Because you know Edward has given Carlisle, Jasper and Emmett shit over the years for not being able to figure out what their wives want. I’m pretty sure the three of them would find it hilarious that Edward falls in love with the one woman whose mind he could not read. This is set in the middle of Twilight.
“What should I do?”
Carlisle regarded me patiently, his eyes amber pools of wisdom. “I can’t tell you that.”
“No, please,” I said, leaning forward with my hands clasped in supplication. “I am at a loss—”
“Edward, you are more than capable of handling this situation on your own,” he said, turning to place a book on one of his shelves. “And if I recall, you made quite a point of not assisting me when I was engaged in my own romantic drama.”
Since all the nurses at the hospital “get distracted” when Carlisle is around, I’m pretty sure this must have happened. Merry Christmas.
“You and the missus gonna make an appearance at the staff Christmas party?” Dr. Snow asked as we strode through the hospital halls in twin white coats. Dr. Snow was easily the most friendly of my new colleagues. He seemed determined to take ‘the new guy’ under his wing and show me the ropes, but I hardly needed much in the way of orientation. I had started over at countless hospitals in my career and by now adjusted quite easily. Still, I appreciated his kindness.
“We’re planning on making an appearance, yes, although I doubt we’ll stay long.”
He laughed; a deep, throaty sound. “Yeah probably not a good idea to leave a houseful of teenagers unsupervised on Christmas Eve.”
“That’s our thinking,” I smiled back. I paused for a moment to reach up and adjust the string of Christmas lights that had been hung over the door frame. A section had come loose from the tape holding it and I pressed it back in place. “It’s certainly more festive here than it was at my last hospital. Do you always decorate?”
Because there is just no way—NO WAY—that a COP would not storm over to the Cullens’ house and DEMAND answers about his kid. There’s just … no. There’s no way he would have just taken their word for it about a tropical virus and the CDC and …no. No way. Sorry. Not buying it.
Edward opened the door with a curt nod. “Hello, Charlie.”
“Don’t ‘Charlie’ me, kid. Where is she?”
“She’s at the CDC in Atlanta…”
“Atlanta my ass. You think I didn’t call down there? I’m a cop, son. I’m not just some country bumpkin who doesn’t know what’s what. She’s here, isn’t she?”
“Yes, Charlie, she is,” Carlisle said as he came down the stairs. “I apologize for the deception. We thought it best for everyone involved but clearly we were wrong. You have every right to be angry with us.”
Charlie didn’t seem to hear the apology—all he heard was that his daughter was here. “Bella?”
“This way,” Carlisle directed.
Charlie was not prepared for the sight that greeted him. Bella had completely transformed. Her skin was grey and lifeless, her eyes sunken. She looked so tiny and frail in the oversized sweater she wore in a vain attempt to keep warm. And then his eyes settled on the swollen bulge of her stomach.
“Bells?”
“Hey Dad.”
“I know it looks bad, Charlie,” Edward said, “but it’s merely a symptom of her illness. It causes the stomach tissue to swell, mimicking the appearance of a pregnant—”
“Enough lies. I wasn’t born yesterday. She’s pregnant, and she wasn’t pregnant two weeks ago. What the hell is going on here? What did you do to my daughter?”
The Cullens looked around the room awkwardly, all uncannily still as statues. Alice normally would have jumped into the fray and used her precognition to diffuse the situation, but she was helpless with Bella’s unknown offspring clouding her vision. Jasper, thirsty as he was, was too busy trying not to eat the Chief of Police to be much help in tempering the emotional climate.
“We’re not human, Charlie,” Carlisle finally said, giving an apologetic glance to the rest of the group. “Bella was fully aware of that fact before she married Edward. I am afraid I cannot be more specific than that for your safety as well as the safety of my family, but the fact is that Bella is pregnant with Edward’s child. We didn’t think it possible. We have no idea what the fetus is like.”
“It’s killing her,” Edward said. The beautiful blonde girl whose name Charlie couldn’t remember (Rosanne? Rosemary? Something with an ‘R’,’ like Renee) snarled at Edward as she hovered protectively over Bella. Edward ignored her. “It’s killing her, but she insists on carrying it to term anyway. It is breaking her bones and starving her by the hour. Please, Charlie, reason with her.”
