Chapter 6: The Cullen Family

Carly's POV

Not long after Carlisle left I heard the door opening slowly. I saw a young handsome boy peek inside. Then he noticed that I was awake.

"Oh I'm so sorry, I just, uh. I really don't know what to say" the poor boy was fidgeting nervously. I think he was afraid that I'd be mad.

"It's okay. I don't mind. I could use some company anyway" I said.

The boy came in. I was in awe of his body. I wasn't sure that 'boy' was the correct description of him. He had to be close to seven feet tall. His skin was darker than Carlisle's. I had a feeling that he had Native American in his ancestry. He wasn't wearing a shirt and thank goodness for that. He had a very nice six pack that most guys don't have and he had muscles everywhere. He must be a seriously weightlifter. This guy had to be at least 25 years old. 'Handsome' was the best word to describe him.

"I'm Anthony Black. Who might you be?" he asked.

"I'm Carly Cullen. Nice to meet you" I said.

I gasped in shock when I shook his scorchingly hot hand.

"Are you feeling okay? You're burning up" I said. It took on two different meanings.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me. You should be worrying about yourself" he said.

"So what are you doing here?" I asked.

He looked nervous now. "Well it's just that I saw you get here yesterday. I was worried. And I think you're beautiful" his face went scarlet red.

I felt my own face go red.

"Well I think you're handsome" I said without thinking. I went even redder if possible. I was sure that my face was as hot as his hand was now.

He just smiled at me. I couldn't believe that I had actually said that out loud.

"You are really beautiful when you blush like that" he said.

Of course that just made me turn even redder. I was sure that I'd be able to pass for a red apple now. Well, maybe not that extreme. Just me over exaggerating as usual.

"How old are you?" I asked.

"I'm 16" he said. Damned! I was so sure that he was at least 25. There's no way a 16 year old could look the way he does. At least that is what I had thought.

"Seriously?" I said in my shock. "I thought for sure that you were at least ten years older. You seem so big for a 16 year old. I'm only a year older than you and I'm at least two feet shorter than you" I said.

"Yeah I'm really tall for my age" he said. I thought 'tall' was putting it mildly.

"Just how tall are you?" I asked.

"6'9" he said. "What about you?" he asked.

"Five feet" I said. Looks like I was right about being two feet shorter than him.

The door opened again and this time a young woman with bronze hair and brown eyes came in. She was more pale than Anthony but not as pale as Carlisle.

"Anthony just what are you doing in here? Leave the poor girl alone, she needs to rest" she said.

"It's okay. I don't mind" I said.

The woman then stared at me.

"Are you sure about that? He isn't bothering you in any way? He can be annoying sometimes" she said.

"No he's not bothering me" I said. In fact I was quite enjoying his company.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" I asked.

"I'm Renesmee Cullen you're Carly right?" she asked.

"Yeah that would be correct" I said.

"Well it's nice to meet you Carly" she said.

"You to Ruh nez, what?" I asked in confusion. How in the hell do you pronounce such a name?

"It's Renesmee, but you can call me Nessie. Most people do because it's easier to say" she said.

"As in the loch ness monster?" I asked.

"Yup, just like the loch ness monster" she said.

Then more people came in. I was starting to get overwhelmed now. I was no used to so many people staring at me at once. Come to think of it I wasn't used to getting so much attention period.

I think I was finally introduced to the whole family. Lets see there's Edward, Bella, Rosalie, Emmett, Alice, Jasper, Renesmee, Jacob, and Anthony. Damned that's a hell of a lot of names to remember. I think the only family member that I had not yet met was Carlisle's wife Esme. I wondered where she was.

The door opened yet again. "What are you all doing in here? Leave the poor girl alone" came a woman's voice.

I looked to see who it was and I saw that it was Carlisle's wife. I got scared when I saw her. Memories of her yelling and screaming at Carlisle filled my mind. For one moment I was afraid that she would get mad again, and that she would take it out on me. That's what I was used to; my parents always taking out their frustrations on me and then blaming me for them in the first place.

Then I thought about what Carlisle had said earlier. He had said that she was a kind, caring, and loving woman. Honesty seemed to radiate out of Carlisle and I felt that I could, no that I should trust him even though I have not known him very long.

"Are you okay dear?" she asked. I snapped out of whatever stupor I had been in. I had been so lost in my thoughts that I hadn't realized that everyone had left already.

"Yeah, I'm fine" I said.

She was trying to hide the worry that she was feeling. But she wasn't very good at it.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

The truth is that I wasn't so sure. "I'm fine" I said but my voice had cracked a little and I think she noticed.

