ofthefamily | In the cells.

He isn't -- wouldn't -- they're here now.

He won't have to decide what to do on his own.

Which makes all his decisions up in the air, muddled.

Edward's jaw tightened at Jasper's assumption as much Alice's snap, even as Carlisle's thoughts and the Milliways chaos continued to roll through him. He deserved that he supposed, given Bella and Milliways, but it didn't keep his palpable relief at their arrival turning frustrated at the triviality and reaction of both.

"Carlisle," He turned sideways in the doorway to the stairs. "-is in the cells." His gaze somewhere about a wall, as if he might see through it to Carlisle since he can't stop hearing him. "A different one, from a different time."

What.

The thought is in her mind the moment she says it, and she just knows that the Carlisle he speaks of is one from...a bad time. It's quite obvious.

Alice stares between her husband and her brother, feeling dizzy at the spinning futures. "Let me see him."

Adamant would hardly begin to describe the tone that Jasper directs not only at his wife but Edward as well. He knows how they feel, his impulse was to go to Carlisle directly too, yet as soon as the option was voiced -

"No."

Somewhere else, Carlisle starts pacing.

He's trying too hard to figure out the circumstances of his latest move from one hold to another. The human girl. The boy --

Edward's eyes narrowed, with a wash of a rage more than the actual snarl that is clogging his chest, glancing back to the stairs as Carlisle thoughts stamp through Jasper decree to Alice's want.

That voice, replaying his face, questioning his motive.

And the motive of his masters.

He looked back to Jasper, very cut to the quick by the last however long. Time doesn't exist in his head. "Fine. Then don't come. That doesn't stop him from being down there, and being our responsibility."

Edward turned and started walking back down the stairs. He assumes Alice will follow. It's -- It's Carlisle. Carlisle. Downstairs. Short circuiting his ability to think straight.

He gets about halfway down the stairs before there's more.

Softer, not just by volume, but also by the turmoil.

"It's the 1700's for him."

Edited 2009-09-09 09:04 (UTC)

"Jasper!" Alice stares up at her husband before following Edward. How can she not? It's Carlisle.

She would do anything for her father. Even now.

"I figured." She whispers, her fingers closing around Edward's arm. "What has he done, Edward?"

One day, Jasper wagers, someone will actually listen to him. For now, he only stares, a growl under breathe and then jaw clenched, after his wife and brother for a moment before following.

Someone has to keep an eye on them anyway.

This is a bad idea.

A real bad one, no matter what Carlisle has or hasn't done and whatever their responsibility may be to him.

On that thought, Edward would not argue.

He hardly feels Alice's grasp, even glancing to it once, almost unsteady. Someone else. Someone else. Alice. Finally.

"There was a girl. He--"

Hit her. Might have attacked her given more time.

There are words he can't say, about him. Not yet. Not even this one.

"I took care of it." Beat. "Her." Both of those were applicable. Right?

Jasper coming, too. That's...far more comforting than Jasper probably realizes. Or at least it will be until he can feel it, the faint give in tension. First for Alice, and then for him. Not that it bother Edward to think of it that way.

Carlisle hears three sets of footfalls heading towards his cell and he stands to meet who and whatever is coming.

He scoffs when he recognizes the copper hair walking towards him, Carlisle's black eyes shifting to the pair -- Carlisle can always tell the couples -- attending as well.

Carlisle points an accusing finger at Edward before shifting to Jasper. "At least that one is believable," Carlisle seethes, indicating Jasper's scars.

Well then.

Jasper clears his throat, turning to Alice.

"You've seen him, can we go now?"

It grieves him to see Carlisle like this. And he's pretty certain their Carlisle wouldn't want them here.

Alice reaches behind her and takes Jasper's hand, shooting him a look. "No."

She steps closer to Carlisle's cell, head tilted to the side. "And why is more believable than us? I'm just curious."

Carlisle nearly rolls his eyes at the question.

"He at least looks like he's been coerced. The bites. You two," gesturing again to Alice and Edward, "I believe just about as much as I believe the human girl.

"Why are you here?"

The reason for Edward's 'perfectly' unmarred state sits in that cage in front of him. It doesn't even take logical awareness for that black irony to register. Not all of the reasons. But the largest portion of them.