“It’s my baby,” Bella said, her voice soft but determined. “I can’t kill it.”
“And you’re my baby, Bells,” Charlie said. “You’re all I’ve got in the world, kiddo. If you die, what do I have left?”
(This scene, always, ALWAYS bothered me. It takes place the night before the wedding, so August 12. Renesmee is born less than month later, on September 11. But on August 12, the idea of having kids—the idea of having kids with Edward, even—is “Gah!” to Bella. This is the girl who is willing to die for her baby? She needed to actually think losing the chance to have children was a sad thing for me to buy her determination to carry Renesmee. And then Edward, not unreasonably, tells her to look at Rosalie and Esme and how they struggle, and Bella blithely declares “They get by just fine.” I think Edward, the mind-reader who has lived with them for decades, probably has a better sense of how they “get by” than you do, Bella. If she were really a nice, selfless, compassionate person, she should have had more sympathy for Rosalie and Esme. #fixeditforyou)
“Do you remember when we told Charlie we were getting married? And he thought you were… pregnant? […] I just wish… well, I wish that he’d been right.”
I didn’t know how to answer that. It was not at all what I had been expecting. I had no idea that this was something Edward had ever wanted.
“More that there was some way he could have been. That we had that kind of potential. I hate taking that away from you, too.”
It took me a minute. “I know what I’m doing.”
“How could you know that, Bella? Look at my mother, look at my sister. It’s not
as easy a sacrifice as you imagine.”
“Rosalie talked to me about that,” I admitted. “And I know that Esme makes do the best she can with you guys as substitutes. I can’t say I’ve ever really thought about having kids.” Not until that kiss with Jacob, I thought, remembering the vision of two black-haired children. I was relieved that Edward could not read my mind. I didn’t want to hurt him. “But I know it’s a big deal. I wish it were possible for us, but I understand that it’s not. I would love to be able to have a family with you—but I’ve chosen my life. I know what I’m going to lose and, more importantly, what I’m going to gain.”
He sighed, and then his voice was fierce. “It’s not right. I don’t want you to have
to make sacrifices for me. I want to give you things, not take things away from
you. I don’t want to steal your future. If I were human – “
I put my hand over his lips. “You are my future. Now stop. No moping, or I’m
calling your brothers to come and get you. Maybe you need a bachelor party.”
“I think Edward wants to talk to you.”
“Put him on,” Carlisle said in a strained voice.
Not entirely sure that Edward could talk, Bella put the phone in his outstretched hand.
Edward pressed it to his ear. “Is it possible?” he whispered.
“You only think to ask me this now?”
Edward’s eyes went wide. “You mean…?”
“Of course it’s possible! What did you think I meant when I told you it was dangerous? Why did you not use protection?”
“But,” Edward protested, “I’m not human! I’m not alive! I thought all our bodily fluids were venomous!”
“So you did not believe you could get Bella pregnant, but you thought ejaculating venom-based fluids into your human bride was a good idea?”
“What happens now?”
“Edward,” Carlisle’s voice came out as an exasperated sigh. “How many times have you been to high school? Haven’t you ever paid attention during sex ed? How many times have you been to medical school?”
“And Bella?” he asked. His arm wrapped around Bella as he spoke, pulling her close into his side.
“From what I have heard of these creatures, the pregnancy is extremely difficult and even if the mother survives the pregnancy, the birth invariably kills her. You will talk to her about this. I don’t want you to overreact and start making decisions that aren’t yours to make. Figure this out together before the two of you get home and we’ll … do what we can to help either way. You will do that, won’t you?”
“Yes. Yes, I will.”
He pulled the phone away from his ear and pressed the “end” button.
“What did Carlisle say?” Bella asked impatiently.
Edward answered in a lifeless voice. “He thinks you’re pregnant.”
In honor of the 4th of July, here’s something I wrote about the first time Carlisle went to a baseball game. It was 1916, and a couple of his fellow doctors invited him to a game at the recently-opened Weegham Park (later known as Wrigley Field) in Chicago.
I actually researched the crap out of this (SM said she was too lazy to research so I feel like I have to make up for it lol) so all the details of the game and the players’ names etc are accurate to the best of my knowledge.
No pairings, no romance, just lonely vampire doctor getting to hang out with the guys for once and rather enjoying the experience.
