Disclosure:  Twilight is the property of Stephenie Meyers.  I take the characters out of time and see what happens.

Pre Edit Count –   1,761 Words

Song I listened to for this chapter: More of You by The Goo Goo Dolls

Previously:

Carlisle nods at the information. Then his phone rings, he answers it, and before he can say a thing, a male voice tells him, “Taking care of it, Milord. I got the information as the midget did. Char and I are heading it off. I may need to bribe those I can’t get to physically, but my knower says it will work.”

Thinking it through, Carlisle tells him, “Do what is needed. You know how to access it. And Peter? Thanks.”

A laugh comes through the phone, distinctly female, “You know he aint happier than when he can cause problems with your blessings. And from what he told me, he gets to have a lot of fun this time through. See you soon, Papa!” the phone call ends with that.

Carlisle winces. Bella looks up at him, “Papa?”

He sighs, as his hand rubs the back of his neck. “Funny that. There seems to be a fact that I had not known about…”

Now:

Bella is in the car, looking away as she tries to understand what Carlisle has told her.

Seems he had found a little girl and taken care of her for some years before he could find a family to take care of her. He had done it before meeting Esme, and after making Edward. She had called him Papa, and cried when he had left her.

Imagine his surprise when Peter brought his mate with him to meet Carlisle, and she had jumped into his arms crying, “Papa!!”   From then on, it had brought Peter and Charlotte to the coven more often, she wanting to see her Papa. It had also explained why she had been calmer as a newborn, even not knowing what Carlisle was, she saw similarities in Peter and therefore herself when she woke up to her treasured Papa.

Carlisle broke her thoughts, “Does it really bother, my lovely?”

She smiles as she looks at him, “No. It’s just hard to comprehend all these years and how intricately your family is woven together. I admit I am uneasy on how we are going to clean up the mess there, and how are we going to deal with Brad in the family.”

Carlisle chuckles as he shakes his head, then taking her hand in his, kisses it. “I love you, my Bella. You amaze me every day, and I look so forward to being with you in the future.” He glances at her adoringly, and she blushes.

He shakes his head, and then asks her, “Are you okay?”

She looks over at him, and seeing his concerned face, she sighs. “I am fine. That is no longer my life, and I have no need to go back to it. Him knowing won’t change anything. He let Jacob pull his stunts, and all he did was play up Jacob to me. The dream of Billy and Charlie to have their families brought together by marriage was more important than my wishes or health for that matter.”

Carlisle closes his eyes, because while her words are true, there is still a sliver of pain that strikes directly to his mate’s heart and he can feel it. He wants her happy, but he knows it is better for her in the long run to let go of mortals and turn her attention to the immortal world that is to become her home.

He makes himself a promise to try to keep her happy, but answers one of her concerns, “From what Jasper and Edward have told me, Brad was the last person there, and while they made a mess with him and some close hikers, it seems they brought humans to our house. Luckily, they did not go in. No matter how much they tried, they could not pass our markings. So the evidence is already gone, since we didn’t need anything tying us to it.”

Shuddering, Bella asks, “Does it become easier?”

Carlisle turns to her, “What?”

“Dealing with death in that way.”

Sighing, Carlisle tells her, “For me especially, yes. I deal with death in the ER a lot. As a King, unfortunately yes again. While I treasure human life, I cannot command my subjects to stop killing their food source. No matter how strong I am, it just is not possible. I can stop the needless killing of them. There was too much blood for it to be a death for substance. No, this is a blatant attack on me and mine. Jacob may have started this, but these nomads are flaunting themselves, and it is time for them to be hunted. First, I need to secure our home. Edward and Jasper took care of the kill that they left to cover my mark, and the patrols are going to be started, not the ones that were taken as a route for hunting. Evidently it is not enough.”

The last is said strongly, and Bella shudders. She then asks, “What about bagged blood?”

Carlisle looks to her with an eyebrow lifted. She clarifies, “You know blood from all the donations and such. Can’t it be used to feed from without resorting to killing? Since there is no way you guys can keep killing the way you are.”

