Following his father's instruction, Edward waited patiently in the small office space while Carlisle had another word with Harry. Slowly revolving in his father's desk chair, Edward was only half-heartedly eavesdropping the conversation, as his thoughts were focused on his inability to read the teenager's mind. He had never come across anyone whose mind he couldn't read before and was curious why his gift suddenly failed him.
A raised voice brought Edward out of his thoughts, and he could hear Harry becoming agitated.
"Why didn't you do anything? Surely you could have called someone for help."
Edward heard his father's short sigh of annoyance, similar to the one he would give him or any of his siblings whenever one of them broke a piece of furniture.
"I do not feel like arguing the subject, Harry. You should get some rest. If you need anything, just press the button beside you and someone will come. Oh, and try to stay put this time."
Hearing his father leave Harry's room, Edward tuned his mind in to Carlisle's thoughts, wishing he could hear Harry's mental reaction to his doctor's abrupt departure.
'That boy. I'm worried he isn't ever going to tell me anything. Why can't he see that I only wish to help?' His father's thoughts were becoming more uneasy by the minute.
The door opened and Carlisle stepped inside looking genuinely tired. In that moment, Edward thought Carlisle looked more human that he had ever seen. Seeing Edward watching him with concern from his chair, Carlisle stood up straight and moved to perch himself on his desk.
'I don't understand him, Edward. What has happened to him to make him so mistrustful?'
Edward had to agree that Harry seemed oddly wary for a teenager, and certainly wasn't quick to trust anyone he didn't know. He could only assume that was because of something that had happened in Harry's past. Once again the annoyance of not being able to read the teenager's mind returned, this time tinged with guilt as he remembered Carlisle had been relying on him to find out information with which to help his patient.
"Sorry," he mumbled to his father. Carlisle looked down at him in surprise and confusion.
'What on earth are you apologising for?'
Could Carlisle really not see what he was talking about? Edward stopped spinning.
"I wasn't any help, was I? I was supposed to be able to tell you everything you wanted to know about Harry, and I can't tell you a damn thing. Some gift," he scoffed, disgusted with his failure. Edward knew that Carlisle wouldn't be upset, and that annoyed him even more.
"Edward, you can't beat yourself up about something you have no control over. We were bound to come across someone who could block your ability at some point." He added in his mind; 'I'm surprised we haven't before after almost a century of moving about.'
As usual Carlisle was right. The reality was that they had never found anyone in the past whose mind Edward couldn't read and he had confidently assumed that was because there was no one. He had thought his gift was infallible and never in almost ninety years of immortality could he have guessed a human teenager would be the one to prove him wrong. It was almost insulting.
Quickly reminding himself that Harry was not a normal human teenager, Edward felt marginally better and resumed spinning on his chair. His thoughts returned to Harry's defiance against revealing anything about himself. Edward didn't think that having mysterious powers should explain his inability to trust. Perhaps he wasn't normally like this and just didn't trust Carlisle.
This time when Edward stopped revolving he didn't start again.
Harry wasn't hiding information about himself because of his own personality faults. He was hiding information specifically from the person who was asking for it; his doctor who just happened to be a vampire.
Edward's mind began to whir. It made perfect sense! He remembered back to when he was by Harry's bedside, to a word he had heard his father thinking.
Supernatural.
Whatever it was Harry had done to stop that scaffold structure from falling filed neatly under the heading of supernatural involvement. If he were connected to the world where myths and legends were reality, what was there to say he hadn't figured out what Carlisle was? It was easily plausible that Harry had met vampires before and recognised his doctor as one of the supernatural beings. That would make anyone cautious. Edward had reached his next decision before he even finished this last thought.
They had to leave.
Whatever Harry was, he had discovered their secret and there was only ever one solution for that situation. He didn't know where they would go. Maybe they could go north for a while. Emmett would definitely like the possibility of more grizzlies in their next location. Perhaps they could even stay with the Denalis for a while until they worked out something more permanent.
While Edward had this internal monologue, he was totally oblivious to the look his father was giving him which was growing more concerned by the second.
'Edward? Do you need to leave and hunt now?' But Edward was so deep in his mental debate on how to make sure Harry would stay quiet once they had left (no scenario of which ended too well for Harry) that he didn't hear a word Carlisle had thought.
'I sometimes wish I had your gift, Edward.' "Edward," he called in an attempt to break his son out of his trance. "Edward!" This time Carlisle made to grasp Edward's shoulder in order to give him a gentle shake.
