-Carlisle-

After Alex and Bella left for the night and Jasper and Alice went to hunt Carlisle retreated to his office, pacing back and forth. 'No.' He thought, 'I couldn't be.' He couldn't be. No, he couldn't be falling for a person multiple times his junior. There was just no way. 'No.' He thought again, over and over, '... Although that does,..' He tried to reason with himself, 'Behave, Carlisle!' He scolded his mind.

"Feeling conflicted?" Edwards voice droned from the doorway, "You know, it's not healthy for a person to argue with one's subconscious." He remarked, voice full of humour.

"Can you please not read my mind, Edward?" Carlisle leaned on his desk and sighed.

"I can't help it." He shrugged, "Not when you're screaming internally at yourself. Again, not healthy."

"I know it's not, it's just.." He stopped and shook his head.

"'It's just..' Alex?" Carlisle looked at the floor, "If it makes you feel any better, she likes you too."

Carlisle looked up at him, "How do you kno- Oh, I forgot." He said, forgetting his son could read minds.

"Actually, I can't read her mind. She's so much like Bella,. Well, Bella's more like her.." He drifted off.

"Edward!" Carlisle snapped his fingers, "So how do you know she likes me?"

His son laughed and entered the room, shutting the door, "For a three hundred and sixty-two year old (I think) vampire you're acting like your twenty- three year old human self. Maybe even younger than that."

Carlisle rolled his eyes at his son. "Just get on.."

"Fine. But anyway, the question is how I know?" Edward smirked, dragging it out as much as possible.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you're torturing me."

"Now who's the one who can read minds?"

"Edward!" Carlisle grew impatient which was a rare thing, "Just... Tell me."

Edward almost laughed as he got under his adoptive father's skin, "All right," He put his hands up, "I visited Bella before we left. The day before her party even," He watched as Carlisle's foot started to tap. "and Alex was sleeping in the next room and I could here her saying something but it was quiet low, which is weird because you'd think I'd hear her." Carlisle's foot tapped more and more, "And so I left Bella for a moment and sneaked into Alex's room and she was whispering your name in her sleep."

Carlisle stopped with his movements and looked at him, "That doesn't prove anything. That doesn't prove that she likes me."

"No, but it does mean that her subconscious mind was thinking of you... Plus, she also said 'Carlisle. Love you. Love me. Please. Carlisle.'" He smiled, "Looks like you're not the only one with a crush."

Carlisle chuckled, now lightening up at the news, "It's not a 'crush'. Vampire's don't get crushes."

"No, but you do get loved ones. How are you going to tell her?"

Carlisle shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe you can get Bella and Alex up here more often, you and Bella go do your thing and I'll sit with Alex. Get to know her then maybe ask her out on a date?" He countered.

"A date? Wouldn't that seem weird? You sitting there and her eating."

"I didn't say we would go to a restaurant."

"No, but you were thinking it. How about you take her to Seattle and go to the theatre or something?"

"Isn't a theatre too.. 'Old-fashioned'?"

"Another thing Alex likes. Old-fashioned things." As Carlisle raised an eyebrow at him he added, "Bella told me. She really likes Shakespeare and I hear that the theatre just outside town are holding a play for The Taming of the Shrew for the next two weeks, so you better ask her quick." Edward winked and walked out, going to his own room and left Carlisle to his thoughts.

'Yes.' He thought as he walked around his desk and sat on his chair, getting ready to do some work. 'I'll definitely do that.' He smiled and picked up his work papers, fixing them before setting them down and beginning to write.