clicked the button to open the garage that hung on his visor and pulled the car in as the door went up. Emmett and Jasper both piled out and scooted inside ahead him, whispering to each other as they quickly darted to the furthest place in the house from the garage.

Rosalie and Alice both sat on the couch watching television with Alexandra and Michael. Caleb was entertaining himself on the carpet in the middle of the four of them. The girls looked up at Carlisle as he crossed by them through the house, having already seen Emmett and Jasper disappear down the hall.

Esme was in the kitchen baking a pie for later in the evening when Sue and Charlie would be stopping by. She quickly noticed something was off in Carlisle's expression and asked him as he approached her after hanging up his jacket.

He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss before she immediately asked him, "What's wrong?"

A light snicker left his mouth, "Nothing."

She gave him a look and smirked, glad to see whatever it was, was nothing serious, "Nothing? You seem... I don't know, like something's a little off."

He shook his head and spoke quietly, "Emmett and Jasper were playing some kind of a game with me. They hit me with snowballs when I was leaving work and seem like they're up to something. I'm not sure what."

Esme couldn't help but laugh and shook her head. Carlisle took a deep breath. "I'm just going to say hi to Caleb and I'll be back in to help."

"Okay," she said to him, opening a cabinet in search of some spices.

Carlisle walked into the living room and picked up Caleb, saying hello to everyone and giving Alexandra a quick hug as she stood up to greet him.

"What time did your shift end?" Alice asked him with a questioning expression.

"Four," he told her, looking down at his watch out of habit, "Why?"

She shrugged, "Just wondering."

He glanced over at her, then noticed Rosalie was staring and tried to avert her attention elsewhere. He then looked to Alexandra and Michael and dismissed the idea that the girls were involved in whatever the boys were doing.

"I'll take him," Rosalie offered, referring to Caleb.

Carlisle smiled and handed his son to her before rejoining Esme in the kitchen. "What can I do? Do we need anything? It's just Charlie and Sue?"

"Seth and Lucy may come by, too," she told him, thinking for a moment. She opened the refrigerator and looked over at him, "Want to send one of the kids to the store for ice cream?"

He smiled, "I'll go get some. What kind?"

Esme smiled back, "I know Charlie likes vanilla, so maybe vanilla and Sue is a fan of butter pecan, or black raspberry."

"I'll get all three," he said, kissing her on the cheek, "Anything else?"

She shook her head, "I think we're all set with everything else."

Carlisle nodded, "Okay. If you think of something else, give me a call."

"I will," she smiled, "Thanks."

He nodded and quickly went upstairs to change out of his work clothes before making his way back down to the garage, passing Edward and Bella on the way.

"Hey," Edward said with a grin.

Carlisle nodded, "I'll be back." He studied their expressions and gave his son a look before continuing to the garage. He flipped on the light switch and swung the keys around his finger, only to see that his car was covered in wrapping paper from front to back. Not an inch of the car was visible from the thorough, yet rushed and messy, wrapping job.

He stared at the car for a moment and headed back inside, hanging his keys back up and grabbing Emmett's. Esme heard him return to the house and gave him a confused look, "What's wrong?"

Carlisle shook his head and couldn't help but give a half smile, "Go take a look in the garage." He shook his head a second time before leaving through the front door to where Emmett's Jeep sat in the driveway.

"No promises this is going to come back in one piece," Carlisle said aloud, knowing Emmett was listening somewhere close by.

No longer than a second later, an upstairs window opened and he leaned his head out, "What are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about," he said back, sliding into the driver's seat. Before Emmett could say another word, he peeled out of the driveway, sending snow and slush into the air off the spin of the tires.

When he returned home, some twenty minutes later, he laughed at his own retaliation to their pranks. In the passenger's seat and next to each window in the back, he'd built a small 'family' of snowmen. Carlisle unrolled all the windows down so Emmett would have a clear view of the car's interior. He didn't always find it in him to fight back in these situations, though today he couldn't help himself.

He got out of the car with the one bag of items Esme had asked him to get and locked it, despite having rolled down all of the windows. No sooner than a second or two later, a round of snowballs were hurled in his direction, one of them knocking the bag of ice cream from his hand.

Rosalie and Alice each leaned out of the same window that Emmett had earlier, and Esme, Alice and Michael opened the front door after hearing the commotion.

"Emmett!" Carlisle screamed, "Stop it."

Emmett continued his pursuit to make him curse, "I can't give in, Carlisle. Sorry." He launched another snowball in his direction.

Bella and Edward emerged from the side of the house, both with smiles, though appearing somewhat awestruck at what was going on in the driveway.

Carlisle ducked out of the way and ran at Emmett, who continued to laugh, before attempting to wrestle him to the ground.

Alexandra was the first to join them all outside, laughing as she did so. "What is going on?" she asked, looking toward Edward and Bella, then the girls in the upstairs window.

Esme joined her on the step, where Michael came out just behind her. She looked at her daughter and shrugged, though didn't know exactly what was going on as her husband and Emmett fought in the snow.

Emmett's wild laughter, set everyone else off and the two of them finally got up from the ground, each looking equally frazzled.

"I give up," Carlisle told him, "Just stop with the snowballs and all that stuff." He wiped a hand across his face, which was damp. His hair and clothing were covered with snow.

"It's only been an hour," Emmett said.

"What's only been an hour?" He looked around at them all, and Rosalie and Alice quickly ducked back into the house.

Jasper appeared from the woods with a smile. "Should we just tell him? I'm starting to feel bad."

"No," Emmett said, "Jetskis, remember?"

"What is going on?" Carlisle asked them. He looked over his shoulder at Esme, who shrugged but looked like she was trying to hold back a laugh.

Edward avoided eye contact with his father and made his way to Emmett's Jeep, noticing the snowmen inside. "Nice work, Carlisle."

Esme looked in and let her mouth hang open, having just noticed, "Carlisle..."

He looked back at her, wanting badly to say "They started it," though held off knowing that wouldn't make the situation look any better for him.

"Edward, would you mind grabbing the bag I dropped over there?" he pointed toward the ground and Edward did as he asked. He handed the bag to Esme.

"Twenty-three hours and counting," Emmett said, looking at his brother.

"You better come check out the Jeep, Em," Edward told him with a laugh. Bella looked inside for the first time and gave a laugh, herself.

Carlisle brushed himself off and headed toward the front door, grabbing the bag from Edward's hand as he passed.

"What's going on?" Esme asked him.

He handed her the bag and shook his head, hearing Emmett's laughter from the snowy artwork he'd build in his car, before going inside to try relaxing. For some reason, he knew that probably wouldn't happen with whatever the boys were doing. He just hoped they wouldn't do anything to embarrass he or Esme when Charlie and Sue arrived.