Previously
"Lottie, love, it'll be okay," I said soothingly. "Go tell Bella to stay in her room for the next hour or so."
"Bella? Her name?" he sounded surprised.
"Yes, Carlisle, she has a name," I snapped angrily.
Peter POV
Lottie was up the stairs in a flash, speaking to Bella in a hushed tone that we all could hear.
"Why are you so angry, Peter? Have I done something to offend you?" Carlisle seemed genuinely concerned, his golden eyes furrowed with worry.
I groaned, having picked up many a human habit from Bella and her obvious humanness. I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to find the words to voice my displeasure at his sudden arrival and reaction to my daughter. "You haven't done anything," I said at last, motioning for him to sit down as I took the armchair opposite him. "And I know you well enough to know that you won't. But it's… it's beyond anything you or I can control. It's what you…" I was unsure of what word would be best, " represent," I decided upon.
"Represent?" he inquired, sounding more confused, though relieved.
"You're every vampire out there, Carlisle," I sighed, staring into his golden eyes, as if I could will him to understand. "Every vampire that would hurt her. I know you won't; please don't take this the wrong way. But you're… unique. If it had been anyone else, they would have tried to kill her by now."
"And she's your daughter now," he remarked, seeing the look in my eyes. "You would die for her."
"Is there a question in that?" I grinned slightly, letting him know I was only joking. I regretted my initial anger, but he seemed to understand. "It's just that… our life is too dangerous for her. She's just a child. She needs someone. And her old home wasn't good enough. Her mother was awful and her father didn't care."
Carlisle nodded, taking in the facts one at a time. "You and Charlotte make good parents," he said at last. He was taking in the room. Bella's artwork hung, framed, all around the walls, some of it sloppier from her younger years, some clean and precise, the product of Gabriel's long and hard teachings. Her books, ranging from fiction to school books, were scattered on the coffee table, and her shoes were sticking out from under the cabinet against the wall.
"You're not going to tell anyone will you?" Lottie asked, sounding slightly scared as she stood in the doorway, blocking the entrance to the stairs where I could hear Bella moving around.
"Of course not," Carlisle said vehemently. "Not anyone."
"Not even Esme?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No, not even Esme. It would be… more prudent for her not to know," he said, picking his words carefully as he spoke.
"It puts her in less danger from the Volturi if she doesn't know that a human knows everything about our kind," I translated.
He nodded again.
"I'm sorry," I said at last. "We tried to keep from telling you. We wanted her to grow up and move on with her life, with no one knowing any the wiser. She needed a good home that we could provide. We never wanted trouble for anyone."
Carlisle laughed suddenly. "You both love her very much. And I must say, Peter, you never think more than a step ahead when you love someone."
I couldn't help but smile, looking down like a child with their hand in a cookie jar. "No, I guess not." Lottie giggled, kissing my cheek, as she sat on the armrest of my chair. Carlisle was all too familiar with the story of how I destroyed half of Maria's army to save Charlotte and take her away with me to Pennsylvania where we met Carlisle.
"Well, do I get to meet my niece or what?" he demanded, still smiling jovially.
"Bella," Lottie called, just loud enough for her to hear. Bella skipped down the stairs, taking them two or three at a time.
"Yeah, Mom?" she responded, looking guardedly at Carlisle. He allowed her to appraise him, his gold eyes alight with mirth and curiosity.
"This is your uncle, Carlisle," Lottie said, waving for her to join us at the fireplace.
Bella's stoic expression melted to her normal, happy and open face and she all but bounced over to us. She waved cheerfully, plopping down onto the ottoman beside my chair before turning to me.
"So, got any other family I should know about or are we gonna lock me in my room every time we have a family reunion?" she asked, half curious, half just to lighten the atmosphere.
"Well you have a cousin in," Carlisle began, his laughter shining in his eyes, before Lotte interrupted, "Don't listen to him, we're locking you up at every reunion."
Bella laughed lightly. "I like you," she said decisively, smiling at Carlisle. "You're happy. Don't be so stressed though. It's bad for your outlook."
He chuckled. "I'm afraid I like you, too," he said, leaning back into his chair. "I've never met anyone quite so direct, in a good way, of course."
Raising an eyebrow at me, and then Lottie, Bella tilted her head slightly to the side.
"No, we haven't told him," I answered the question she was all but screaming silently. I turned to Carlisle, "Bella would like us to tell you that she has a superpower! She dresses us with a giant B on a blue suit and flies around saving people."
"Peter shut up," Lottie giggled, covering my mouth. "Bella can see and speak with ghosts."
"I stand corrected," Carlisle said to Bella. "Your mother has a tactlessness that in absolutely…"
"Uncanny?" Bella suggested, nodding her agreement.
"Precisely the word I was looking for!"
We spent the rest of the afternoon familiarizing Carlisle with our new life with Bella and helping him further understand our motives for keeping her. Bella, knowing she would never be assigned an uncle who did not have her best interest at heart, took to him immediately, and the two teamed up well to make fun of Lottie and me.
When Gabriel came, just past eleven, Bella was yawning her complaints about his lack of punctuality. "I," he said defensively, "arrived at the exact time I wished to, young lady." Then, noticing Carlisle, nodded. "Sensei," he crowed mockingly, making a bow-like motion at him.
Bella looked at him.
"When one has as much time as I do, you take up hobbies that seem to haunt you forever," Carlisle explained.
"A martial arts doctor artist semi-pastor," Bella dubbed him, looking very satisfied with her title for him.
