Chapter 3!

Title: 'Questions'

Note: Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

…

"Here, this one next!" She picked another dress out of the dozen or two that were hanging over her forearm.

We had already been shopping for I didn't know how many hours, but this must've been the fourth store already. I wondered if Alice had forgotten that humans didn't have an endless supply of energy.

I took the deep forest green one with the drop-back from her a little warily.

She didn't seem at all fazed by my uncertainty or exhaustion, she only smiled happily.

"Um…" I started. "Don't you usually just pull the dresses you want me to wear out of your closet? Or buy them by yourself?" I asked as I further inspected the long-trained dress which would no doubt make me fall flat on my face if I were to even try to put it on.

"Yes. But this one is special. I want you to pick it out." She explained quickly.

"I like the purple one." I pointed at a random purple dress that was a few racks away.

She shot a calculating glance at me for a moment. I was an infamously terrible liar; she probably knew why I suddenly picked one out.

"Then maybe you should try it on."She suggested cheekily as she walked over and back faster than comfortably for a human, carrying the slightly shimmering purple dress.

I had chosen it randomly, but it was actually kind of pretty.

She nudged me towards the changing room.

Why do I even need a dress, again?
I asked myself, mentally, as I took one of the numbered plastic tags the woman behind the counter handed to me.

I'll have to ask her after this…

If she'll tell me…

The door closed behind her swiftly as he couldn't suppress a few more chuckles, but they died out after a few seconds.

Soon, the only other sound in the room of breathless, motionless vampires was the buzzing and chatting of the plasma screen.

The small amount of life this house had for a moment was gone again.

But not for long.

Carlisle found himself anticipating the return of not only his adopted 'daughter', but more so for Bella's return.

Maybe some of that life will come back with her.

He smiled wryly to himself for a moment.

Depending on a girl as riddled with sadness and loneliness as Bella for cheer…

That's a peculiar thought.

But not an impossible one, I guess…

His smile grew for only a moment before it faded away entirely.

He turned on his heel, walking away from the door smoothly.

"Emmett. Rose." He nodded warmly to them as he started up the stairs.

"Hey, Carlisle." They both said in unison, neither of them really giving him more than a nanosecond of a glance.

They still weren't on the best of terms with him. He had been the one who scolded them for even thinking that aggression was any way of dealing with the Volturi.

But he wasn't quite worried about those two. He knew them too well to think that they could hold a grudge for any longer than a single year or so. They were both… simple, simple in the way that what they didn't hide anything- or couldn't-, they didn't hold onto to anything either. You could see their thoughts without having to be a psychic.

And after some time, they'd forget their weak rancor and move on. No, the ones he was worried about were the ones that seemed perfectly fine.

Jasper. Alice. Esme.

His pace faltered a fraction when he thought of that last name.

He was only worried for the first two since they seemed so eager to leave, to take action… but for noble reasons that Carlisle couldn't keep them from taking even if he had to.

But Esme was different…

He couldn't pinpoint exactly what was causing this concern for her… for them.

But he could sense that something was changing.

Between them.

He quickly pushed that worry to one of the less occupied offices of his spacious mind as the cold doorknob twisted under his colder hand, opening to his study.

He had only come downstairs to greet their human guest before she was spirited away.

He had felt like he needed to see her… to check to see if she was at all like she was last night.

Of course she wasn't.

If you saw her walking down the street, and maybe shared a few words with her… you might be able to tell that something about her was missing… but it would be nearly impossible to tell exactly the amount of pain that girl must've been going through.

He only knew a small fraction of it from being near her for so long… what she feels inside must be infinitely worse that even he's seen.

For the second time that day he couldn't quite stop thinking about her.

It wasn't a new thought pattern.

These past several weeks she's become a more and more prominent part of all of their lives… of his life.

But she didn't even know it.

With the orders Edward left behind, and the 'surveillance system' composed of himself and the shape-shifting Jacob Black, Bella had become one of the top priorities in his life -or un-life.

So how could she not come across in his thoughts more often than before, now that he was supposed to keep an eye on her?

How could he not worry about her? Or want to help her?