"You don't seem fine" she said. How was she able to pick up on the little details.

"You're scared of me aren't you?" she looked really sad and heartbroken.

I didn't know if I should lie to her or not. The truth of the matter is that I was a little scared; even with Carlisle's assurances.

"I'm sorry" she said. She looked really heartbroken and it hurt to see that.

"Why?" I asked.

"I made you afraid of me when I screamed at my husband yesterday" she said it as a statement of fact.

"A little. It's just that all of my past experiences with yelling and screaming have ended very badly. I was afraid of that again" I said.

Her whole body frame was shaking now. Then she hugged me. I immediately tensed up but then I found myself relaxing in her embrace.

"I don't want you to be afraid of me. I would never ever hurt you" she said. She sounded like any good mother would sound. This was all so foreign to me. I just couldn't believe that this woman has already treated me so much better in just a few minutes than my own mother did in the past 17 years.

"Thank you" I said.

"You have nothing to thank me for" she said.

I heard the door open for what felt like the millionth time today. It was Carlisle. Esme left without even looking at him. I felt bad for him, but I couldn't help but wonder what he had done wrong to make her this mad at him.

Carlisle's POV

I was disgusted, disgusted to my very core. I have always valued human life strongly. Right now I seriously wanted to kill Carly's parents for what they did to her. Humans like her parents that can hurt their own child like that aren't even humans. They are monsters, that's what they are. It bothered me even more to know that one of her abusers was one of my own descendants. Was it only one of my descendants that was abusive? Or did I sire a whole line of abusers? I hope to god that it's the first one. It's bad enough to know that one of my descendants was abusive. It would kill me if I had numerous descendants that were abusive. I would definitely have to ask Carly about that.

I somehow managed to stop thinking about that for the time being. Instead thoughts of Carly's doctor had replaced them. Who was this guy? I had never heard of another vampire doctor before. The name didn't ring any bells either. Who was he? Where was he? There was a huge part of me that wanted to find him because I was almost 100 percent sure that Carly's boyfriend had not died, at least not in the way that she believes. The story was almost like a repeat of mine and Edward's story. Just like I had taken Edward out of the hospital to change him to a vampire, Carly's doctor Charlie Brown had taken Tyler out of the hospital, I assume to change him. I was almost sure that her boyfriend was now a newborn vampire.

I wanted Carly to know that her boyfriend, the love of her life, was still here. But doing so would also raise numerous problems. How would we explain what happened to him? Why didn't he come back? What was he now? What are we? are just some of the questions that she would ask.

I really cared about her and I just wanted her to be happy. After all that she's been through she deserved to be happy. Deciding what to do would not be easy. For now I just wanted her here and close to me. I have already grown to love her as a daughter. I wanted to adopt her as one of my own. I wanted to show her the parental love that she has been denied all these years. Then I remembered what Alice had said about her being in danger with other humans. That other vampires would discover her and that they would want her because of some undiscovered power gift that she had. I just couldn't let her leave. She was part of my family, and I protect my family.

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here. Maybe she doesn't even want to stay with us at all. That thought saddened me. I would talk to her and see what she wants to do. That was the best that I could do now. If she said no then I would have to think of some way to get her to stay. I just didn't want to have to do that. I wanted her to stay because she wants to. Not because I'm making her somehow.

With that thought I got up from my desk and headed to her room. I heard voices inside her room and I stopped to listen. I smiled when I heard Esme and Carly bonding. Carly needed that.

I waited a few moments before going in. I didn't want to put this off any longer. I wanted to know her answer already.

Esme didn't even look at me as she left the room. It stung but I knew I deserved it.

That just left me and Carly. The young teen stared at me with her bright green eyes full of wonder.

"Carly, I want to talk to you about something" she said.

"Okay" she said curiously.

"You know that in a few days you'll be fully healed and you'll be able to leave if you want to. However I would be very worried about you and your baby. I think we all would be. I really care about you and I would hate if anything happened to you" From the way she looked at me I could see that she was confused about where I was headed with this.

"I just want to know if you would like to live with us? I would have to talk it over with my wife and my kids but I'm sure that they'd be okay with it. So do you want to live here? At least for a while? You don't have to stay here forever" I said.

There was nothing but pure shock written on her face as she took in everything I said. After a few moments she seemed to recover.

"Carlisle I have never felt as safe anywhere else in my life than I have felt here. I've never felt so cared for and protected as I do right now. So the answer is yes. I want to live here. I want to live with people who are as caring and loving as you and Esme seem to be. It's what I've always wanted" she said.

I couldn't stop myself from hugging her again as she started crying. I wiped the tears away like any parent would.

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