Alice's POV
Carlisle had called us into his office, and, when we got there , he was
typing something on his laptop. When he saw us all in the room, he stop typing and
stood.
"I want you all to go ahead home. I have a patient that may take a few minutes or may
take hours, and I don't want you to have to wait. I'll see you at home."
"Ah...o....Okay, dad.....We'll see you at home...." We left in Edward's car, a bit
suspicious about Dad's request. When he came home, we knew something was wrong. He
burst through the door, and started up the stairs. He was moving so fast and was
focused on the floor, so none of us saw his face. Esme's family was with us, too,
so Jasper grabbed me before I could run up the steps after Dad.
"Don't. It's dangerous. He's furious....outraged...hurt..."
"This has something to do with Esme, I know it!" I was almost in tears. Esme had hurt
Carlisle so much....I had hated to look into his eyes the past few days because of
how much pain he was in because of her. He loved her so much, yet she resented him.
"Edward?....What's wrong? What's happened?"
"It's bad, Alice. Once he's calmed down, you need to go up and talk to him."
"Jasper?"
"It's safe now. He's calmed down."
"Where's his father? I want him staying out of this!"
"Grandpa's in the living room, Alice. He didn't even notice any of us were here."
"Alright." I ran up the stairs and to his office door. I knocked first, and when I
didn't get an answer, I just opened it. "Dad? Are you okay?..." He was lying on his
back on his bed, something I knew had to hurt him because of the lashes from the
whip his father beat him with. His pants were ripped off a bit below the knee, his
shirt in shreds beside his bed, and his shoes in leather strips in the corner near
the doorway. "Dad?" He didn't look at me, didn't respond. "Dad, Edward knows what
happened. He'll tell me if you don't."
"Edward knows, tell me something I don't know! He ALWAYS knows!" His voice was
dripping with disgust, but not for Edward, for himself.
"Tell me what happened. We won't tell anyone else." He turned to me then, and his eyes
were a bright, flamboyant red. I gasped. Had he killed someone? "Dad! No! You...You
didn't..."
"No." He said, shaking his head, his voice sad now. "I didn't kill her...." He sighed,
sitting up, adjusting himself so he was next to me. "She...she dragged me into a closet,
and we started stripping each other down...." He sighed. "It was just supposed to be
an innocent, nipping at her neck...." his voice broke then, and he shut his eyes
tightly and turned away from me. "I couldn't resist, Alice....All these years of
resisting, I can hold my own in SURGERY! And I can't resist when a nurse drags me
into a closet." He sighed again. "I ran out of there as fast as I could, after I...
was fully clothed again, of course," He laughed humorlessly. "I went to the morgue,
surely I could take as much as I wanted there...I only took as much as I could without
being noticed. Then I got into my car and...came here."
"Dad...I-"
"No, I haven't told you the worst part." He turned to face me again. "The whole time,
all I saw....all I could think about....was her....Esme...."
NOW I was mad. I got up from beside him, and started to the door. "I'll be right back."
"No! Alice! Don't leave! Please! I need you!" He was standing now, and had started
toward me when I turned around. He sounded utterly hysterical.
"Dad...I'll be back shortly. It's okay. I won't leave you." I kissed his cheek before
I walked out of his office. I drove to Esme's house and explained everything to her.
We drove back to my house together, and when we walked inside, Jasper was standing at
the doorway.
"Your father went hunting. He's still upset." He glared at his mother. "Don't you dare
hurt him again. He's a good man." He walked to the living room.  Soon, Carlisle walked
through the front door and stopped dead when he saw Esme.
"Alice...Don't do this."
"Dad...She loves you..."
He suddenly seemed angry, suddenly showing all the pain Esme had put him through. "Which
is why you hurt me, right Esme? Why you screamed at me, told me how much you HATED me!"
"Carlisle...." She stepped foreward, unsure of his reaction at first. He was tense, his
jaw tigh,t his hands in fists..."I didn't mean any of it. I....I read somewhere, in a
magazine, that guys like it when we play 'hard to get'. I see now that you're not like
that. You're different. I love that about you." She reached up to stroke his cheek with
the backside of her hand, and he relaxed almost immediately, his expression turning
soft. Esme gasped and backed away then, leaving dad stunned. "Y...Your eyes...."
"N...No! Esme! Please! Let me explain!" He did explain, and Esme relaxed. She noticed
Dad's scar on his neck, and reached out to stroke it. Dad hated his scar to even be
seen, let alone touched. He always said it sent a jolt of pain through his body.
When Carlisle realized what Esme was doing, he tilted his head to hide the scar and
tightly shut his eyes.
"Shhh..." She stroked his cheek. "What's wrong? You don't like your scar touched?"
"No....." He opened his eyes and relaxed, pulling her close to him. "No, I don't,
actually."
"Oh. Okay." she smiled and hugged him, and he wrapped his arms around her waist. "This
feels so right. You know how unblieveably soft you are?"
Dad laughed. "Yes, it does feel right, and...ah....sure, its an off day if someone
doesn't tell me i'm like a giant blonde-haired teddy bear?" He laughed again. He
was so happy with her. I walked out of the room before it got too far for me.
