Carlisle put his foot down to the floor as he raced down the darkened highway towards the drive that led off to his family's house. The Mercedes groaned in appreciation as it was pushed to its limits and swept smoothly onto the small, winding road. As he steered around the twists and turns that lead up to the house, Carlisle tried to keep his thoughts on something that would not rouse suspicion from Edward, but he couldn't help his mind wander to the subject he was coming to discuss with his family.
'What's the point in pretending? He will have heard it by now. Best to just get this over with.'
Pulling swiftly into the garage beside the numerous other vehicles his children owned, Carlisle gathered himself together and stepped out of his car. Unsurprisingly, Edward was there waiting for him.
"He knows?!" Edward hissed, putting as much venom into the two words as possible. "I thought you said we didn't have to worry about this? That I was overreacting?" He glared at his father with as much disgust as he could muster.
"And we don't," Carlisle was quick to defend. He was unfazed by his son's reaction; he had expected nothing less. "I know there isn't very much that I can say to you to make you believe me, but I need you to trust me." He looked at Edward in the eyes as he said this, trying to believe his own words. "Let's go inside and talk to everyone."
Carlisle left the garage and began walking towards the front landing. He could already hear his family making their way to the living room where they normally held their family meetings, and he sensed Edward silently following behind him. He opened the front door and headed through to where everyone was waiting. He almost turned and walked out again.
Guilt washed over Carlisle at the sight of his family's faces: Emmett and Alice both looked upset and concerned about what had happened. Rosalie of course looked furious; Carlisle wasn't looking forward to facing her on the matter. Jasper looked as though he were going to be ill from all the emotions swirling around the room, to which Carlisle's sudden guilt couldn't be helping. But it was the last face that broke his silent heart; Esme was seated on one of the loveseats with her arms wrapped around herself, her face showing the emotional distress she was clearly going through. Carlisle would have done anything to race over there and comfort her, but he knew that in order to get some members of his family to listen to him he would need to be in a position of authority, and cuddled on the loveseat with his wife wasn't very high up on that scale. Instead, Carlisle stayed where he was and opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by one of his children.
"So, we're leaving then?" Emmett asked in a voice so sombre that Carlisle wouldn't have believed it had been him who spoke had he not been looking right at his son.
"No," Carlisle was quick to affirm. "We're not going anywhere."
"Carlisle," Rosalie began as she jumped to her feet. "A human knows. We're all in danger by staying here, surely you of all people realise that!"
His daughter's words stung; that was the second time today one of his children had questioned his ability to do what was best for his family. Though it had been more shocking coming from Edward than it was Rosalie, it was hard to hear all the same. He only had one chance to convince them all of what he was thinking.
"This time is different. I have reason to believe that Harry has met vampires before," Carlisle explained cautiously. The silence that followed was more telling than words. He hurried on before any of them could interrupt. "I believe if that is the case, then he would not have been able to go about his life if he were a threat to our kind. The Volturi would have made sure of that," he added coldly.
At this Edward finally made himself visible, walking in from the main entranceway.
"Carlisle, the Volturi might not even know about Harry. He might be using his abilities to remain undetected. The fact that I can't read his mind and Alice can't see his future should be enough of a concern to warrant us leaving."
Carlisle turned to look at Edward with disapproval on his face.
'Why are you trying to worry everyone?!' he thought angrily.
"Why are you trying to convince everyone there's nothing wrong?" Edward snapped back at him.
Carlisle let out a sigh and tried again.
"Look. I know that usually in this situation we'd already be half way across the country, but this time is different. Harry is someone – something – that we've never come across before. I trust him to keep our secret." Again he was confronted with disbelieving faces. Rosalie fought back.
"You can't be serious! Carlisle, you don't know him. You're putting your faith in someone whose mind, as Edward said, is completely closed off from us. I thought you had better judgement that that!" She spat these last words at him and fixed him with a look that was almost… disappointed?
"Rosalie," a small voice scolded. It was the first word Esme had spoken since Carlisle's return, and he was grateful that she was coming to his defence… well, kind of.
"It's alright, Esme," he assured in a quiet voice. Turning to look into the eyes of his first daughter, Carlisle prepared to give his final word on the subject before he would call the discussion over.
"Rosalie," he began confidently, "I believe Harry is different. That he is special. There is no more that I can tell you about him than what you have already heard from Edward earlier today. Until I learn more, you will have to trust my judgement, which might I remind you has never led us into danger before."
