Sorry it's been so long! This is the second ff I've updated tonight!

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Chapter 17

The Day Before the Fight

Esme POV

Carlisle was too frantic. It was agony just to watch him.

He was running his fingers through his hair and gliding his fingers across the keys of his laptop faster than I'd ever seen before. 'Carlisle... calm down...' I whispered, standing up from the bed and walking to his side, closing my fingers around his and smiling as I felt his wedding ring press into my palm.

'She's tearing us apart,' he murmured, squeezing my fingers and closing his eyes. His breathing was slow and calculated, more false than I had ever heard it. 'She's going to kill us all, Esme, to get to him. I can't watch this family... I can't...'

'Hey, you look at me, Carlisle,' I turned his chin to face me. 'You look in these eyes, Carlisle, do you think I'm going to let her do that?'

He looked at me for several, painstaking seconds, then let out a snort of laughter. 'Watch out, Victoria, Esme's on a vamp-hunt.'

'I can be scary,' I said moodily.

'I'm serious, Esme. She'll kill Bella, and she'll kill Alice and Rosalie and Jasper and Emmett and - '

I cut off his words with a kiss, and he cupped my face in his fingers, tracing the tips through my hair. 'I love you,' I pulled him to his feet, wrapping my arms around him and resting my forehead against his shoulder. 'We're gonna be okay.'

He held me in his arms, and for a few moments even I believed what I was saying. 'Esme, promise me,' Carlisle pulled away, 'that no matter what happens tomorrow, you will always know that I love you. I will always love you.'

'Ssh,' I pressed my finger to his lips, 'nothing's going to happen.'

'Please. I can't go there tomorrow without having...without having said... said what I need to say. Because I – I don't know what's going to happen, Ez, I don't know!' His eyes were glassing with the near-impossible vampire tears, and I bit back my own, stroking his cheekbones with my fingertips.

'Don't be afraid, Carlisle. Nothing can happen as long as we're together. I'm there with you, and you're there with me.'

'There's too many of them, Esme,' he choked, shaking his head and pushing the hair from my forehead with trembling fingers. 'We can't win this fight. Please just go, just go so I know that you're okay! Because no matter what happens, you can't die, Ez. You can't go to hell, you're too brilliant, too beautiful and perfect and the world can't be without you.'

'None of us are going to hell,' I clenched my jaw, 'none of us are going to die. I watch your back, you watch mine. We've got the wolves and - '

'Please stop talking,' he whispered, and I froze, looking deep into those amazing eyes. 'Just please, Ez, let me have this one last night, no matter what happens tomorrow.'

I kissed him again, so softly that I barely tasted the sweet, minty freshness. He kissed me back, lifting me up and carrying me over to the bed, laying me down and kissing my ear... my cheek... my neck. One thing was for sure. We were made for each other. Every inch of our bodies fitted together like pieces of a puzzle, like when whatever God there was had made Carlisle, the most perfect being, he needed something to finish the product...make it complete.

I was the addition, created only to love Carlisle – that was all I wanted to do. That was all I wanted as I pushed off his shirt and he pressed his lips to the tender skin stretched across the collar bones. It was all I wanted as he rolled over and I rested against his chest. It was all I wanted as our legs interlinked and he hitched my leg up around his.

#

Vampires can't sleep, but I felt as though I did. I fell into a sort of dream as I closed my eyes and stroked my fingers in circles on the bare skin of his back. I only jerked back to reality when I realised it was time. I wasn't sure how long we'd lain there... just holding each other together to stop ourselves falling apart.

'I can't, Ez, I don't think I can watch it.'

'You'll just have to prevent it then,' I said softly, kissing his chest and sitting up, pulling on a pair of black jeans and a blue shirt that was still filled with Carlisle's scent. 'Carlisle, you're always the one being strong. I don't know how! So please, before I make a complete fool out of myself, get up and get ready to deal with this once and for all!'

#

I hadn't expected there to be such a definitive start to the fight, but they charged. We charged. I didn't have time to take a last look around at my family. My best friends and my children and my world – Carlisle.

The strength of the newborn hitting me seemed to dislodge my senses, and pure instinct set in. I couldn't hear or feel – I could barely see. I just lashed out and prayed to the God who despised me. A flash of Rosalie's hair almost made my heart stop again, even if it never started. One was still alive.

'ESME!' that was Emmett, and I whirled around just in time to avoid a huge newborn who had lunged himself at me.

Two alive.

'THERE'S TOO MANY!' Alice screamed, knocking away a smaller vampire as it charged towards me.

Three alive.

Her words were cut off as she was thrown backwards by two at once, and I wasn't quick enough as one got his arm around her neck. I looked straight into her eyes and saw the coming death reflected in my own. But in less than a split second Jasper had appeared behind the two of them and snapped the vampire's own neck.

Four alive. Just.

But it didn't matter how much I hated myself for thinking it, but I wasn't seeing the one face I needed to. 'Carlisle?' I croaked, not even loud enough to hear above the shouts around me. Jasper's training was useless – they were too strong. And then I saw him, and it didn't matter that we were going to die. It didn't matter that I was thrown metres in the air by a newborn. All that mattered was that my eyes never left his, and he caught my weakened body as I fell to the ground.

'Alice is right,' he shouted, 'there's too many!'

'It's your turn,' I murmured, pushing him out of the fray to the line of the trees.

He looked at me with questioning eyes. 'To what?'

'Stop talking. Let me have this one last moment.'

And in direct opposite to the previous night, he kissed me, and I ignored the group of newborns charging at us that I could see from the corner of my eye. In a way, it was sinful perfection.

Dun dun duuun

Pleaseee review, it will help save Carlisle and Ezzie!