Thinking it over, Carlisle taps his fingers on the steering wheel. “In the past bagged blood wasn’t fresh enough for us to use. But I can look into it now. What would concern me is the anticoagulant in it.”

Bella shrugs and asks, “How do you deal with it at the hospital?”

He sighs, “Blood transfusion is something I have avoided unless absolutely needed. By the time the patient needs the blood, it is to get their own blood to move. And blood has been separated into its basic components for the body, only what they need of the blood is given, not all of it like in the past.  Less chance of there being any issues.”  His eyes keep to the road, but glance at her every so often.

She lifts an eyebrow, “So what part does the vampire need to survive?” She wonders.

Carlisle thinks slowly, “I know that we both need erythrocytes or what you would know as red blood cells, leukocytes or white blood cells and thrombocytes.” She gives him a look and he hurriedly translate, “Platelets. Sorry.”

So she asks him, “What makes your eyes gold instead of red?”

He shrugs, “I am guessing that it is the nuclei. Mammals, mature ones lose their nucleus and organelles in order to carry more hemoglobin.”

Thinking, she asks, “Or is it more hemoglobin?” She sits there thinking about her classes on biology until she asks, “Is there any difference from drinking animal or human blood?”

He sighs, “It is harder to drink animal blood. There is always a thirst left over, and we are not quite as strong as we should be for our respective ages. Luckily, there has always been an issue of vampires being able to live long. We fight so much when we meet another that it thins us out. Except lately, there is a population boom happening. Caius thinks it is because we have spread out and there is an alpha here and on the Continent.”

Bella shakes her head, “You will research on your Alpha things and on so much more, but not on your food source? Couldn’t it be that the elder of your race is from when they drank blood? Any vampires during the bubonic plague would have subpar blood, and so on.”

Unable to keep the chuckles from coming out, Carlisle tells her, “I guess we will have some research to do.”

Bella shakes her head and tells Carlisle, “And you will have a newborn vampire. If it is easier to control on human, then why don’t you try it on him? He is going to need all the control he can get.”

His brow furrows, and he finally sighs, “Fine, but I will be drinking it with him. I don’t want him to be caught unaware because he is not used to the thirst.”

Bella is quiet, then she asks, “Will you hate me?”

Carlisle turns to her so fast, the car even jerked, “Never! Why would you think that?”

Not looking at him, she quietly states, “You are saying you will be drinking human blood. Did you not make a promise not to?”

Shaking his head at his mate, “I never made a vow, I only decided I didn’t want to kill. If this works, then not only will I not be killing, but I may be saving lives, and making my coven happier. We may need to own a contact company before it is all over, but no, sweetheart, I am not breaking a promise. If anything, I am upset with myself for not trying it once they made advancements in the blood packaging. Plus, my beast is happy with this idea, it will make you happier when you turn, and anything to do that, makes him happy.”

She looks up at him, and he smiles at her. “Who knows, they add something to the blood, which may mean we may need to mix the types of blood bags they have. But maybe it will turn our eyes another color. If not, then I guess I may have either brown or purple eyes.”

She laughs at the idea, “Brown. Purple makes me think of that horrible author who made up that vampire series and the stupid were-tiger. Purple eyes?”

He shakes his head, and soon they are talking and joking as they make their way home.

When they pull up to their house, Bella stares at it, and when her door suddenly opens, she looks at her mate standing outside. She cautiously gets out, and Carlisle seethes inside that anyone would make his mate hesitate about going into her own home.

Bella looks around, and then says in a small voice, “Nothing, not even the trace of a scent.”

He nods, wrapping her up in his arms. “I told you Edward and Jasper would make sure of it.” Inside Carlisle can smell what happened here, and his eyes turn dark in anger that someone thought they could go against him!   He will be teaching a lesson soon to some nomads.

A lesson that they need to learn, and if this is what happens from his old ways, Carlisle will be making sure with the punishment of these vampires, no one will ever go against him again. Or his mate.

Final count, 1,766 words.

Fairfarren~