Esme's POV
I leaned in to kiss Carlisle, and he lost his fingers in my hair. I unbuttoned
his shirt and threw it to the floor, and wrapped my arms around him. When I pressed my
hands agains his back, I felt something rough and jagged.  He groaned, but it didn't
sound pleasured. I opened my eyes and saw him trying to get away from me. Had I done
something wrong? Had I hurt him? "Wh...What's wrong?"
"My back...." He croaked. Surely, that wasn't bone sticking out of his back.
"What's wrong with your back?" Apparently, he was in pain, because he was down on his
knees, groaning. I saw what was wrong now. His back was absolutely COVERED in long,
deep wounds that criss-crossed across his whole back. "Carlisle...." I leaned down
beside him. "What happened?..."
"I...It's nothing." He stood up and wrapped his arms around me again.
"I'm so sorry....I...I had no idea."
"That's exactly right. You had no idea. You have no reason to be sorry." He rose to
his feet again and wrapped his arms around my waist. He kissed my forehead, but I stood
on my tip-toes and kissed him full-on. He tightened the grip he had around my waist
and smiled, kissing me back. When we broke, we were both panting.
"Hey, I'll be right back. Alice and I have a surprise for you."
His eyebrows pulled up in concern. "Surprise?...."
"It's good, I swear. All of the kids are helping. You stay here." He threw a shirt and
new pants on and followed me down the stairs. I left with the kids, and got drove to
my house to get my stuff. The surprise was moving in with them.
When we got back to Carlisle's house, there was a trail of blood leading from
the door up the stairs. Alice's face paled, and she bolted up the stairs. I followed
her, and screamed when I got to Carlisle's bedroom.
Carlisle lay propped up against the wall, covered in blood. I ran to his side, and he
growled, scared. "Shhh. It's me, Carlisle. It's okay."
Alice flitted beside me. "Did Grandpa do this to you?!" Carlisle nodded.
"What?..." I said, thoroughly confused.
"His father beats him. If he doesn't do ONE THING right, his father beats him. It's
never been this bad before, though."
I looked down at Carlisle. That was what those wounds on his back were. "Does he have
a whip?"
"Yes. That's mainly what he uses."
"Alice, get me a towel, please, quickly." Carlisle's neck was absolutely hemmoraging.
It looked like that was where he was losing the most blood, not that he would die
from blood loss, but he would be thirsty. Alice came back with a towel, and I folded it
up and pressed it to Carlisle's neck. He growled again and squirmed, but I held him
there. "It's okay. You're alright." Alice was there with another towel, and I whiped
the blood from his face and kissed his cheek. He lay his head on my shoulder,
exhausted. How could a father do something like this to his son? It was unreal.
"C....cold......" He choked out. He was going into shock. I had to get the bleeding
stopped.
It only took a few minutes to get the bleeding under control and have his
wounds wrapped. All in all, he had a broken shoulder, broken ribs, whipping wounds on
his back, his father tore his neck open where his scar from being turned was, a big
bruise on his jaw where his father had kicked him, and bruises all over, but they
were the least of our worries. Alice held him upright while I wrapped his wounds, and
when we were done, she put all the things away for me.
"It's time to move him."
"Can you carry him?"
"Of course. Can you pull back the bed covers for me so I can lie him down?"
"Yeah." Alice bolted ahead of me, and pulled back the blankets. I picked Carlisle up,
and he groaned.
"It's okay. I know it hurts. It'll stop in a minute."
"...So tired......"
"I know. Just stay awake a little longer." I lay him in the bed on his side, then
helped him turn on his stomach. Alice covered him up, and I stroked his hair and the
back of his neck. "You can go to sleep now, honey. I love you." I kissed his cheek.
"...Love you....." He was asleep before I could even pull away from him. I sat beside
him, still stroking his hair.
"Why did his father beat him this time?"
"Because he's dating someone. His father likes to have all of Carlisle's attention.
Like...if Carlisle's reading, his father will take the book out of his hands and
demand his attention."
"Hmmmmmm....Do Carlisle and his father spend much time together?"
"No. Not at all. His father's too grouchy, he won't do anything. Dad's tried."
"I wonder if they did something together if he would stop that."
"I don't know. But, Dad's in no condition to do anything right now."
"No. Not at all." We just sat there for a while, watching Carlisle. By the fact that it
was just Alice and I, and nobody else had come up yet, I could tell that Alice was
closest to Carlisle. After a while, she buried her face in her hands, and I could hear
her sobbing. "Alice, honey, what's wrong?"
"Usually...I...I'm here to p...protect him..." She sobbed, "B...But I w-wasn't....here
this time...a-and..look at how bad it got!"
"Honey, it's okay. It's not your fault. It's not anybody's fault except for his
father's. It's okay." I walked to the other side of the bed and held her. "What do
you mean, protect him? Did you walk in on them?"
She nodded. "W...When I heard....Dad...s-screaming....I would...w-walk in."
"Honey, your father's going to be fine. It's not your fault. He'll be okay. Trust me."
Within a few weeks, Carlisle was fine, and we had a big bonfire to burn the whip.