Edward's eyes were on Alice.

Ignoring Carlisle words was far easier than ignoring the vitriol of his mind. He'd been unable to do that for quite a long period at this point.

There were far more important questions than why now.

Edited 2009-09-11 12:19 (UTC)

When no one else answers right away, Jasper, and with only the vaguest of grimaces at Carlisle's comments, clears his throat. "They think they can help."

He truly thinks he's still in Volterra?

Alice tilts her head at Edward, finally drawing her gaze away from Carlisle. She can see the vague glimpses of the vampire-ruled area getting brighter, stronger. As if someone is making the decision to go.

She's not sure if it's Carlisle or if it's Edward's thought. Her eyebrows raise at Edward anyway.

The blond and the dark-haired girl may be the couple, but the girl and the other boy were speaking. The looks he recognized, even if Aro's touch is not needed here.

"If you are speaking of me, aloud would be my preference."

"Do you wish to return so quickly to the confines of Aro's rule?" Alice turns her head back toward Carlisle, her expression carefully blank. Inside, she's a turmoil that only Edward and Jasper can comprehend.

She resists taking her husband's hand for support. It would be a weakness to show Carlisle.

"Your attempts to goad me are both childish and" unneeded "ineffective."

Carlisle's tone is clipped and heavy since he has no room to effect the trio on the other side of the door. He can't do anything to them.

Carlisle steps closer to the invisible wall between them anyway, knowing where the wall starts to lean his hands against it. As if he could push through it towards them.

"I cannot act against myself here," Carlisle seethes, a curse to the girl if not in so many words and trying so hard to keep images of his early time in France out of his head and failing. "Aro believes himself to be aiding me. Keeping me from Marcus and Caius. The vanguard."

Carlisle finally exhales, dropping his hands.

"It is to die here or die at their hands as I try to escape. I haven't hunted in near a month by my count."

The last part is whispered as if to even speak of escape would bring Carlisle's adversaries to this new cell he has found himself inhabiting.

Carlisle is cursing at Alice. Alice might not be able to hear it as well as the intention slams into him. But this does not change the fact it's happening.

"He never helped you."

Fuck politically, historically, correct sentences.

He can't even begin to regret how small the reference is to its ill.

"And you, if he heard you disrespect him like that, he would enjoy watching burn," Carlisle spits before pulling back again, finding the furthest corner in which he can withdraw himself.

Maybe me too. Who knows.

That's enough.

They've heard, seen, and said more than enough.

Jasper catches Alice by the elbow, his jaw clenching from the tension in the room as he pulls her away. "We're done. Let's go." His gaze, darkening by the moment, darts to Edward. "You too."

From that boy to an inference of being burned.

It's amazing Edward manages to only have his gaze shift to the cell finally. To that known face, with it's black eyes and it's different mind. Torn between the response to a threat and a nearer slight than any hands and teeth could ever make and all the other already present dilemma's this created.

He looks over to Jasper a few seconds later than he should.

The cell almost gets a second look, before he nods. Sharp.

He'll follow them out when they walk.

Edited 2009-09-14 11:18 (UTC)

Alice's step forward is cut off by her husband's grip. She's never been angry at Carlisle like this before. It takes conscious reminding that this isn't her father. Not this man.

She lets Jasper pull her away, calming herself before looking at him, her eyes full of an apology.

Her hand shoots out and she takes Edward by the hand, dragging him after her and Jasper, though she's sure it's not needed. She needs it.

Jasper gets them to the stairs before turning on them both. His expression says it best: That was stupid.

Edward needs the hand.

He can't even figure out that it is for other reasons than that he hadn't actually moved at all until Alice tugged him as she walked away. He doesn't even let go of it when he leans against the wall, tilting his gaze up.

He doesn't need to see it.
He can hear Jasper loud enough.
Even with the unending Carlisle around it.
As for Alice's hand, he just doesn't let go.

He does after a second, looking, over faintly narrowed eyes, but the sentiment of why he looks that way isn't directed at Jasper at least. "You still think we should leave him here now? It only took him five minutes in the door to be put down there."

In the cells.

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