Edward was part way through imagining a conversation with Jasper and Rosalie after they had just returned from disposing of Harry's body, when he saw a hand shoot out at him. Reacting purely on instinct, he leapt out of the chair clawing at the invasive hand as a deep growl resonated in his chest. Only when he heard the loud crash did he snap back to his senses.
Turning on the spot, Edward saw what had made the alarming sound. In his haste at vacating the chair, he had sent it hurtling back into the wall which now had a wide crack running across it, just above what appeared to be the sad remains of what was once a very nice desk chair. Oops.
Noticing that he was at eye level with the chair's remains, Edward realised that he was in a defensive crouch. When had he done that? Standing up and righting his shirt, Edward closed his eyes to try and calm himself. He couldn't even remember what had startled him. The memory soon came back to him though as he heard the thoughts of the other person in the room. He had also forgotten he wasn't alone.
'What was that?!'
Terribly embarrassed at his brief lapse in control, Edward slowly turned himself around to face his father but didn't meet his gaze.
"The, um, chair got uncomfortable?" he finally lifted his eyes to Carlisle's, knowing that his must appear even darker than before (if that were possible). He cringed at the wariness that he saw there and shrunk back with shame at the thoughts in his father's head, questioning whether he needed to restrain his son. When he spoke, his words mirrored his mind's uneasiness.
"Edward, I think you need to leave." Edward looked at himself in Carlisle's mind and was shocked at what he saw. The darkest shadows he had ever seen circled his pitch black eyes and his teeth were bared in aggression. He was slowly sinking back onto his haunches.
Seeing this, Edward physically tried to relax. Standing up straight and closing his eyes, he stretched himself out trying to rid himself of the adrenaline he felt pumping through his muscles. How had thinking of Harry's potentially necessary death gotten this sort of a rise out of him? Only once he felt as relaxed as he had earlier did he open his eyes and speak.
"I'm sorry, Carlisle. I don't know what happened there. You just caught me on a bad thought." Edward was relieved to see some of the wariness in his father's posture disappear but wasn't surprised he hadn't totally relaxed.
"What kind of thought? I really think it would be best if you went now, Edward. You're obviously too thirsty to be here, I shouldn't have gotten you to stay." Carlisle said this with such concern and finality that Edward almost obeyed, but turning his attention back to the now broken chair, he knew he couldn't leave without warning his father.
"We need to move again." He said this softly to the crack in the wall but knew Carlisle would hear him. Edward was disappointed at having to leave only a couple of years after arriving. He had grown to like Forks in some way.
Carlisle just looked at his son with confusion. "It's only a chair and a crack in the wall, Edward. I'll come up with some excuse, we don't need to leave because of it. That's a bit drastic."
Edward couldn't help but smile at his father's assumption; he thought he was worried about breaking the chair. While he was still embarrassed by his behaviour and was slightly upset he no longer had a chair to spin in, Edward wasn't really worried about the damage he had caused.
"No, not because of the chair, Carlisle. It's Harry. I think he knows what you are." He turned to look back at Carlisle and was confused to see that there was no hint of concern either on his face or in his thoughts. In fact, he was smiling.
"Did you hear what I said? I think Harry knows that you're a vampire." Still getting no reaction out of his father, Edward folded his arms and fixed him with a glare. "Ok, what is it you're not telling me?"
Keeping the smile plastered on his face, Carlisle spoke. "Oh no, you first. After all, you're the one with the suspicions." He made himself comfortable sitting back down on the edge of his desk and waited for Edward to speak. So speak he did.
Edward told Carlisle all about his theory of why Harry didn't trust him enough to tell him anything, about how if he were some supernatural being he could easily have met vampires before and worked everything out, and about how there was really no option other than for them to leave Forks and make sure that somehow Harry would not reveal their identity. He spoke until he had no more to say and looked into Carlisle's eyes.
Edward was irritated to see that the smile on his father's face hadn't changed during his speech. In fact if anything it had grown larger as he listened to the speculations stream out of his son's mouth and noticed the increase in panic with each sentence. Unable to stand Carlisle's amusement any longer, Edward finally snapped.
"What?! How can you possibly find this amusing? Do you even care that our family's safety could be put at risk because of your patient?! Because it certainly doesn't seem like it to me!" he hissed at his father, whose eyes darkened menacingly.
Slowly pushing himself up into a standing position, Carlisle strode over to stand in front of Edward, never breaking eye contact. Drawing himself to his full height, he brought his face close to his son's and spoke in a calm but dangerous voice. "Do not suggest, Edward, for one second that I do not take the safety of our family seriously. Do you understand?"
