A/N: Thanks again for the reviews! They really make my day!

I'm going to be out of town next week, and I'm not sure if I'll have internet access. If I can't post, I'll still be working on the story and will update when I get home.

Once again, this chapter might be a little repetitive, but there are some new details.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Twilight or these character, nor do I want to (too much responsibility) ;)

Song for chapter: A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes from Walt Disney's Cinderella

A dream is a wish your heart makes

When you're fast asleep

In dreams you will lose your heartaches

Whatever you wish for, you keep

Have faith in your dreams and someday

Your rainbow will come smiling thru

No matter how your heart is grieving

If you keep on believing

the dream that you wish will come true

Esme POV

I was waking up from the most wonderful dream. The beginning wasn't so pleasant, but the end was definitely amazing. Charles had found me, but I found Carlisle. It was beautiful and I really didn't want to wake up, but something was poking me, the sun was in my eyes, and there was an annoying beeping sound. I didn't remember setting an alarm; Emmett usually woke me up in the morning wanting breakfast. The beeping and poking continued so I finally gave up and opened my eyes.

Once I opened my eyes, I realized I wasn't in my bed in my apartment. The walls were a boring white, and I was lying in a bed with rails. I looked down and noticed one of my arms was in a cast and the other had a IV in it. There was a woman wearing scrubs beside me writing something down on a chart. Using my deductive reasoning skills, I quickly came to the conclusion that I was in the hospital.

That could only mean one thing: it hadn't been a dream! Carlisle was here somewhere. That fact brought a smile to my face and made me practically giddy in excitement. The annoying beeping sound was a heart monitor, and once the excitement kicked in, the beeping sped up.

The nurse looked over at me and smiled gently when she saw I was awake. "Good morning, Mrs. Evenson. How do you feel this morning?" she asked.

"It's Esme Platt, please. And I'm feeling a little sore, but okay at the moment," I answered truthfully. Breathing was a tad uncomfortable and my arm throbbed every so slightly, but I had lived through worse.

The nurse nodded and finished her writing on the chart. "Well, Ms. Platt, Dr. Cullen gave strict orders for no one to disturb you until you woke up, so I'm afraid you slept right through breakfast. I'll be back in a few minutes with some 'brunch' for you."

I honestly didn't hear anything she said past "Dr. Cullen."

"Is Carl—… I mean Dr. Cullen… Is he here now?" I asked hopefully.

"He is," she replied. "He has been checking on your every hour since he got here this morning. I'll go right now and tell him you are awake. He should be in shortly."

"Thank you," I sighed as I tried to get comfortable in the bed.

Two minutes after the nurse left the room, Carlisle came running in. I giggled at his enthusiasm, which caused a wide grin to form on his face.

"Good morning, Esme. How do you feel?" he asked as he crossed the room to my bed.

"I feel okay. A little sore, but I've had worse." My answer caused the grin to be replaced with a frown, and his eyes became sad. I was both dreading and looking forward to telling Carlisle about everything that had happened to me, if he gave me a chance to.

He began examining my face with his hands. His touch felt so good on my face, and I couldn't help but close my eyes and relish in the feeling. His hands stopped moving and he cupped my cheek with his left hand. "I missed you," I whispered without thinking. He didn't say anything, and I was afraid I had upset him. Carlisle hand stayed on my face, so I took a deep breath and opened my eyes to look up at him.

He was gazing at me with such a tender expression, it made me want to weep. The corner of his mouth was pulled up into a small smile.

"I missed you, too," he whispered back. "More than you'll ever know."

After a few seconds, I managed to get my emotions into check so I could speak again. The only thing I could think of was getting him to stay with me. I felt so much safer while he was with me, but unfortunately he had a job to do.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked me.

I realized my expression must have given me away.

"You can tell me anything," he promised and I never doubted the sincerity of his words.

"Well, I know you are working, but could you…um… maybe stay with me?" I asked hopefully.

He moved his hand away from my face, and the loss of contact was nearly unbearable. He pulled his watch out from beneath the sleeve of his lab coat and checked the time. I knew he had better things to do, but I still prayed he would want to come back to see me.

"My lunch break is in fifteen minutes," he said, looking back at me.

"Oh." He once again noticed my expression and reached down to hold my free hand.

"I need to finish my rounds, but then I can come spend my lunch with you. How does that sound?"