After his speech he looked around the room once more. Alice, Jasper and Emmett each looked convinced. Edward simply gave a resigned sigh and leant back against the wall pinching the bridge of his nose. Carlisle switched his eyes to Esme's and saw that she was smiling her brilliant smile at him; she would always trust him, even when no one else did. His heart soared at the thought. Not even the furious look on Rosalie's face could ruin the effect Esme's happiness had on him.
"Ugh, whatever! Be it on your head," she muttered as she stalked past him. "Are we going hunting or not?" She demanded before running out into the night.
"Finally!" Emmett cheered, and followed his wife out the door.
Jasper got up next and Alice made to follow but not before turning to smile at her father.
"Don't worry, Carlisle. I may not be able to see Harry, but I can't see anything that shows our secret being revealed," she assured him with a smile.
"Thank-you, Alice," he replied, grateful that there was something to support his decision to stay. Alice gave him a quick hug and raced out to follow the others.
Feeling a hand come down on his shoulder, Carlisle turned to find Edward smiling at him.
'Wait. Edward's smiling? What happened to the world being about to end?'
"Ha ha," Edward rolled his eyes. "Never mind what I think. And don't worry about Rosalie. She's just frustrated that she can't argue with you."
'Never mind what you think?' Edward ignored him. 'Well then I had better not give her the means to do so.'
"Mm," Edward murmured. He turned to walk out and as he did, Carlisle noticed the worry from before return to his face. Carlisle frowned.
"They do trust you, dear." Carlisle turned to see his beautiful wife smiling up at him, but even being alone with her couldn't alleviate him of the worry that plagued him.
"What if I am wrong?" He whispered in a voice that only she would be able to hear. Esme always knew how to make him feel better, and he needed that now more than he had in a very long time.
"You always do what you believe is best for this family, and if you think staying is what's best then I trust you," she whispered back in a voice equally as soft.
"But what if I –" he was cut off by a small finger being pressed to his lips. Esme leant forward until she was only an inch from his face.
"You're not wrong," she repeated as she removed her finger from his lips and kissed him quickly.
Needing the comfort of her lips, Carlisle grabbed Esme's waist and pulled her close, pressing their mouths together once more. This kiss was more passionate than the brief one before, and Carlisle felt himself snap out of his melancholy temporarily. Nothing seemed to exist except for him and Esme sharing this moment as he could almost forget about the mysterious boy back at the hospital and the stress put upon his family.
Too soon, the kiss was over, and cold air rushed over Carlisle's lips. With their foreheads pressed together, he kept his eyes closed in a vain attempt to hold onto the feeling of his wife's comfort.
"As much as I enjoyed that, I shouldn't keep them all waiting," Esme let out in a low voice filled with desire. Carlisle couldn't help the pout that formed on his face, to which Esme laughed. "Now Doctor Cullen, don't you have work that you need to be doing?" She teased.
Suddenly research didn't seem quite so interesting.
"Only if by 'work' you mean you, Mrs Cullen," he growled seductively.
"Ugh! Esme are you coming or should we leave you to it?" Edward's voice carried inside from the front yard, the disgust clear in his voice. Carlisle and Esme both laughed and separated in order to prevent themselves from scarring their son any further.
'Sorry, Edward,' Carlisle thought.
"No, you're not."
Carlisle laughed.
'You're right. I'm not really.'
Esme laughed once more before calling out that she would be there soon.
"Go on, Carlisle. I know you've been dying to do research since you got home. I'll come check on you later," she promised with a quick wink.
"I'll hold you to that, love. Have a nice hunt." Carlisle gave her another quick peck on the lips before she dashed off to join her children. Once he heard them run off into the forest, Carlisle let out a sigh and flashed up to his office. Closing the door behind him, he looked at his collection of books and nodded.
'Right then. Research.'
3 hours later
Nothing.
That was what Carlisle's efforts had produced during the last several hours. After reading almost all his books on mythology, human evolution, and the laws of physics, he had found nothing that could possibly explain the boy waiting for him back at the hospital. Sighing with frustration, Carlisle closed his eyes and leaned his head back in his chair.
His office was a mess; there were books strewn all over the floor and his desk, and they were piled up so high he couldn't even see over them to his office's door. There were very few books left sitting in their shelves, as Carlisle had tried anything that could even vaguely be related; he had even read his old science fiction novels.
Perhaps he should take his lack of discovery as a sign that this wasn't how he was supposed to learn about Harry. If there was nothing in any literature then maybe he was simply meant to wait until Harry found the confidence to tell him himself. Or maybe Carlisle just wasn't meant to know the truth about the boy; he sincerely hoped this wasn't the case.
Carlisle was pulled out of his musings by a soft knock at the door. His family had returned from hunting almost two hours ago but they hadn't bothered to interrupt. They all knew that when he got into his research he could be unreachable for several hours. Once it had been three days before they had managed to pull him from his books.