There was very little in the world that frightened Edward, but at that moment he was genuinely afraid of his father. His resolve faltered and he took a step back as he said his next words.
"I– I just don't understand why you're not worried about a human knowing." For the second time in just a few minutes, Edward felt like a misbehaving child being told off by his father. He added in a quiet voice, "Of course I understand. We mean everything to you."
Carlisle sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as he turned away and wandered aimlessly around the room.
"I'm sorry, Edward, I shouldn't have snapped. It's been a trialing day for all of us." He moved around to the other side of his desk meaning to sit down before remembering that his son had just destroyed his chair. He settled for resting on the desk like before.
"As for why I'm not concerned, it is simply because I see no reason to be. If Harry has figured out what I am, for which we have no proof in favour or otherwise, then that can only be because he has encountered our type in his past, as you say." He said all this very quickly, clearly in a hurry to reach the point he was trying to make.
"None of us have ever heard of a human fitting his description who knows about the existence of vampires. I believe if he were a threat, the Volturi would know of him and would have… disposed of the threat." At this Edward saw in Carlisle's mind Aro standing over a crumpled heap, his eyes a brilliant red and lips coated in fresh blood.
Edward had to fight hard to control the sudden thirst that burned in his throat at the image of Harry's blood. His fists clenched and eyes screwed shut as he tried to shut out his father's thoughts. Carlisle must have noticed his son's discomfort as the image quickly disappeared and was replaced with his last conversation with Harry.
"We both know that Harry is hiding something, and he's hiding it from me just as much as he is from the other doctors. He wants whatever it is he's hiding to remain a secret just as much as we want our identity to remain secret. I think that I've managed to convince him that no one saw him save those people but I can't be certain.
"If he does know what I am and he thinks that I know nothing about what he can do, then I'm hoping he will not see the need to reveal us. If we are seen to move against him though, intentionally or otherwise, I can't be sure that will hold."
Edward stood in silence, reflecting on everything Carlisle had said. It was true that they had no way of knowing whether or not Harry had figured anything out, but they should at least reciprocate his possible truce by not revealing his secret. With this, Edward grudgingly agreed that it was not necessary for them to move… at least not yet.
"Fine. But if at any point it becomes clear that Harry has figured out what you are, do you promise we'll consider moving?"
Carlisle only hesitated for a millisecond. "I promise that when the time comes we will have a proper discussion with the rest of the family."
Suddenly a new idea came to Edward. He knew Carlisle would never agree to it, but it was worth a try.
"Do you think, perhaps, it might be a good idea to pass Harry into the care of another doctor? Just to keep the chances of him finding anything out as low as possible?"
'Are you kidding? Harry is the most interesting patient I've had in well over a century, there's no chance I would give him up.'
Edward couldn't help but smile at his father's enthusiasm for the unknown and he knew the answer to his next question without even needing to ask it.
"What happens now then?"
"Research. We don't have much to go on," he paused. "In fact we have almost nothing at all, but there must be something in my notes that can give some clues."
Carlisle's eyes were lightening ever so slightly with the thought of losing himself amongst the avalanches of books and journals in his study. His mind was already planning possible places to start and soon enough a list began forming in his head of all the books he would read.
"Surely you know by now what most of those say without reading them again," joked Edward, as he watched the pile of books in Carlisle's head grow above seven feet high.
Startled out of his daydream, the image disappeared and Carlisle looked at Edward sheepishly as though he had just been caught in an embarrassing act. If he were human, Edward thought his father would have been blushing.
Collecting himself, Carlisle defended, "A true pursuer of knowledge can find new information even in books he has read in the past." A smirk played on his lips at Edward's unconvinced look. "Even if he's lived for over three centuries and has read it thousands of times before." Edward laughed.
Carlisle stood up from his desk and moved over to his filing cabinet. "I had best get back to work, Edward. I'm sure the others are dying to know what's happened."
"Alice is probably driving them all crazy." Edward could picture Alice racing about the house frustrated at not being able to see anything that was happening. He made to move towards the door. "I'll see you when you get home, Carlisle."
"Yes, see you tonight, Edward." Edward watched as Carlisle's gaze fell back onto the remains of the chair. 'And I want to talk to you more about that later.'
Oh good, another father-son chat. Edward merely grunted his understanding and stepped out of his father's office. Boy did he have a story for the others.
