Blood Moon [a Twilight Saga FanFiction]

Who Are You Part 2

THE REMAINDER OF THE DAY, I couldn't get it out of my head that Carlisle was engaged. I couldn't remember seeing him with a woman any time I saw him while people watching. It was just, strange, to picture him with anyone.
     Then again, maybe that was because I hardly knew him.
     So I sat, and waited, for Johnathon and, hopefully, Carlisle, to get home so I could bombard him with questions about this Victoria.
     It was the longest, and most boring wait of my life, but when they finally returned, I stood with Laurel but as she ran to embrace and kiss her husband, I pulled Carlisle back outside.
     "Who is Victoria?" I asked immediately.
     "She's my fiancee," Carlisle answered nervously.
     "How come I've never seen her with you before? I've never seen you with any woman beside Elling!"
     "Because she doesn't like being in the public face and in case you haven't noticed, our family is pretty public."
     "I haven't really been a part of the family long enough to notice," I snapped. "But I understand what you mean, our father is the head of the church." I sighed but didn't let him back inside when he tried to get back past me. "How'd you meet her?"
     "Church," Carlisle shrugged. "Are you going to pester me about this?"
     "Do you love her?"
      His face went blank, of course, I knew the answer. Since the dream, his memory, there's only one person he will ever love. It made me feel sort of bad for the woman I had never met.
     "Are you still going to marry her? Even if you don't love her?"
     "It's not like we can break up, it'll ruin her," Carlisle sighed. "No man will ever touch her. She'll have to move town, I can't do that to her."
     "So you're just going to hurt yourself by making yourself marry a person you don't love?"
     "I know she'll forgive me and that's all that matters... although..."
     "What?"
     "Your dream, do you remember me ever being married before Esme?" Carlisle asked.
     "How would I know that and you won't?"
     "You had a gift," Carlisle stated. "A gift of knowing people's pasts. I wondered if you knew."
     "Sorry, Carlisle. I hardly remember the dream now, only that it happened, and how it ended. I'm sorry."
     "Don't be," Carlisle sighed and turned to look down the street.
     "I had a gift?"
     He laughed and finally walked past me and I followed him inside.
     "You know, it's come to attention, that I don't really know you, Carlisle. I know how you walk, I know your daily schedule because you used to walk past my alley every day. But I don't know you."
     "What do you want to know?"
     He sat and Laurel and Johnathon moved into a different room... by smell they moved to the kitchen and began preparing tea.
     I sat beside Carlisle and we just talked. I found out his favourite colour was chestnut, brown. He didn't tell me why and said I'd remember one day. I learnt his favourite time of day was midnight, or when the moon was at the highest point of the night sky, his favourite season was Spring... or the season of the new birth. He loved piano music, loved to read. Loved science, which surprised me because of how religious our father was.
     "Science?" I repeated, pushing for an explanation.
     "Our world is going to grow so much. Next century, there will be a thing called electricity. It will power, everything. And just you wait, Elizabeth, indoor plumbing will be amazing. We won't really need it as much as humans, but... wow. Humans are going to advance so much, and it'll be beautiful. With the help of logic, technology, and science, we can save lives. I did, save lives."
     "And you will again," I encouraged Carlisle quietly. Even Carlisle had gone to a whisper so Laurel and Johnathon couldn't hear in the next room. "Our futures can't have changed that much just because you know the secrets of the night that I know. I have to believe you'll meet her again, you'll fall in love with her again."
     "I never fell out of it."
     My heart hurt for him. His love and affection for a woman not even born, his compassion for the human woman he still loved but no longer wanted to wed, for his heart didn't belong to her anymore.
     And then the tears started.
     "It's amazing," I sobbed. "How much love you have in your heart, brother. You're love for Victoria and not wanting to hurt her. Your love for Esme who isn't even alive yet, but you're so loyal and honest and..." I could no longer talk, I just kept crying.
     Which didn't make sense, but it sort of did. They were happy tears. But then Carlisle started laughing at me.
     "Hormones," he laughed.
     "Why are you laughing at me?!" I snapped, and he stopped instantly. "And hormones, what is that?"
     "You're pregnant, so the chemicals inside your body are going borderline insane. Hense, the unexplained crying, mood swings, nausea, etcetera."
     "You are talking a language I do not understand, brother."
     "You will one day," Carlisle said. "Now, enough about me. What about you? I hardly knew you in the other life, and once got berated for it by your husband. So, tell me about you."
     "There's not much to tell."
     "What's your favourite colour?"
     I told him I didn't have one, it all depended on the day, time, and how I was feeling when he asked. At that moment, it had been the blue hidden behind the clouds in the sky, but it was likely to change by sunset.
     Carlisle and I kept talking, kept learning about each other, all through tea, and up until he realised it was time to return home.
    "Elizabeth, be strong, alright?" Carlisle whispered to me as I hugged him goodbye. "Life will be better now for you. You'll see. I love you, sister. And use that art set Elling bought you, you have a beautiful hand with paint."
     "They'll recognise the style," I whispered back. "I am The Blood Artist remember?"
     "These two haven't been following it," he responded. "They don't like to think of murder. So, paint, you'll enjoy it, and find it calming. I promise you."
     I then watched him walk back down the dark street of London until he disappeared. Part of me worried for him walking alone at that time of night, but something in the back of my gut told me that he would be fine. Someone out there was watching over him as he walked through the dangerous night, and I wasn't sure if it was someone from my dream and his past or God, but someone was and that made me feel okay.
     Laurel only smiled at me when I went back inside. She gave me a rug to warm myself up with and for the first time, I sat down with the canvas and paints that Elling bought... for me... they were mine. My canvas and paints... and got to work.
     I wasn't sure what I was doing when I started, but I just... painted, and I began drifting into my own little world.
     I must have fallen asleep at some point because one moment I'm painting, the next I'm swimming in a sea of colour and I'm controlling the flow.