Because we don’t want to leave you hanging after that last one… . Remember when Aro was trying to breed human-vampire hybrid babies?
Author: Aro Volturi
Date: 03-14-12 11:11
Aro lifted the head away from its body with a practiced tug, watching the jagged cracks snake up the neck and invade the smooth surface of the victim’s chin. The rest of his body crashed to the floor like the toppled statue of a disposed king, the legs and torso twitching while the hands autonomously felt around for the missing head. Aro observed this all with a sad shake of his own head, and then looked deeply into the eyes of the decapitated vampire.
“Poor dear fellow,” he said, brushing a lock of blond hair away from the forehead with one thumb. “It is such a shame we are not afforded a more dignified way to meet our ends.”
Taking one last look at the face he had once seen often walking the halls of Volterra, Aro tossed the fair head into the crackling flames as Alec and Brent looked on in silence.
He then turned his attention to the figure kneeling in the center of the room.
Hey remember when we used to post excerpts from our collaborative ‘storyplay’ at Pan Historia? Remember when Aro had sentenced Carlisle to death for refusing to kill a human who knew too much? Whatever happened with that? Read on to find out!
Author: Dr Carlisle Cullen
Date: 03-05-12 17:50
“I think we both knew it would always come to this.”
Fiorenzo had led me to a large room which sported a high ceiling with a hole in the center, no doubt to release the smoke from the fire which would soon be lit. It was disturbing to think the Volturi had a room expressly for this purpose, but I suppose I should not have been surprised. I had never wished to think too much about it during my stay in Volterra centuries prior, and Aro had kept some of the darker aspects of his position from me. There were only five of us in the chamber: Aro, myself, Alec, my escort Fiorenzo, and the male vampire who had been standing by Aro’s throne who had not yet uttered a word. He did not appear particularly strong or large, but I surmised his gift must have something to do with fire or destruction to explain his presence here.
“It feels somehow inevitable that I should be the one to end your remarkable life.”
“Should I consider this an honor?”
“If not an honor, a kindness. I shall see that you do not suffer. I cannot say that Caius or Felix and Demetri would be so magnanimous. They have never been terribly fond of you.”
To recap: a great nephew of Esme’s first husband wrote a book about the Evenson family history which mentioned Esme and her disappearance briefly. After publishing the book, the author, Scott Evenson, tracked the Cullens down and the Volturi found out about the book. Carlisle and Esme refused to have Scott killed, insisting their secret was not worth protecting if keeping it required killing humans. Esme and (human) Bella reasoned with Scott and he agreed to leave the family alone and keep their secret, but Jasper, thinking Scott was too much of a threat, killed him anyway.
The Cullens were summoned to Volterra to explain their involvement with Scott Evenson and his book while Edward and Bella stayed behind to deal with Charlie and his own investigation into Scott’s death. The Cullens, their friends, and even the Volturi gave their testimony and then the three Volturi leaders reached their verdict: Carlisle, as coven leader, is at fault for refusing to kill Scott to protect vampire secrecy.
The sentence? Death.
Will the Volturi go through with it? Is there anything the Cullens can do to save Carlisle? How will they cope without him? Stay tuned, or visit us over at Pan Historia (create a free account or login as a guest to read out story!) or consider joining us! Many great characters are still available, see a list here.
(And this time we really will start posting story posts again… lol )
Leah comforts Emily in her time of need;maybe despite the pain of the past, there is room for forgiveness.
I’d never seen so much food at Emily’s that she didn’t cook. I mocked the pack’s muffin addiction, but the empty space on the table was wrong.
The guys just standing around doesn’t help either. I don’t think they really know how to act serious, so I guess stuffing their faces is the only way to cope.
Family and friends all took their turn trying to console Emily. She’s trying (she might be better at it than I am; she can fake a smile) but I’m not surprised when she excuses herself. I figure it’s now or never.
She’s locked herself in the bathroom. The running faucet doesn’t cover a sob.
“Emily? It’s me. Can I come in?” After a few seconds the door clicks open. She’s padding her eyes with toilet paper.
“I didn’t cry yesterday. I thought I was getting better, but then I saw the baby and…..” She’s waterworks again and I lightly hug her.
“You can cry as long as you need too.”
