Chapter 13

Carlisle's Point of View

It had been a few days since Natalie had told me about her past, and I had to admit, we had started to grow a little closer. She had started calling me 'Dad' instead of 'Carlisle' and if I thought we talked a lot before, I was mistaken. Every day she told me what had happened and her thoughts on different things, and I began to realize how insightful she could be. But for every insightful thing she said, there was usually a note of the usual teenage drama you heard about from other parents of teens I had conversed with for so many years.

I really was a little worried about her though, what parent wouldn't be? I worried a lot about the possibilities of her slipping back into her old habits and getting hurt. However, that was not very likely considering now there was a houseful of vampires looking out for her. I did feel guilty for telling the others without Natalie knowing yet, but Edward would have figured it out anyway and if there was any chance of her trying anything like that again, I wanted to make sure that it wasn't going to happen, they could help me. I thought again about having her talk to somebody, but that wasn't likely to happen. Even though she had opened up, she was still incredibly independent.

I needed to get my mind off these things, if I didn't I would end up becoming over protective, and though I was on the inside, I did not want her to know that. I reflected more on the things I had learned about my beautiful child in the last few days. The night she told me I found out she occasionally talked in her sleep. More like mumbled, it was unbelievably quiet. But it had a very subtle country drawl to it that I found incredibly strange, the girl had been born and raised in England…where had she picked up an American accent? She loved to read, and whenever she couldn't sleep she either read the storybook her mother and I had read to her or Alice in Wonderland. I couldn't help but wonder what the draw to the second book was. The story book I could, it had sentimental value, but why the story about a girl who had the strangest dreams in recorded history? Never mind that though, I would have to find out some other time, Natalie was asleep in her bed by now; it was almost an hour after midnight.

Just then I heard her heart slightly accelerate, which meant she was awake, but why? I went to go check on her but then I heard her whispers, probably trying to make the rest of us assume she was asleep, but it was obvious to mine and my family's sensitive hearing.

She was reading to herself, one of the stories that she had read since she was a child. She must have them memorized by now, but it appeared that they had a calming effect on her. I knocked on her door softly. "May I come in?" I asked.

"Sure, Daddy" she replied. My heart melted, Daddy, she had never called me that before.

"What are you doing awake? You have school tomorrow," I reminded her, although she never got much sleep, I was trying to change this, her sleeping habits made her appear like the walking dead in the morning.

"I couldn't sleep. Whenever I do…I don't know, I've just never been the best sleeper, it's hard. I feel like, paranoid. Katie made it better, but I don't live with her anymore so it's back to being weird and—"

She had spit it out in a hurry to explain, I shushed her. I wasn't mad or anything, just wanted to help her. One word had stuck out to me though, paranoid. Why would she be paranoid, she was perfectly safe, overly safe actually. I would give anything to be able to understand my daughter; she always had the most interesting viewpoints.

I walked up to her bed while she moved over and patted the spot next to her, obviously inviting me to sit with her. I did and she set the book aside and rested her head on my arm.

"Why were you paranoid?" I asked.

"Well, I guess it's not as much paranoid as it is scared." She said, her voice shaking slightly.

Scared? Of what? If anything even came close to hurting her, my entire family would immediately protect her, they all already loved her. "What are you scared of?" I tried to make my voice soothing and absentmindedly started stroking her hair. I had done that to her mother whenever she was frightened or worried. When I thought of her mother, something clicked. Her mother had been afraid of the dark, it was never rational, but everyone had at least one irrational fear.

"You'll laugh at me…" she said quietly. That made me almost positive I knew her fear as well, why would I laugh at anything that scared her, but I could see her point of view.

"I would never laugh at something that scared you, Natalie" I promised her.

"Well, I've always been…kind of…afraid of the dark" she rushed the last part of her sentence.

"Just like your mother" I whispered in her ear. There had been several occasions when I had to calm her mother down in the middle of the night. Sometimes I would stay up longer even after she was resting comfortably again to make sure she was okay. It had actually pained me to see her scared.

"Mom was afraid of the dark?" Natalie asked.

"Yes," I answered simply, "but then she would realize there was nothing to be afraid of and fall back to sleep again." I hoped that soothed her, knowing that it was a natural thing to feel.

"That happens to me a lot," she admitted, "usually I read until I can't stay awake anymore, sometimes I imagine it's you or mom reading like you did when I was really little."

With that, I took the book off the bed then and began to read to her. The story was quite a familiar one. It was about magical beings, witches, the good and the bad ones and one particular good one that would grant wishes to those that needed help or led sad lives filled with disease or death. My father had hated this story, but almost the rest of the population in our city found it quite amusing and hopeful.

By the time the story was over, Natalie was fast asleep. He loved her so much, and was so happy to see her sleeping soundly, even if it was only a small thing that helped her.

A/N: Hey Everyone! I'm so sorry; I was planning on updating sooner, but my schedules really busy again so I'll try my best! Also, this is a straight up one-shot. No editing, re-reading, nothing because it's late-ish at night and I still have stuff to do(: ooops…anyways, I know this is just fluff between Carlisle and Natalie, but I figured it would make up for last chapter. See my reasoning—Chapter 12-no fluff, Chapter 13-all fluff. They both have 50/50 fluff and serious now! Anyways I hope you enjoy! Thanks so much for reading and (as always) reviews are always anticipated and read with love!

P.S. I know that this chapter seems kind of armature-ish, I'm just playing around with different ideas without fully developing them first, I can already tell this isn't going to work out in my favor but oh well(: