Disclaimer: I do not own nor do I make money off of Twilight. All rights belong to Stephanie Meyer.
YellowSmoke-WOW! THANK YOU! One for taking the time to give me another review and two for being so kind! I love that we can share a bond over Carlisle. I've always love the softer moments in twilight when Carlisle and Esme got to be parents instead of just matriarchies! Thank you again for connecting with me, your generous words keep me wanting to create more chapters!
Orangiethefox- I'm SO sorry you're not feeling well, being sick is the absolute worst! I hope that by the time you read this your cold is completely gone and your feeling better! Thank you so much for the review it really made me smile and although this was always just suppose to be a few chapter kind of thing, your words keep me going and writing new chapters so thank you so much!
The Worst It's Going To Be
I wake up to rain pelting the roof, just a light drizzle. I pull the blankets closer and nuzzle my nose into my pillow.
"Mmmmmm" Lavender, wait...Lavender...Twilight! I shoot up forgetting the pain in my neck. I reach up to rub the stinging away, the skin is still puffy and swollen and everything is still pink, why is everything pink!?
"It's called a subconjunctival hemorrhage, the blood vessels in your eyes burst causing bleeding between the conjunctiva membrane and the sclera." Edward appears in the door frame, "Happened with a violent sneeze, rubbing your eye...strangulation. It will heal on it's own." He's coy about that last part. I furrow my brows at him, "also good morning."
"So you can ready my mind again?" Edwards looks at the floor and bumps his shoulder against the door frame,
"You were awake last night when Alice and I were speaking." He states, I'd nod if it wouldn't send tears into my eyes,
"I was."
"It's true, I couldn't hear anything last night when you got back from your tour with Esme, then for the remaining night it came and went. It was normal this morning."
"Normal?" I raise a brow,
"I could hear you dreaming."
"Wow" I mumble, Edward smiles, "that's super creepy." His smile disappears. Silence falls into the room again,
"Are you hungry?" He asks after a second,
"No."
"Can you pretend? Esme made lunch." Lunch? I'm really tired of not waking up in the morning.
"Ya." I push the covers away and slide out of bed for the first time and stand on unsteady feet, that's when I notice,
"These aren't my clothes."
"Esme changed you, she said you looked uncomfortable." My jeans and the sweater Esme gave me have been replaced with black floral sweatpants and a soft white cotton shirt. I groan, Esme's seen more of me that I wanted her too.
"You forget she's female too, now come down to the kitchen." Edward turns on his heals and heads down the stairs. I'm glad because maybe now I can have a private conversation with myself. I've never realized how intimate my thoughts were until someone else was reading them. I let my eyes wonder to the other two doors in this room, one of which I know is the closet the other, has to be the bathroom Esme never got to show me. I look back towards where Edward just stood and then hobble over to the second door and sure enough it's a large master bath, complete with the largest bathtub I've ever seen, his and hers sinks, a luxury bench for sitting and a huge glass shower. This bathroom is bigger than my kitchen and living room combined. I swallow and head to the closest sink. It takes everything in me not to look away. I look terrible, my neck is a beautiful shade of purple red and yellow. I study the deepest shade of purple finding the shapes to be the perfect prints of my moms fingers. The color fades into a red almost like perfectly blended watercolors, eventually the red turns into yellow and I can see why everyones commented on it. It's gross. I reach up and push my bangs back finding the wonderful bruise left there from the floor, it's not as noticeable as the colors on my neck it also helps I can just flip my hair down. I reach to the hem of my new shirt and pull it up finding the little bruising on my left ribcage, Esme's seen this too. I drop the fabric and grip the sink, forcing the tears away, because she almost killed me, my mother really tried to kill me, what would she have done if she succeeded, would she have even cared? Sober her would have, but drunk her probably thought she was putting just the lightest of pressure on my neck. I sigh and stand up straighter hearing a knock on the door.
"Marceline?" Edwards voice shouts through the door, I look up and head over throwing the door open.
"One, it's Mare, two, can't I even go to the bathroom?"