Unbelievable. Amazing. Perfect. Every word I could think of was an understatement. "That sounds wonderful," I replied with a smile and a small nod.

He smiled and nodded back. He gave my hand a small squeeze and left the room. I felt horribly alone, but soon the nurse came back with a tray of food for me. I was rather hungry, but the food left a lot to be desired. My "brunch" consisted of a piece of dry toast with a packet of strawberry jelly, two strips of bacon, a scrambled egg, a fruit cup, apple juice, and milk.

I lowered my head to bless my food, but my short blessing quickly turned into a long prayer once I began thinking of everything I was thankful for. Carlisle entered right as I opened my eyes. He pulled a chair up beside the bed and sat down.

We sat in comfortable silence as I ate; both of us having so much to say, but no idea how to begin. I finished the food and pushed the table back. I looked over at Carlisle and smiled. He reached for my hand and intertwined our fingers while rubbing circles into my hand with his thumb.

"Tell me what happened," Carlisle said, effectively ending the silence.

"When?" I chucked humorlessly. There was so much to tell, I honestly wasn't sure what he wanted to here.

"I would love to hear anything you have to tell me about," he answered back with confidence.

I took a deep breath and decided to start at the beginning of our time apart. "This is not a happy story," I warned. He nodded and squeezed my hand tighter.

I told him about my parents forcing me to move, finishing high school, going to college. He smiled slightly after hearing about my scholarship and successes in my schooling. I couldn't decide how much to tell him about Charles, but eventually convinced myself to tell him everything. If anyone deserved to know, Carlisle did.

"I'm fairly positive my parents were involved in illegally activity," I confessed to him. "After my college graduation, they introduced me to a man my father worked with. I knew Charles Evenson for two weeks before he asked me for my hand in marriage. I concluded for myself that they owed him a favor, and somehow used me to repay him." Carlisle cringed at this, but his eyes never left my face. I stared straight ahead, detaching, as I continued with my story.

"Charles was from a family with money. Dishonest money. His parents were actually murdered the week before he asked me to marry him. I never once saw him mourn. He was the sole heir to their estate, and the money made him feel powerful. Unfortunately, he used his power to hurt me."

I went into a fairly detailed description of the abuse I endured for a year. Tears flowed from my eyes as I recounted the beating, the rape, everything I had to suffer through. I didn't want Carlisle's pity. I just wanted to get the story off my chest, and he was the first person to ever offer to listen. He used his free hand to wipe the tears from my face as they fell. I took a few minutes to compose myself before looking him in the eyes.

He also had a few tears falling from his eyes. He was trying to smile, but I knew he was hurting for me.

"This is where it gets happier," I sniffed. I began telling him about finding out I was pregnant and running away to Seattle.

"I managed to contact my sister after I had left," I confessed to him. "She actually gave me a little bit of money to help out; it wasn't much, but it was as much as she could give without her husband finding out. My parents convinced my brother-in-law that I was a liar, so my sister knew he wouldn't approve of her helping me.

"I made it to Seattle and found a job online for an interior design company. I knew I couldn't get a job outside of my apartment without possibly being found. The job was designing rooms using a special program on the computer. The job pays enough for me to pay the rent and put food on the table, so I am very thankful for it."

I was once again debating in my head about how much information to reveal about the next part of my story. I wanted to tell him everything about Emmett. I needed him to know that that precious little boy had been the only happiness I experienced in the past eight years. I decided to only tell him the basics, hoping that he would ask me more later. Carlisle had always loved kids, and I was hoping mine wouldn't be an exception.

I simply told Carlisle that I gave birth eighteen months ago to a perfectly healthy and beautiful baby boy. He seemed almost puzzled by my short answer, but didn't say anything about it.

We sat in silence for another few minutes before he once again broke it.

"Thank you for telling me," he said softly. "I knew it must have been difficult for you to relive it. I'm sorry you had to go through that."

His words touched my heart. I knew he truly meant it. I could tell from his face that he hated to see me suffering. I squeezed his hand which prompted him to offer me a small smile.

I also knew that he probably had been hurting after he went off to college, and that was my fault. I needed to set things right, but the only thing I could think of to do was apologize. An apology wasn't any where close to what Carlisle deserved, but that was all I could offer him.

"Carlise," I began softly, "I'm sorry I couldn't wait for you."