Though he knew, better than some, that she definitely wasn't the type to accept help or pity –otherwise she wouldn't pretend so hard that she wasn't crying herself to sleep every night- he couldn't stop this need to watch over her… in case she ever did ask for help.

That thought struck him as he was filling out one of the many signature boxes of his paperwork.

He had wondered why he took Edward's orders as his own… why he took the 'night shift'…

He had thought it was because of his guilt or his sense of duty, as the clan leader, to watch over the new member of his 'family'…

… but maybe it wasn't any of those things….

Maybe it was because he just wanted to…

He couldn't focus on his work after that thought settled in his mind, as well as the dozens of other questions which followed. The main one being:

Why would he have wanted to?

"So why do I need a dress, again?" I asked as casually as I could, walking out of the dressing stall, modeling the somewhat pretty dress as enthusiastically as I could… which wasn't that impressive.

I turned on the spot a little, looking down at the way the fabric fell to the floor, while avoiding eye-contact with the mirrors purposefully.

Alice made herself busy, inspecting the dress and fabric as well.

"Just because…" She half-answered musically.

I knew that voice. She was definitely planning something.

"What's gonna happen?" I asked with the tone a parent would use to ask a trouble-making child what they were up to.

"You don't have to worry about it…" She said finally, practically repeating the answer and tone she gave to Carlisle all those hours ago.

The sudden passing thought of Carlisle lightened my mood for a surprising moment…. His smile came back to mind, as well as his laughter. I suddenly remembered the comfort they gave me.

I guessed his warm energy was contagious when I couldn't stop my own smile as I spoke up again.

"If I have to wear a dress, I'm already worried." I half-joked.

Knowing that Alice could revert to her hyper-party-planner mode by hair-triggered events that I wouldn't have noticed of she didn't throw a party for it, I decided that I could probably survive whatever this was.

But, now that my curiosity was piqued, maybe I could find out through a different source. Like Jasper.

Even though we don't talk much, he'd share something like this with me, right?

Then I noticed something.

I hadn't seen him in a while… and I hadn't seen Esme either.

Neither of them were there at the house this morning. That was a little strange.

I decided to ask Alice about it as she was rummaging through the remaining dresses over her arm. I was a little suspicious of whether she was looking for a new one for me to try on or not. But the question I was about to ask was more important than that right now.

"Hey, I didn't see Jasper or Esme this morning. Where'd they go?"

She paused for a moment, looking at me a little curiously, probably noting the non-sequitor.

"Just hunting." She summarized with as plain of a tone that was possible for a vampire, looking through the dresses again.

I shot a questioning glance to her. I remembered last week, he wasn't there either because he was hunting.

And either my face was so transparent that she knew exactly what I was going to say, or she saw a vision of it, but she started explaining before I even started to ask my question.

"He has to go hunting more often than the rest of us." She paused for a moment. "He has a harder time controlling himself…"Concern grew in her expression. "Esme went with him so that she could keep an eye on him while I wa-" She stopped mid-word her eyebrows creasing a little as her eyes seemed to be staring miles into the floor.

"Alice?" I walked up to her, reaching an arm to get her attention.

That was the look she got whenever she was completely preoccupied by her powers.

"Something's happening." She said quietly, her eyes still not moving from their invisible target.

"What?"I started to get worried.

"Get dressed." She finally snapped out of it, immediately looking over to me, her eyes wide with urgency.

"Alice, what's going on?"I tried to get her attention again as she was swiftly sifting through the dresses stacked on her forearm, putting them back on their respective racks faster than any human could.

I looked around to see if anybody was watching. No one.

"I can't see them." She explained with only a tremor of urgency while putting the last dress on the rack.

"Wha-?"

I didn't need to finish.

I knew what that meant… or what it could mean.

He filed away the last shred of paperwork, glad to be done of it, but regretful at the same moment.

Now that he had nothing to keep his mind preoccupied- or something as weakly preoccupying as such tedious paperwork could be- he no longer had anything keeping him distracted from his worries of his family, his wife, and his…

… a title for Bella escaped him.

His new 'daughter'?

… Something about that seemed wrong.

He couldn't thi -

"Carlisle!"