"You're feeling sorry for yourself, let my help you down to the kitchen."
"Can you turn that thing off, you know the think where you listen to my thoughts even when I'm a room away, because it's really starting to get on my nerves and I just met you." I push past him, "I can get there myself." I catch him smirking out of the corner of my eye, smart Alec. I take my time to the kitchen, walking to the door, down the hall, down the stairs, I take each step with painstaking detail. This house is even prettier in the natural light, the open windows let in just the perfect amount of grey light, from the clouds, I've never pictured this as a house that vampires would look choose to live in. I stop on the stairs and look around when light and air flashes by and suddenly I'm sitting on the same bar stool from last night... two nights ago...I don't know.
"Hope you don't mind, you were taking forever."
"Edward careful with her." Esme chides shooing him away from me, "How are you feeling Mare?" She asks placing a hand on my shoulder,
"I'm okay, thank you."
"Head, neck, ribs. Scale of 1-10." Carlisle demands appearing literally out of nowhere, seriously I have no idea where he came from. I catch Edward smirking, I hate you.
"Mmm" My head aches, but not as bad as my ribs, and my neck is worst then the two combined, "two, seven and five." He looks to Edward who nods, "Stop that."
"Sorry Mare, I just want to make absolute sure you're not downplaying your pain." Carlisle comforts,
"You also seem like the type to hide things." Edward adds, a knowing look in his eyes, if looks could kill, Edward would be dead,
"Carlisle, Edward." Esme calls setting a bowl and plate in front of me, "let her eat." I look down into the bowl, this time it's a thick and creamy looking tomato soup with a a gooey grilled cheese sandwich. Esme tops it off by setting a tall glass of milk down as well. Too bad I'm not the slightest bit hungry. As if he was the mind reader Carlisle places his hand on my shoulder,
"Eat what you can." He encourages, I reach for the spoon and stop,
"You don't eat, how do you know how to cook?" Esme smiles,
"Cooking shows relax me, you pick up a few things when their always playing in the background, I also get practice during hospital potlucks."
"The nurses on the pediatric ward can't get enough of Esme's meatball carbonarar." Carlisle gleams proudly at his wife, she shrugs at his attention and instead turns back to me and taps on the counter,
"Eat."
I follow both Esme and Carlisle commands, I eat what I can and it's not much. It's true Esme is an amazing cook. The tomato soup is warm and creamy, the flavor amazing, and the grilled cheese is the most gourmet sandwich I've ever had, but the with the pain in my neck and ribs along with just not being hungry I end up pushing more than half of the meal away,
"Remember this is the worst it's going to be." Carlisle reminds me at seeing my frustration. I nod, bitting my cheeks, this is all so unfamiliar, this town, these people, the care their giving me. This is all too new. "Marceline if you're feeling up to it, we need to sit down and fill out out some paper work."
"Carlisle" Esme practically rolls her eyes, "What he means is that we would like to get to know you more." I swallow a lump in my throat, know me? I don't want to do this, but I find myself nodding anyway.
…
My knee jiggles under the table, I'd really rather be anywhere than here. Carlisle sits at the head of the dining room table, Esme next to him on his right and Edward on his left, all while I sit on the other end. I feel like the center of attention and I don't like it. Carlisle has a manilla envelope and multiple papers laid out on the table,
"Alright easy questions first," Carlisle starts, but little does he know non of this is going to be easy and I can't prolong this any longer. After lunch Esme insisted I needed a nap even though I had woken up only 45 minutes before hand. The sad thing is, she was right and I easily slept for another two hours. When I woke up Esme made me another wonderful meal, garlic mash potatoes with mushroom gravy overtop. I could only eat about a third and now here we are.
"Your last name has been matched to mine, you'll keep your first, do you have a middle name?"
"Ann" Both Esme and Carlisle look up at me, Carlisle writes it down.
"We fabricated a lot of details, but we have the ability to change it before it's noticed." Carlisle explains,
"How?"
"Alice has someone. We pay him well and he does everything under the rug." Edward explains leaning back,
"Yes, well proper date of birth?"