"We should be heading out, kiddo," Gabriel said, pushing her towards the door where his car waited. "That new meat might come alive any second now." He waved his fingers at her, as if he were a ghost.
"His name is Tony and he's not meat," Bella grumbled, giving him a lopsided glare-smile.
"He's a mammal, he's made of meat and bones, get with it, Bell." Having being changed at nineteen, Gabriel was still very much a child. He only managed his doctor profession because of Carlisle's calm and matured mentoring.
She rolled her eyes. "People are friends not food," she said, swatting at his chest.
He returned the exasperated look with even more drama, all but flipping his body over with his eyes. "And all that fun crap, yeah, I know," but from his golden eyes, we knew he was secretly agreeing.
The two left, Bella shrieking madly at Gabriel not to drive at 'one-fricking-hundred thousand miles an hour!' He just patted her head and said, "It's only 120."
"How the hell you made him into a doctor is beyond me," I sighed, but I had to laugh. But suddenly, a thought struck me. "You had to have had some motive for coming here, not just to shock the hell out of my family and me."
"I came because I was already in the area when I heard of the young football player, your new meat. I had a surgery to perform some odd miles to west of here so I figured I could come by and help. I made a call to Aro as well. He seems to be more understanding of your predicament than I had hoped."
"We appreciate it. We are not exactly sure how he will respond to this… form. Bella wouldn't let him die… Understandably, so. Her brother died in a bear attack when she was much younger."
Carlisle POV
I tilted my head to the side, thinking. Ghosts, dead brother, careless mother, bear attack. But it wasn't possible. That Bella had died many a year ago. All five of my children had raced down to Forks, running from Alaska, to hide between the trees at Bella's funeral. Her father had made it clear she was to be buried beside the marker for Emmett.
But with Gabriel's power, his illusions, it would be all too easy for the body in the casket to be an elaborate farce. He had refined his gift over time, making them so real they could even be touched. The broken body of the young girl could have been fake.
Emmett would be overjoyed. He would be ecstatic. He would also be reckless. He would come here, this I was sure of. He would all but tear down the house to find her. And to find her living with human drinkers, he would put himself in more danger than necessary. He would try to protect her from a non-existent danger. He may even present a danger. Caught up in his emotions, he could crush her. He could be so lost in the moment he could lose control and drink from her.
No doubt Edward would beat him down to the house, though. He would be gentle with her. But enough so? My children had grown accustomed to human interaction, but they had not been in close contact with any human, let alone such a delicate child. She may have grown up, but she was still small, hardly older than thirteen. Especially beside vampires, thousands upon thousands of times stronger than her. Peter had trained her well against other humans, even animals, but she would never stand a chance against a vampire. And I had given my word that no one would be told, not even my wife.
I wasn't even sure that it truly was her. How much would they hate me if I got their hopes up, gave them false hope that their little baby was still alive and well, happy even? They would be devastated. Rose would mope for years.
Even now, every human, adult or child, whether Emmett wanted to drink from them or just watch them run by, he would see Bella. He would see his baby sister, laughing, skipping, licking an ice cream cone dripping with melted ice cream, it was always her.
And if possible, Edward was worse. Emmett had Rosalie to distract him, to bring him out of his shell, especially since he asked her to marry him two years after their change. Edward had no one. He sat alone, usually at his piano, playing the same song over and over again like a continuous mantra. Alice explained quietly that it was the song he had composed for her for times when she was sad. It never failed to make her smile. He had played it for their first Christmas spent together and she had fallen in love with it.
He only ever came alive on her birthday when the five of my children sat in a circle, telling their favorite memories of her. It seemed as if it hurt too much to remember her any other day. Some years there were repeats, but when there were, they always added on a new one. Some times it was the same story but from a different one of them.
Edward and Emmett had both told a story about a picnic they all went on. Bella had insisted she would go with or without them, and had climbed up onto the counter to make herself a sandwich. This had made Emmett panic. He could just imagine all of the different ways she could hurt herself in the kitchen, and he had set her on the ground and promised to take her. Edward had joined them, along with Alice and Rose. Jasper came by, drenched with sweat from his morning run, but there nevertheless.
Bella had spent the afternoon dragging Edward around with her to chase the butterflies. Then, all of a sudden it had begun to pour. She and Edward had to hide under an overhang of rock because they had lost their way in the rain. Bella had just sat down and begun to sing. She clapped her hands and laughed, loving every second of it. Emmett's version, however, was of frantic and soaked searching. He had everyone running in circles, his panic almost tangible. He all but died with relief when Edward and Bella reappeared an hour later, the rain having passed and both very much dry. But the look on Bella's face, her eyes shining with adventure was a moment he treasured.
Normal human memories fade, but not theirs. Certain memories more so than others, remained ingrained in their minds. They reviewed them now, in their vampire life, trying to memorize every last detail.
What a joyous occasion it would be if this were there Bella.
I returned home, nearly two weeks later.
Everything had gone off without a hitch with Anthony. He was overjoyed to be a vampire. He had hated his life, his overbearing parents forcing him into their law profession, his grandfather forcing him to join the football team, and everything else in between. He had denied humans though. He had asked quietly for me to take him hunting animals. The eating humans, as he called it, seemed cannibalistic but he wasn't upset with Peter and Charlotte for doing so, not after they explained how they hunt.
I kissed Esme softly, spinning her around in my arms.
"Anything interesting?" she asked as I greeted all of the children, gathered in the living room. I noted mentally that Edward sat at the piano, playing the same song, cheerful, but seemed to have a sad tone to it.
I looked at her, deliberating for only a second before smiling, "No, nothing new."