He was pulled back into reality and out of his suddenly strange thoughts when he heard the voice of his second daughter call out for him from outside the house. He immediately realized that he had missed the Volvo's car doors shutting or the sound of quick footsteps as they ran up the driveway.

It only took mere moments before he was downstairs.

"What's wrong?" He asked down to Alice as soon as she walked into the door, trying to keep a calm tone.

His daughter walked a few paces into the doorway before finally answering.

"Jasper and Esme."

He knew almost immediately what that meant.

His previous thoughts and worries seemed to pale in comparison to the new ones invading his mind right now, but none of that fear affected his expression or voice.

He immediately saw Rose and Emmett get up from their seats, looking over to Alice with the same expression.

"What?" Rosalie asked quickly.

"I can't see them. I'm going to go look for them." Alice was already turning around to go back out the front door, while managing to dodge a collision with the human girl who was walking in at the same moment, stealing Carlisle's attention away from everything for a moment.

"Ok." Carlisle acknowledged Alice's decision just before she was out from sight.

Emmett followed after her briskly, Rose right behind him, holding his hand.

"I'm not missing out on the only bit excitement around here." Emmett's lack of tact wasn't surprising, even now.

And like that, in only the course of a few seconds the search party was dispatched while Carlisle was left with the house to look after.

He noticed the slightly anxious girl again as he finally reached the final step of the stairs.

He could tell she was a little apprehensive.

"Maybe I should go hom-." She started awkwardly, not looking at him, but out the open door towards the rust-colored truck in the driveway.

"No." He stopped her from deciding on that offer. "If something is happening, I-we can't risk you getting caught by yourself." He finished his reasoning while running over that slip of word in his mind.

She looked up at him after a moment, confusion in her eyes.

But before he could look into them any further, and forget exactly what he was planning to say, the sharp ring of the rarely used house phone echoed from the kitchen.

I walked into the house just as Alice was walking out again. She gave me an apologetic glance before she disappeared from sight altogether. I hadn't heard most of what they were saying, but she had told me more or less what was happening on the way here.

Whatever it was, it was important… but she couldn't see anything definite at the same time.

Before I was inside the usually-comforting doorway for more than a moment Emmett and Rosalie walked passed me with brisk force.

"Ok." I heard a patient voice from the staircase for the second time today.

I immediately felt out of place.

Whatever was going on had nothing to do with me.

Even if I was worried for Jasper and Esme, it wasn't my place to stay here, holding Carlisle back from going after them, too.

"Maybe I should go hom-"

"No." He interrupted me with a kind voice. "If something is happening, I-we can't risk you getting caught by yourself." He seemed to stumble over his words for a moment.

There was a part of me that immediately felt grateful to him…. But I was too confused to wonder exactly why I was relieved to know he didn't want me to leave.

Why is he worried about me?

This can't be about me, can it?

"Whatever it is shouldn't be about me, right?" I voiced my question with an unsteady tone just as the first ring of the Cullens' phone faded away.

I didn't know the kind of life the Cullens had before I was around, even though I had gone through a couple of… adventures with them… I was always involved in some way or another.

This time it couldn't be about me, could it?… Now that I'm only on the sidelines of this family, hoping they don't mind me tagging along, I shouldn't be causing any more trouble…

He looked back to me, his light bronze eyes, accented by his platinum hair, found mine before I knew I was staring into them.

And before he had to add any words to the expression he was wearing I knew exactly what he was thinking.

'Victoria'

The phone rang again, the noise taking his eyes away from mine too soon.

I didn't know why… but… I didn't want him to look away.

It felt like I would lose something if he did.

He turned towards the kitchen, about ready to leave me in the living room before he spoke over his shoulder.

"I'll get this. But I think you should call Charlie to let him know you might not be back when you thought you'd be." He advised quietly without looking at me again.

I snapped to my senses and out this strange moment.

He was right. I had to call Charlie.

My open hands patted against my pockets for a moment, feeling for my cell phone. It wasn't there. I racked my brain for a second, feeling a little rushed when I heard the fourth ring end short and Carlisle's soft voice greet whoever was on the other line cautiously. Then I remembered.

Alice put my stuff upstairs.

