Carlisle-Alice, after Whitlocks-Cullens.

[ofthefamily]

It's been...an adjustment, but an easier one than Carlisle had been expecting. The way Edward and Alice in particular have nearly instantaneously joined at the hip makes Carlisle smile every time he thinks of it -- things had bettered when Rosalie found Emmett, but that time was still difficult.

For the moment, Carlisle has taken some time off from the hospital to stay at home with his family, now larger than planned but not unwelcome. He is flipping through a book errantly from his seat behind his office desk, listening to the quiet hum of everyone moving through the house on this sunny of days.

Comments

[betagainstme]

Alice, since moving in the with the Cullens, was rarely without either Edward or Jasper, finding such happiness in the two of them. Today, however, Alice had wandered from their company, searching for someone new to get to know.

Carlisle had been welcoming and he was the perfect father figure to outside eyes. She worries most about pleasing him, because he is the glue of the family and...without his approval, she's an outsider.

Hesitantly, Alice sticks her head through the doorway of Carlisle's office, her voice soft. "Hi."

[ofthefamily]

"Hello Alice."

Carlisle immediately reaches for a bookmark when he sees that Alice is by herself. She hasn't come up to him without her husband just yet; he gets the feeling she isn't there to just talk.

"Can I help you?"

[betagainstme]

"I just..." She steps in, her skirt rustling around her knees as she walks. "I just wanted to say thank you. For being so welcoming and...nice."

It sounds stale to her ears, but she's nervous around him for some reason she hasn't quite figured out yet.

[ofthefamily]

Alice is nervous and Carlisle can't quite figure out why.

"Won't you sit?" he starts, gesturing to a chair on the opposite side of the desk. As she moves, Carlisle stands, moving to the front of his desk to sit on its edge. His toes don't reach the floor.

"You knew I would be. Nice, I mean. Correct?"

[betagainstme]

"Yes." Alice nods as she sits. "I knew, yes. But...sometimes I wondered if I wasn't just projected the personalities because I wanted to be here so bad."

She pauses. "I just...I've never had parent figures that I can remember and now that I'm here, I just...want to, need to, do everything I can to make you want me here."

Her gaze drops to her folded hands.

[ofthefamily]

Carlisle doesn't speak for a second.

What do you say to someone who sounds as though she might be begging for your favor, especially when they have no need to go to such measures?

"Has Edward told you anything about me you didn't already know?" Carlisle starts.

[betagainstme]

"Not...a lot." Alice murmurs, glancing back up at him. "He told me I should...talk to you."

[ofthefamily]

"That sounds like Edward." A small chuckle at that.

Awkwardly, Carlisle forces off the heavy signet ring on his left hand, placing it in Alice's slender hands. "That started out as a convenient symbol. Something to get me into and out of the places I drifted to before Edward and Esme. It became real before I knew what was happening. I had a wife and a family after traveling and working and little else."

Carlisle smiles more at Alice's cupped hands than at her directly. "Hope can lead you to where you need to be, young lady. For the moment, it has led you here."

[betagainstme]

She bites her lip and nods. "Hope," She whispers, almost sighing the word, "gave me all I need."

Jasper. The Cullens. A home.

"Hope has...settled me here."

[ofthefamily]

"Then you have nothing to thank me for."

And he hopes that she gets this, at least a little.



"You got here yourself. I should thank you for trying so hard."

[betagainstme]

"You and Jasper were all I knew when I woke up. How I could not try so hard?" Alice smiles softly at him.

[ofthefamily]

An offhanded shrug. "Perhaps you may decide I am a stuffy antique."

[betagainstme]

Alice laughs softly, shaking her head. "Oh, never. I mean, I can always just update your wardrobe and you'll be fine again."

[ofthefamily]

Carlisle arches an eyebrow in as polite a fashion as he can manage.

"Do you see me letting you do so?"

[betagainstme]

"You don't stand a chance." Alice smiles brightly.

[ofthefamily]

"You've already allied Esme against me, no doubt."

Put-upon sigh.

[betagainstme]

Alice just continues to smile brightly at him. :D?

[ofthefamily]

Carlisle harrumphs.

Paternally.

[betagainstme]

Alice wrinkles her nose at him. "It will be painless, I promise."

[ofthefamily]

"That remains to be seen."

Eventually, Carlisle gives Alice a wink. "I promise to not complain too much if you promise to be merciful." Beat, then, "Could I have my ring back?"

[betagainstme]

"Oh!" Alice hands it back carefully, her own rings sparkling on her finger. "Sorry."

[ofthefamily]

"It will be a very rare happenstance from you that actually requires ever apologizing to me," Carlisle corrects quietly.

Maybe that's what Edward needed Alice to hear in Carlisle's own voice. The blond man doesn't put it past the younger.

Carlisle slides the ring back on the fourth finger of his left hand, pondering aloud, "I suppose I will have to have more of these made up."

[betagainstme]

"It's a bit gaudy for my fingers." Alice smiles at him, teasing lightly. "Maybe a necklace."

[ofthefamily]

Laughing, "I would not make anyone else wear this ring. It was a wedding present.

"No, my uccello, you can pick out whatever it is that you would like. If you would like to wear one at all, of course. The same offer to Jasper as well, though I have a feeling he will probably pick a bracer to match Emmett and Edward."

[betagainstme]

"I would love to wear it." Alice murmurs, wrinkling her brow at him. "Uccello?"

[ofthefamily]

"It means 'bird'."

Carlisle waves a hand to Alice's ensemble. "Somehow I feel a surge of shiny objects infiltrating my house. Just a hypothesis."

[betagainstme]

"I haven't learned Italian yet." Alice smiles down at her lap again. "And I foresee your prediction as being correct."

[ofthefamily]

"You have time. Now -- " Carlisle ducks his head down to have his gold eyes meet Alice's. " -- are you alright? You keep...avoiding."

[betagainstme]

She looks at him and blinks. "I'm..fine. I just. I know you're...actually anyone's parent here. But I've never known my family, that I can remember, and some days, the...parent-shaped hole hurts more. I need...to know if I can...if you can help that on the days I need it."

She bites her lip and shakes her head. "It sounds...stupid."

[ofthefamily]

How could someone have simply walked off and left you I'll never understand --

"Alice."

What does he say first? That he can't see Esme, who he turned into a vampire, in the same light as Emmett or Edward or Rosalie? That he can't remember what his parents looked like either since it has been so long? That she is here now, and none of it matters?

"It doesn't sound stupid, dear." Carlisle drops off his desk and plants a kiss in Alice's hair.



"If I know how to help, I always try."

[betagainstme]

Alice shuts her eyes when he kisses her head, and if she could tear up, she's certain she would. Her chest tightens regardless and when he pulls away, she follows him up, to wrap her arms around him and lean her forehead against his shoulder.

"Thank you."

[ofthefamily]

Carlisle's arms follow in movement, curving slowly across Alice's shoulder blades. It is not discomfort with Alice by any means; hugging is not something Carlisle is very accustomed to.

He'll learn.

"Now, we appear to have some time before nightfall. Anything else we can take care of?"

[betagainstme]

Alice pulls back and shrugs, smiling at him again. "I think all personal crises are over for now."

[ofthefamily]

"Just when I was starting to be of use. Damn it all."

[betagainstme]

"You won't ever fall out of use, Carlisle." Alice steps back toward the door. "I can See that."

[ofthefamily]

In about thirty years, he will think that the retort most applicable here has something to do with credit cards or being the last willing mannequin in the house.

For now, Carlisle moves back to his seat behind his desk, removing his bookmark with a flourish before picking up where he left off.