"Come in," he called around the piles of journals on his desk.
He heard the door open and then close again as the sweet scent of his wife's perfume filled the office.
"Reached a slump have you?" Esme's face appeared suddenly peering from behind all the books. She was smiling at him, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.
"You could say that," he confirmed as he motioned for her to sit on his lap. "How was hunting?"
"Oh you know, the usual. The boys bickering about who got the biggest catch, that sort of thing…" she trailed off, biting her bottom lip.
"Except?" Carlisle prompted.
Esme just shook her head. "It's probably nothing. It's to be expected that tempers will flare a bit with the added stress at the moment," she explained with a sad expression. Now Carlisle was concerned.
"What happened, Esme?"
She sighed. "It started with something silly. Edward claimed that Rosalie stole his mountain lion and that got them bickering, nothing worse than how they usually might. But then they got personal." She paused and the worry she was clearly feeling was now displayed on her face. "Rosalie started blaming Edward that he couldn't read Harry's mind, saying that if only he could we wouldn't be in this mess. He defended himself by pointing out that Alice's gift didn't work either and then she got angry at being dragged into it. Emmett and Jasper tried to calm down the girls but Rosalie must have thought something awful because… oh Carlisle!" she cried and buried her head in her husband's shoulder.
Carlisle wrapped his arms around Esme and begged her to continue. "What did Edward do?" He was afraid of the answer.
"H-he snapped. He ran at her and pulled her away from Emmett," she explained, her voice now dropping to a whisper. "They fought. It was horrible! The two of them trying to hurt each other. When they were pulled apart, Edward ran off. He hasn't come back." Her voice trembled as she finished her tale and Carlisle closed his eyes.
He didn't understand what had gotten into Edward lately; first his loss of control at the hospital and now attacking his family. He had been sullen and angry ever since he had suspected Harry had figured out their identity, and had become even more so since it had been confirmed. It didn't help that he and Rosalie had a knack for stirring each other up, and she was also part of the problem here. But Edward's temper was becoming a serious problem, one that Carlisle would have to talk to him about when he returned.
He opened his eyes again and looked into the worried face of his wife.
"Is Rosalie alright?" he asked. He knew she wouldn't be hurt, but Esme knew he was asking whether she had calmed down.
"She and Emmett have gone to spend the night somewhere else to get some space. They at least told me when they'd be back," she added, concern thick in her voice.
"I'll have a word with her when she returns, then. Now is not the time for her to be riling up Edward."
"What's the matter with him, Carlisle? He's not been himself today." Her motherly love for all her children was stronger than most people would understand, but like Carlisle she had a soft spot for their first son.
Carlisle just shook his head in response. He had no better idea than her about Edward's recent behaviour. He had thought that the problem at the hospital had been his thirst, but if he was still losing his temper spontaneously after hunting…
"I'll speak to him. Whenever he comes back," he trailed off. He couldn't help but feel that this was partially his fault. If only he hadn't found Harry on his way to work –
'No,' he thought to himself. 'If I hadn't found Harry this morning, who knows how long it would have been until someone else drove past. It could have been too late by then.' He outwardly shuddered at the thought.
Carlisle was pulled from his depressing thoughts by another knock at his door.
'Now what's happened?'
"Come in," he called.
He heard the door quickly open and waited for someone to appear around the piles of books as Esme had done, but no one did. He could sense that it was Alice.
"Carlisle? Esme? I just wanted to tell you that Edward will be back in five minutes," she reported to them. "He's still not in a very good mood, by the way, so good luck."
Carlisle sighed in exasperation. 'Great,' he mused, 'just what I need.'
"Thank-you, Alice," Esme replied, obviously realising her husband was not going to respond. The door clicked shut, leaving them alone once again.
"Carlisle, talk to me. Why on earth are you feeling guilty about this?" Having been married for over 80 years, it was difficult for either of them to hide something from the other for very long.
Carlisle didn't answer straight away. Instead he busied himself by playing with Esme's hand. He entwined his fingers in hers and brought her hand to his mouth, kissing each of her fingers. He held his lips longer to the wedding and engagement rings that she wore; Esme never took them off. Disentangling their hands, Carlisle reached up and gently brought Esme's mouth to his for a brief second, seeking some of the comfort she so lovingly provided.
"Just the usual. You know how much I love to blame myself for everything," he whispered against her lips with a light chuckle.
"You shouldn't –" she began to argue, but was cut off by the slamming of a door downstairs.
"I think Edward's home," she sighed.