With another glance towards the kitchen I tried to jog upstairs, tripped once but was lucky enough to make it to the second story without injury.

Knowing Alice, she probably put my bag in some sort of closet…. As if a sign to validate my suspicions I immediately saw a linen closet at the top of the stairs.

I opened it quickly, finding my bag laying on top of the fresh-scented blankets that the Cullens probably only placed here for appearances-sake.

I rummaged through it carelessly until I felt the cold plastic of my cell phone, flipping it open and dialing home in one motion.

I got the machine.

I guess I couldn't expect Charlie to hang around the house the whole day on his rare days off. The beep of our machine hurt my ear a little.

"Um… Hey, Charlie. I might be a little later than I said…. We just sat down to watch a movie a while ago… so yeah." I wondered if he could tell I was lying just by the sound of my voice. Then again, Charlie was never talented at spotting my lies. "…So don't get worried and send out a search party or something." I cringed at the accidentally tasteless joke I made in my moment of anxiety. I paced the hallway chewing on my nail. My eyes caught an open door as I finished those words, the soft glow of light pouring from the doorway….

I was drawn to it for some reason.

"… Hope you get this message. See you at - …. home." I remembered to add the last word of that sentence a little late after I realized what room this was.

I flipped my phone shut, not paying any further attention to it as I slowly walked into the mahogany-paneled room which was saturated with the warm scent of books and something like cologne (but I knew better than to think that there would be any need for cologne in this house).

It was Carlisle's study…

He must've left the door open when he came downstairs to see Alice a few minutes ago.

I was almost tempted by the feeling that I was being intrusive to leave the room… that was until I caught sight of a painfully familiar scene on the wall.

A painting… of a secret and ancient throne-room in Italy.

My eyes were glued to it and the faces within it.

I couldn't look away.

The three thrones, the blonde-haired Cassius to the right, the solemn-faced Marcus to the left, and the slick-haired innocent-lipped Aro in the middle.

It looked so… familiar.

Except one thing wasn't quite right.

I took a few more steps toward the painting, ignoring my common sense telling me that I didn't need to get so close to a painting to look at it.

The one thing about this painting that stood out was a man, in the background, he should've been shrouded by the dark sense of authority that the painted figures exuded, like the others were in the painting, but he was too bright to be overshadowed.

It wasn't difficult to recognize the golden-haired, golden-eyed man with a distinct jaw line even if he was dressed in seventeenth-century nobleman attire.

Seeing the members of the Volturi again, exactly as I remembered them… and Carlisle behind them, in their flanks…

Edward had told me he was once a part of them… but I had almost forgotten.

I reached up to the canvas, my fingertips almost touching the aged and slightly cracked paint-strokes.

"That was a call from an old friend of mine." I heard that voice from the doorway and I nearly fell over with shock, but my body settled for ungracefully jerking my hand away from the painting and stumbling back a few paces almost bumping into his desk.

It didn't surprise me he knew where I was. He'd just have to listen for the only heartbeat in the house.

I wasn't even really surprised by the fact that I hadn't heard the slightest sound until he said something.

I was mostly shocked by the fact that he caught me snooping in his room, staring into his centuries-old portrait.

"Sorry." I said quietly, unable to think of anything else to say, really.

I looked over to him, he was leaning against the jamb of the door.

"You don't need to apologize, Bella." His voice was completely reassuring, it seemed to sound especially kind when he said my name. (But that was probably just my hearing.)

Even if he said that, I still felt a little nosy for even being in here.

"It's just that…" I turned back to the painting, farther away than I was before, but still able to recognize every detail from my memories. "… it looks exactly the same as I remember it." I finished, my voice growing quieter, slower.

I heard a small chuckle from the doorway.

I looked back to him, my eyes looking for his lips… I had wanted to see him smile again…

… it was comforting.

"It is a little haunting." He agreed with a gentle voice, pushing himself off of the doorway, taking a few slow strides towards the painting in front of me.

I forced myself to look away from him after a few seconds, trying to keep myself from staring.

I had no place else to look than the painting again.

My eyes immediately found his face within it… the only kind face, the only source of lightness, in the painting's heavy atmosphere.