"October 21,"
"That was last month," Esme turns to Carlisle,
"It's Spring where I'm from." April 14th to be exact, if it's only November that means four weeks ago I was 13. Uggg great.
"Most of the medical I can fill in myself, I just need a few things here, any allergies?" I shake my head,
"No"
"Illnesses?"
"No"
"First year of high school, you're up to date on vaccines." He confirms, when I don't answer he looks up,
"I'm sorry, what?"
"When's the last time you went to the doctors for your inoculations?" I shrug,
"A flu shot?" Carlisle asks further. I don't ever remember getting a flu shot. I shrug more severely, for a second Carlisle looks concerned but quickly changes to a reassuring smile instead.
"We'll cross those bridges, have you had any broken bones?" A few,
"My ankle," That one was the worst...it ended many things for me,
"Right or left?"
"Right,"
"How old were you?"
"12"
"Do you remember the severity of the break?"
"Compound." Carlisle's pen stalls for just a second, he a doctor he know what kind of break that is. He scribbles some more, before looking up,
"Any underlying conditions?"
"I don't think so." He nods, while Esme looks uncomfortable and Edward looks...the same.
"You're in the ninth grade, how are you're grades?" They suck,
"Mostly B's and C's" two D's
"Did you participate in any extra circular activities?"
"No,"
"Honor classes?"
"No,"
"Suspensions? Explosions?" Only a preschool when my mother pulled me out, but that wasn't my fault.
"No," Esme seems to sigh in relieve at that one, maybe she's just happy I'm not a complete delinquent. I know their probably faking school transcripts but a part of me also believes they just want to know what their getting into, if I'm a bad kid, if I'm just stupid.
"I think this is fine for now." Carlisle gathers the papers and gives me a smile, tapping them on the table. I take a deep breathe wincing, I can't wait to breath without pain, Esme see's this a stands,
"No more excitement," Edward follows,
"Agreed." He looks towards me,
"I'm sure Mare's tired of being in your room," Carlisle and Esme look at one another before turning back to me, "Maybe the couch in the living room, we can turn the TV on." Actually that sounds nice, Esme turns to me,
"Are you feeling up to it Mare? It would give me a chance to clear out the room, change the sheets, get the smell of sick out of there, make it less stuffy." I nod and wince,
"That sounds nice," Esme smiles,
"Perfect"
…
"Brother did it." I mumble sinking deeper into the couch, it's taking me this long to find a comfortable spot that gave me both a good view of the TV while being able to press the icepack into the most painful spot on my neck. Edward sits at the opposite end of the couch, laid back with his feet propped up on the coffee table,
"No, it was an enemy of the father." Edward quips back throwing his arm behind the back of his head. I look over and scrunch my nose,
"No, the father covered it up, but the brother did it." Edward looks over eyebrow raised,
"Their isn't anything in this world that will lead me to believe the brother could have killed his sister,"
"The sister comes into the kitchen, it's the middle of the night. Mothers in bed the brothers sitting at the table eating pineapple, the sister tries to be funny and steals a piece, brother is sick of her always taking his stuff, picks up the hearest heavy object wacks her in the head. Down she goes, dad walks in, boom covers it up." Edward looks at the TV and then back at me,
"Why would the father cover it up then?" I turn to the TV
"Simple, why loose both children." When Edward doesn't speak I turn back to him,
"It's a bit odd to me that this is the kind of thing you wanted to watch." Easy, it's better to focus on someone else's problems than your own. I think this before I realize theirs a mind reader in the room now. Edward looks over and smirks. Quickly I turn away and sigh, after a second he speaks, "Are you sure you wouldn't rather watch a rom com?"
"Shhhh, their moving on to the case about the running shoes that washes up on beaches with feet and ankle bones."
"Oh joy," his voice drips of sarcasm. I relax deeper into the couch pulling the soft throw blanket closer and smile, when suddenly Edward sits up dropping his legs on the floor,
"What?"
"Alice and Jasper are here."