Esme POV

As the night ticked on I became more and more worried that my husband wouldn't return. I knew the way I had reacted to him being different was awful and I felt horrible. I didn't know why I reacted how I did. Now I just longed for him to be home.
When the clock struck one, I resorted to pacing the lounge. It had almost exactly sixteen hours since he had left. My mind played over what might have happened to him. I wanted to search for him but had no idea where to start – I didn't know what way he had gone. I tried ringing his pone, but it lay on the table. Rain had begun to fall and the temperature dropped. I wondered if he had taken a jacket with him and knew that the old Carlisle would have reminded me that I was his wife, not his mother. A sad smile spread across my face. Why had I said those things to him? I tried to remember what happened to make him leave in the first place. Maybe he really was going away from me. He had to come back. Had to. The last thing I remembered him doing before he left was reaching toward me on the staircase and mumbling something. I had been busy with a bad temper and ignored him. Maybe it really was important and I had walked away. I tried to think where he would go if he wanted to talk to someone. Tanya? Eleazar maybe? I picked up the phone, knowing full well that I would probably get the wraith from the person who had to get up in the middle of the night to answer it. Too bad. This was important. It was stupid, but I thought maybe he was lost. Do vampires even get lost? I don't know.
"Hello…?" The voice on the other end sounded wary. I thought it was Garrett.
"Hi, it's Esme. Is Carlisle with you guys?" I said quickly, probably too loudly. I could hear the nerves in my own voice. There was silence for several seconds and I grew impatient.
"Um…No I don't think so." He sounded bewildered and I felt sorry for him, realising how abrupt that was.
"Give me the phone." Someone said in the background.
"Esme? What's wrong?" It was Kate.
"I… I don't know where Carlisle is. He was upset with me and then he left and hasn't come back and I thought maybe he was with you guys and now I'm scared that he won't come back or something's happened to him." The words came out in a rush and a sob erupted from my throat.
"Okay, well he's not with us, so where else might he go? How long has he been gone?" I was overly thankful for the fact she was calm.
"About sixteen hours. And I don't know. Irelands too far, he doesn't really trust Amun too much and I highly doubt he's planning to go through the amazon again. I don't think he'd go to Italy either. Nobody knows where Alistair is, Stephan and his friend are trouble and Garrett's' with you." I sighed, it seemed hopeless. I was not about to tell her I knew exactly how many minutes it had been either.
"Hate to state the obvious, but have you tried calling him?"
"His phones on the table," I whispered, realising that if he had run away, I had absolutely no way to find him.
"Zafrina and her coven were here not too long ago, so what if you gave him another hour in case they run into him." I could hear her smiling at some unseen joke. "And if he isn't back by then, you ring us and I'll go get the others out of bed and we'll help you look for him." In the background I heard someone grumble "I'm not getting out of bed" and then "wait, who are we looking for?" Kate ignored them.
"Okay," I whimpered, feeling defeated. She must have noticed it.
"Do you want me and Garrett to come now? He's still bouncing around like an idiot." Their house suddenly was a lot quieter after she said that and somebody snickered.
"No, it's okay. Thank you Kate. Goodnight."
"That's okay, goodnight." She hung up. I immediately felt more alone. I wondered if maybe I should try Ireland, just in case, and struggled to remember time zones. I went into the kitchen to find the number. As I dug around in the cupboard, I heard movement in the lounge. I must have woken one of the others up.
"W-what are y-you looking for…?' A quiet voice asked from behind me.
"Siobhan's number. I need to find Carlisle." I answered before realising who it was. "Carlisle!" I spun around and wrapped my arms around him, pulling him as close to me as possible. "I'm sorry I said those things to you. I didn't mean them. I don't even know why I said them. I'm so sorry, Carlisle," I sobbed, holding on to him tightly. He didn't respond. He had frozen the minute I touched him.
As I hugged him, I could feel how cold he was. He had lost quite a lot of weight too, probably from not hunting, which wasn't good. He was skinny to begin with.
"Carlisle?" I pulled away from him a bit to look at him. To say he looked uncomfortable was an understatement. "What's wrong?" I asked him softly. He looked at him feet.
"I-I'm s-sorry too f-for-" I kissed him, cutting off, and continued to do so until he stopped trying to apologise.
"Honey, you did nothing wrong, you should be mad at me." As I said it I wondered if he was. He shook his head and refused to make eye contact. "How about you go have a shower and get changed so you're warm?" he walked away and did as I had said as if I was going to hurt him if he didn't. I also went to get changed – my clothes were wet from hugging him.