"You haven't changed at all…" I said mostly to myself, not thinking before I heard the words leave me.

Another chuckle from behind me.

I was really started to like that sound more and more.

"I guess I haven't… not physically at least." I looked back to his real face after he added that last statement with a tone of fond reminiscence. I managed to catch his smile fade as his lips tightened slightly.

He turned away from me before I could look up to his eyes. He took a few steps toward his desk.

He picked up some papers, most of them had the hospital's name printed on the corner.

He sorted through them more than a moment longer.

I weaned my eyes away from his hands and towards the portrait again.

It had been several months since I was here, in this spot, looking at this painting… back then I had different company. I tried not to think about him.

As if my mind was subconsciously trying to distract me, I suddenly had a question.

Something I had wondered once before, but could never ask him before now.

"Why did you join them?" I asked with a quiet voice, almost a whisper… but I knew he wouldn't have any trouble hearing me.

I heard the papers stop moving, his voice replaced the momentary silence.

"... They were-are-" He corrected himself. "…the greatest power of our world."

I turned back to look at him, curious to see what expression he was wearing when his voice suddenly turned somber like that. "I felt that I could learn from them…." He finished wistfully.

"Did you?" I already knew the answer when his golden eyes met mine, his eyebrows pulled together a little solemnly.

"I learned things I would never teach others."

His eyes kept mine for a long moment before I remembered how to speak and ask the next question I was -for some reason I didn't know yet- anxious to learn the answer to.

"Is that why you left?"

I turned towards him completely, unblinkingly staring into his eyes which still didn't move from mine.

"Among other reasons…" He smiled wryly, staring into my eyes longer than I ever remembered Carlisle doing so before. But it was over, his eyes were gone, and his smile wasn't as real as before when he suddenly started talking again. I felt empty for a moment. "But we really shouldn't be talking about this with a Volturi member practically at our door."

My brain clicked after only a second.

"What?" I asked, fear taking over my voice for a second.

"Don't worry." His was soothing again. "He's an old friend from my days with the Volturi." My eyes couldn't focus on his face as I was suddenly looking around the room, trying to think thorugh exactly what this could mean. Did this mean they had a message? Did this mean Edward was coming back? Or did this mean they were renegotiating the 'contract'? But before my eyes could find any answers to these questions, they immediately found a new source of confusion. "He was the one who called a few minutes ago to give us a heads-up. He was a little late but-"

I cut him off as soon as I could find words again.

I reached out my hand to his desk, my fingers landing on the familiar, worn binding of a book.

The golden lettering on the book's cover shimmering in the lamplight, Wuthering Heights.

"Is this-?" I couldn't finish my question.

"Carlisle!" A voice from downstairs suddenly called his name, but this time it was Emmett's who was calling for the man in front of me with a tone I could only describe as 'excited'… But when Emmett sounded like that, it wasn't usually a good sign.

Carlisle only stared into my own wide eyes, completely silent…

I could feel my heart harden and slow with tension.

I suddenly felt an ice-cold, marble-textured hand close around mine, and before I could process that my feet were moving I was already being pulled through the doorway… gently.

"I'll explain later." He said in a hushed voice, completely dodging a real answer as to why a book, a book that had been mine for years now, and had been sitting in my bookcase since the last time I read it, was now on his desktop.

He peeked around the staircase, trying to see something.

"That boo-" He cut me off.

"You need to leave now." He whispered quietly back to me. It was like he was ignoring my question. I could only manage to give him a confused expression before he started talking again. "Even if he was a friend, we can't trust a Volturi member around humans, not while we're still unsure of his intentions. I'll send Rosalie up to show you a way out, wait right here."

He immediately straightened his posture and started to go down the staircase as if he was completely undisturbed by anythihng. He was already a few steps away before I could stop him.

"Carlisle." I called for his attention, feeling strangely awkward for using his name so casually, but he immediately turned towards me again.

He must've seen something in the look I was giving him.

His serious eyes softened a little.

"I'll explain everything later…" He repeated kindly just as he started down the steps again, leaving me behind. "I'm sorry, Bella." He said lastly…

… again, I noticed how soft his voice sounded whenever he said my name.