Fathers

Carlisle

Part Fourteen

By Memya, Empress of Edit

Edward!

Please, son, don't do it!

It seems Alice 'saw' Bella jump off a cliff to her death, or so Alice believed, and through the family grapevine, a la Rosalie, that information found its way to Edward who is now on his way to Volterra to end his existence. Alice and Bella are in Italy speeding to Volterra in an effort to stop Edward's actions.

Alice said she's had visions of Bella doing outrageous dangerous activities for the past several weeks but hasn't shared that knowledge since Edward strictly forbade her to keep track of Bella or for any of us to have any contact with her. Alice mentioned this brief glimpse of Bella to Rosalie while asking her advice on whether or not to tell him. Clearly, she should have rethought this before saying anything, especially knowing Rose's feelings about the situation but she never imagined that Rose would immediately call him with the news.

How I wish she had called me first but we were out hunting and always have our phones muted when we are stalking. You can't have your phone ringing out in the forest and have a successful hunt. Alice was already flying to Forks by the time I received her message and we are anxiously awaiting her next call.

Edward and Bella have both made childish and irresponsible, almost psychotic, choices and if, by some miracle, they all come through unscathed, I'm not sure that I hope they resume their relationship.

What they had together was somewhat unhealthy, I see that now. The way Bella controlled Edward, urging the relationship to become sexual and her apparent need to push the boundaries of her safety show me a side of Bella that is not pleasant in relation to my son. Is she attracted merely to the danger? I wonder.

She has always seemed so relaxed around the members of our family. Was it, in fact, merely a thrill for her to come to a house filled with vampires? I'd never have thought it of her as she seemed to be quite a sensible girl but the things Alice has told me over the last day or so would seem to contradict that image of her. Do people change that much or was this a part of herself she kept hidden from us all?

 

* * *
 

I'd immediately called Aro in Volterra as soon as I learned of Edward's destination.

"Carlisle, my old friend," the ancient vampire enthused after I greeted him.

"Aro, I believe my son Edward is on his way to your city and I need your help," I began.

"Possibly, apprise me of the situation," Aro answered, as always giving a neutral response.

"It seems the boy received some bad news," I informed him, "and he's over-reacted, coming to you to end his life."

"I see, and why would I wish to destroy your son?" Aro asked.

"I fear he may have some plans to make the existence of vampires known," I said, quickly adding, "as I said, it's my understanding that he's extremely distraught."

"Carlisle," Aro said, his voice growing hard, "if he does that, I cannot help you. We will not tolerate that from anyone."

"I understand but he may come to you before doing anything wrong. Perhaps you could ask him to call home, let me try to get him to see reason," I suggested.

"Hmmm, perhaps. Tell me this, Carlisle, what could have upset one of our kind to this degree? To wish to have his life taken from him?"

This was a question I'd been hoping to avoid as I didn't know how Aro would react to Edward and Bella's relationship, knowing that Bella obviously would know about Edward. I wasn't sure how to answer in a way that was not dishonest but that would help Edward.

"It's simply a misunderstanding between him and another member of our family," I said, telling the truth but not the whole story.

"And this misunderstanding is worth dying over?" he asked, his voice curious.

"Old friend, the boy's still only a teenager," I explained, "even if he has lived over one hundred years. Teenagers don't always make sense."

"There seems to be something here that you're not telling me but no matter. If it's within my power and they young man hasn't brought undo attention to himself in any way, I may be able to send him back into the arms of his family," Aro said. "But," he added, his voice taking on a menacing note, "if he has disturbed the peace of Volterra, I will see that he is destroyed, friendship or no. You understand."

"Yes, thank you, Aro. Please give my regards to Marcus and Caius, as always."

"Of course. Good-bye," and the line went dead.

 

* * *
 

The family had made our way back to Forks. Whatever happens, that house is our sanctuary out of our many residences and Esme wanted to be there if the worst happened. She said that's the place where we were last all together and happy and she needed to be there with her family surrounding her. The plane trip back here was difficult with the various family members not interacting very well with one another. The silence was so over-whelming.

We're waiting for a report from Alice; it's mid-afternoon in Italy and we've had no word. Tempers are getting shorter the longer we wait.

Rosalie has been trying without success to get someone to listen to her.

"This isn't all my fault!" Rosalie cried into the silence of the house. "Edward shouldn't have over-reacted."

"Rosalie, since you were aware of your brother's state of mind, you might have considered exactly how or even whether or not to share what you thought you knew about Bella," I quietly observed.

"It's Alice's fault, it was her vision," she insisted.

"Rose, you gotta take some of this one on. Yeah, lots of screw-ups all around but some of it's yours. It won't be the same here without Edward," Emmett said. "Dang, I miss him! What the heck were you thinking?"

"I thought he'd come home. That he wouldn't have any more reason to be away, that maybe he could find someone else," she insisted.

"If I were gone, could you just find someone else?" Emmett asked, voice rising.

"No, but he's known her for only a few months. We've been together for fifty years. It's hardly the same," she answered.

"I think it is the same to Edward," Jasper said quietly. This was the first comment he'd made since the phone call from Alice. "And, Emmett, this all stems from what happened on her birthday and we all know who was responsible for that," Jasper concluded with a rueful expression.

"Jasper," I began, but he held up a hand.

"I know none of you will blame me. Edward doesn't either but I can't help but blame myself. Perhaps Alice and I should have stayed away."

"All of you," Esme stated forcefully, "stop this. No one is to blame more or less than anyone else."

"Hey, I haven't done anything," Emmett protested.

"That's true but you also continued to try to tease Edward about Bella," she reminded him. "How did you think that was helping?" She stopped him answering with a look. "Yes, none of us realized how deeply Edward was hurting over Bella or we didn't do enough to help him."

Emmett and Jasper exchanged guilty looks but Rosalie crossed her arms with a look of disgust.

"What should we have done?" she asked. "Wallow in the misery with him?"

"I don't know. We could have understood, Rosalie. And we didn't, not enough," Esme said quietly. "I just know if we get another chance we must not fail him again. We're a family and we must behave as one."

Just then my cell phone rang. "Yes?" I queried into the phone.

"We'll be home by morning, Forks time," Alice announced and I could hear the smile in her voice.

"Who?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

"All three of us," she proudly announced.

"Call me with your flight time and we'll be there to get you. Well done, Alice," I said and relayed the good news to Esme. "You can tell us everything when we see you tomorrow--thank you, Alice, thank you."

After a moment of relief, she got a hard look on her face and said, "I'm going to kill him!" but her big grin denied the truth of her statement.

 

* * *
 

The whole family went to meet their flight. Edward and Bella came through the gate, looking chagrined. Alice trailed after with a pensive look on her face.

Esme threw her arms around them both, giving Edward a brief scolding and were he capable of it, our son would have been blushing. I told Bella how grateful we were to her. I'm not sure if she actually heard me as she was completely focused on Edward.

"Carlisle, we have some news," Edward said shyly, his arm firmly clasped around Bella's waist. He paused to grin down at her. "We had several hours in Italy waiting for our flight so we went to the courthouse and Bella and I were married."

There was a moment of silence as this information registered with the various family members while the airport crowd streamed around the blockage we were causing in the hall. Jasper and Emmet whooped and clapped Edward on the back as Esme softly congratulated them as did Rosalie, a bright smile frozen on her face. Alice simply shrugged and rolled her eyes.

They climbed into the car together. He never let go of her for an instant.

So it begins. How is Charlie going to react?
 

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