Half an hour later we were sitting on the couch next to each other. He, however, had pulled his knees up and put his arms around them, making it awkward for me to hug him or lean on him or generally touch him for any long length of time. He also wouldn't talk to me, apart from answering my questions with a yes or no.
Eventually, I gave up, and dragged him to bed with me. He didn't put up much of a fight and I guessed he was tired from running for so long.

"Esme, Kate wants you." Alice was holding the phone next to the bed. I sat up and took it from her, noticing Carlisle was gone.
"Where's Carlisle?" I asked her.
"Downstairs," she replied before disappearing out the door.
"Kate?"
"Did you find him?" she asked, not bothering with hellos. Straight to the point as always, that's what I liked about her.
"Yeah, he came back not too long after I spoke to you." She sighed.
"Thank god. Apart from the fact that I'm glad for your sake, I was going to have to shoot Tanya if he wasn't. She's driving me insane." I heard something clang quite close to the phone and then hysterical laughter from something in the background. Kate laughed too. I heard Carmen growl something in Spanish, probably at Eleazar.
"Thank you Kate, for last night," I said sincerely.
"It's no problem. Really Esme, I mean it. We are family remember." I heard a comment about incest in the background, followed by who I assumed was Tanya swearing at the offender. More laughter. I chose not to ask. We both said goodbye and hung up. I went downstairs in search of my husband.

I found him sitting in the kitchen reading, away from the rest of the family.
"Hey," I said, sitting next to him. He smiled at me but didn't say anything. We sat in silence for several minutes. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"
"N-nothing," he said cautiously.
"Come on, Carlisle, I know you well enough to know that's not true," I told him gently. He looked away.
"BASEBALL TOMORROW, ALICE SAID!" Emmett boomed, appearing in the doorway. Carlisle flinched. I took his hand and squeezed it. Glaring at Emmett, I told him to go away.
"You can tell me, sweetie, I'm not going to judge you." I wondered if he ever would after what I had already said to him. Maybe he would never trust me again. His phone rang, giving him the perfect escape. Whoever it was, he hung up on them a few seconds after answer. He sat next to me again.

As I tried to talk to him, I could tell our relationship had been damaged. Although he swore that he wasn't upset with me, he was still closed off and wouldn't talk much. I wasn't stupidly mad at it this time, but it was still like I didn't know him very well anymore. He wasn't being open either, which I could understand after what I had done. It scared me that maybe I had left it too late to try and make things right between us after months of drifting apart.
Maybe I had left it too long to help him.

That afternoon as I watched my husband standing on the deck talking to someone on his phone, Alice came up to me.
"I have a plan," she said grinning. Oh god, here we go, I thought.
"What is it Alice?" I asked sighing.
"I think we should have a party."
"Why?" I was slightly scared.
"Cause there's lots of people we haven't seen in ages, like Peter and Charlotte."
"Is this going to happen even if no one else agrees?"
"But they do agree, they have been agreeing for about a month now."
"Alice," I grumbled. "Could you at least warn us before inviting people over?"
"It'll be fun, I promise." I inwardly groaned, thinking of the damage that will be done to the house with that many vampires in it.
"When are they coming?"
"Tomorrow. They're all going to play baseball with us."
"ALICE!" I half laughed, half growled. "Tomorrow? Really? And you tell me now…"
"I saw it. Everything will be fine, don't worry, Esme," she told me as she walked away. I was terrified. I noticed Carlisle smiling genuinely for the first time in weeks. Maybe this might be good for him. The coven leaders all seemed to be pretty close, like they had some unwritten law in which they had to be friends. And it would give Bella a chance to get to know everyone properly without nerves getting in the way. Maybe this idea of Alice's wasn't such a bad one.
Carlisle laughed and I couldn't help but smile. I was sad however that it wasn't me who had made him happy. He eventually hung up and came inside.
"Who was that?" I asked.
"Oh, um, Tanya," he replied, seeming more like his old self. I should have guessed really, she was his best friend, aside from me.
"We're getting a whole lot of visitors tomorrow." I was unsure how he was going to react, but he needed to be told.
"O-okay, w-why?" He immediately seemed nervous.
"Alice though it might be fun," I smiled at him. "You'll be alright Carlisle, their your friends."
"A-are the Denali's c-coming?" I was surprised he asked, not just assumed.
"I assume so." He looked almost relieved.
"W-what about the Irish c-coven?"
"Most likely, I guess. Alice said everyone was coming." I was confused why he asked about certain covens and not just who was going to be there over all.
"Alistair?"
"If Alice could find him, yes."
"…Amun…?" That was the real reason for his questioning, I could tell. I didn't know what had gone on between them but they didn't exactly relish each other's company.
"I don't know honey, maybe. Go ask Alice." He nodded and went inside in search of Alice.