Esme

Carlisle looked like he was sleeping, resting his head on Violetta's bed. He had taken a chair over to her side, and hadn't left it at all for 5 hours. He was exhausted, and I wish he was actually able to sleep. He needed to hunt, too, but he refused to leave her for that long.

I was sitting against the wall with my feet up on the chair beside me. I was staring out the window. I needed to hunt too, but I wasn't leaving him with her, not after yesterday.

She was asleep again. She had cried yesterday when the pain was very bad, but he gave her a lot of pain killers. They didn't work all that well, but they eased it a little bit.

The wolves walked in with Renesmee quietly.

"Here." She whispered to me. I turned my head, and she was holding a cup out to me.

"Thank you so much." I took the blood and sipped at it straight away. Renesmee smiled and walked over to Carlisle.

"Grandpa." She whispered just as quiet. He lifted his head and opened his eyes.

"Thank you sweetheart." He took he cup.

"I brought her one too. Dad said it couldn't hurt." She put it down on the table beside Violetta's bed.

Carlisle smiled and nodded as a thank you.

I watched as Mason kissed Violetta's head. He held her hand and rubbed gentle circles over it.

Leah, Seth, Jacob and Renesmee sat down around me on the other chairs.

Silence filled the room for several minutes before Carlisle turned to me, "Esme?"

"Hmm?"

"She heals. Shouldn't she be healing?"

"She heals externally, not necessarily internally. We don't really know how it works."

He nodded and turned back to her, lying his head back down beside her.

"Is she getting stronger?" Jacob asked.

"Weaker." Carlisle answered quietly.

"What does that mean, then? Will she recover?" Seth asked.

"We don't even know what's wrong, so we don't know if she'll recover. She wants to die."

"Which I am not going to let happen." I said.

"Esme, it—"

"No. We're not having this conversation again Carlisle."

"Maybe hybrids don't live for eternity…" Renesmee said quietly.

"What?" I looked over to her.

"Well, she's getting weaker, and we have no idea what's happening. We don't know much about hybrids and we've never met one older than Violetta. Maybe we just have an extended lifetime, but not an eternal one."

I looked over towards Carlisle. He was thinking about what Renesmee said. "But would it come on so suddenly?" He asked.

"I only know what you know; I'm just taking a guess."

It made sense, but I didn't want to believe it, so I tried to change the subject, "Leah, you look exhausted."

"None of us have slept in days. When you sent Mason home the other night, he researched for hours on end. We all have been." Seth said.

"I need to go for a walk. Please watch Carlisle and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." I said to them as I stood up.

"You still haven't talked to her about it. I said I won't do anything until she hears what you have to say, and we'll see her decision afterwards. And you haven't talked to her yet because you're dragging her pain on."

I shook my head and walked out of the room. I walked passed his office, which was the next room to the left. The door was open a jar. I pushed it and saw Rosalie and Emmett inside.

"How long have you been in here?" I asked.

Rosalie was startled. "Geez, you could have made a little bit of noise. We've been here, I don't know, maybe a few hours. Carlisle has some books in here that we haven't read."

"Carlisle has read them…" I said.

"We're going through them again." Emmett said.

"Okay." I turned around and walked back out.

"Hold on, Esme wait." Rosalie followed me out. I stopped and turned back around. "Where are you going?"

"For a walk. The wolves are with Carlisle." I said quietly. I didn't know what people would be saying if they heard 'the wolves'.

She stared at me for a second, "Are you okay?"

I swallowed and shook my head, "No, I'm not."

She stepped forwards and took me into her arms. A sob escaped me, but I kept the other ones back.

I heard almost silent footsteps approach us.

"Esme?" Carlisle voice was softer than it had been the whole time we had been here.

Rosalie's arms were replaced by Carlisle's.

"Emmett, come into Violetta with me." Rosalie said quietly.

I heard their footsteps get softer as they walked in the other direction. Carlisle guided me into his office.

"They'll probably hear you, but you can cry, love."

I stared at him for a second before he pulled me back into him, and I broke.

It took about an hour before I was finally ready to go back into Violetta. Carlisle had stayed with me the whole time, despite his longing to be at her side. He never tried to rush me, or leave me alone.

When we walked back in, her eyes were open and on Mason. He was talking to her and laughing. A very faint smile hung on her lips as he laughed, as if that alone brought her joy, Of course, Carlisle's laugh always put a smile on my face, I just never expected for it to be like that with them, too.

"How long as she been awake?" Carlisle asked.

"About 5 minutes. We didn't want to interrupt you…" Renesmee looked at me with sympathetic eyes.

"I'm going back to research." Emmett stood up.

"Emmett." Rosalie grabbed his arm.

"Jasper and Alice are bringing Edward and Bella with them to help out. I can't stay in here, Rose." He whispered the last part as quietly as he could.

She nodded and stood up with him. She kissed Violetta's forehead and followed him out.

"How long have they been in there?" Carlisle asked.

"A few hours." I answered. "Before I found them."

He nodded, "Do you 5 mind giving us a minute?"

They stood up and walked out, Mason hesitated before following them out.

Carlisle motioned for me to talk to her. I took a breath and walked to her side. I held her wrist gently as more of a comforting touch. I looked at Carlisle, and he nodded encouragingly. "If you can't do it, no one can." He whispered.

I went to start speaking to her, but she winced in pain. I held my words and stared in horror as she whimpered and tried to hold her tears back. She was a lot more pain than she was letting on. She was holding it back for our sake, Edward had told us that last night.

Tears eventually escaped her eyes. I looked up at Carlisle. He looked back at me with pained eyes.

I nodded.

"What?" He asked.

"If it's what she wants." I whispered.

He stood up and moved to my side. He kissed my head and looked at Violetta again. Her eyes were drifting.

"You can let go, sweetheart. It's okay." I whispered, my voice shaky.

Her eyes closed slowly and I leaned into Carlisle. He put his arms around me and closed his eyes. I turned to face him and buried my head into his chest.

Her heart rate, which was holding steady, but weak, started slowly, drifting. I sobbed as I heard the beeps getting fainter and fainter. She was letting go.

Carlisle shook a little as he tried to desperately to hold it all in. He sniffled and kissed my head.

Her heart kept slowing gradually, and eventually was replaced by one, long flat beep. Her heart stopped.