'Right then, let's get this over with. Edward could you come upstairs, please? I'd like to have a word,' he sent the nonverbal message to his son, who had just begun to loudly ascend the stairs. Esme carefully extricated herself from her husband's lap so as he could stand. Together they quickly emptied the desk of books so as Edward would be visible when he came in.
Carlisle sat back down in his desk chair just as Edward opened the office door. Looking at his son from behind his now spotless desk, he could see that Edward's eyes had barely changed colour. If anything there was only a subtle reduction in the intensity of the blackness from what it had been earlier, indicating that while he had clearly had something on their hunting trip it hadn't been enough.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at her, she angered me at the time, I know I shouldn't have done it and I've learned my lesson," Edward drawled in a monotonous voice. He made a show of going to leave the room until his mother cut him off.
"Edward," she scolded. "Your father has asked to speak with you and so you will not leave until he says you may. And as for that apology…" she didn't even bother admonishing him for that. She just shook her head.
Carlisle looked up at his son and couldn't help but feel guilty. After all, it was because of his stubbornness at refusing to hand Harry over to another doctor that they had landed in this mess. Had he swapped himself for another doctor after the initial incident with the construction site, he could have limited his involvement in Harry's treatment and possibly avoided him discovering their secret.
Whatever light had returned to Edward's eyes vanished at hearing these thoughts. The impenetrable darkness returned and with it a snarl.
"Of course this is your fault! How long has it taken you to work that one out?" He growled. "Rosalie blames me but I'm just a part of this. You're the one who started it all with your inept ability at keeping out of things that should be left alone."
Carlisle just stared, dumfounded. Edward had obviously been bottling his anger up all day, and Carlisle finally understood what he had meant by his earlier comment;
'Never mind what I think.'
Of course he had still been angry; that much was obvious from the look on his face as he left to go hunting. Whatever Rosalie had said in her mind was clearly just what was needed to tip him over the edge and express his anger and disapproval at how Carlisle had managed the situation. And of all the things Edward could criticise him for…
"You're blaming me for being curious? Edward, are you honestly telling me that you have no interest in finding out what Harry could be?" He couldn't understand how anyone could not wonder how Harry saved those people earlier.
"I did until he discovered what you were, Carlisle. Now funnily enough the main thing I care about is protecting our family, so why the hell don't you?"
Before he knew it, Carlisle was face to face with Edward, not dissimilar to how they had stood briefly in his hospital office. The study and Esme disappeared as Carlisle's senses were filled with nothing but the black, callous stare of Edward and the rage pumping loudly in his ears. His mind emptied, refusing to give his son the satisfaction of hearing how much his words had hurt. Instead he puffed out his chest with defiance and opened his mouth with the intention of putting Edward in his place, but before he could get the words out he was being pushed back by a blur of caramel curls.
"That's enough, both of you!" Esme cried. She had placed herself in between them both, the two most important men in her life who were now preparing to tear each other apart. "Edward, you shouldn't say things like that to your father. You know he cares about this family more than anything else," she admonished in a calm voice. "And you," the caramel curls turned around and Esme's face looked in to Carlisle's.
"This isn't the way to do this. You're better than that," she whispered to him, her hand coming up to tuck a lock of blond hair that had dislodged itself back behind his ear. Looking into her shining golden eyes, Carlisle was brought back to reality, and the anger he had felt towards Edward dissipated leaving a hollowness in its place. He leaned down and gave Esme a quick kiss on the forehead before turning away and closing his eyes.
"Of course, Esme. Edward I –"
Riiiiing riiiiing
'It has to ring right now, doesn't it?'
Sighing, he fished the phone out of his pocket and answered it.
"Hello, Doctor Cullen speaking."
"Ah Carlisle, it's Murray. Sorry to call you so late but it's an emergency." Murray was the resident they had working that evening, and Carlisle could tell just by the young man's voice that, whatever had happened, Murray felt way out of his depth.
"Don't worry, Murray. What's happened?" he asked in a calm voice. Maybe if Murray heard Carlisle was composed, he might calm down a bit himself.
It didn't work.
"I-it's your patient, sir. Harry Potter? Well, I don't really understand. No one has said exactly what happened. There was just so much glass a-and blood and so the police are coming and –"
Carlisle froze. Glass? Blood? Had someone attacked Harry? Is that why the police had been called? He turned around to look back at Edward and Esme who were frowning in anger and worry respectively. Carlisle vaguely realised that Murray hadn't stopped speaking and was slowly getting more agitated as he went on.
"– because you're his doctor, and so –"
"Murray, just tell me what's going on. What's wrong with Harry?"
"H-he's gone."
