Carlisle's Diary

Choices

Dear Diary:                                                    December 9, 2014

            I looked at Nessie as she asked the question; 'can we leave?' And I can't say that I was exactly surprised that she brought it up. I had been thinking about it for a while myself now. I hadn't mentioned anything because too much was always going on. So without sharing my thought process until all of our mind readers arrived, I wanted to hear what Nessie had to say on the topic.

"Well Nessie, what did you have in mind exactly?" I folded my hands in my lap and crossed my ankles. She could see I was taking her seriously so she relaxed and proceeded to explain to me her thought process.

"Ok grandpa, I know the family usually moves every 4 or 5 years not 3. But I personally have had more bad experiences here in NH then good ones. Or rather just really hard ones; the school shooting, the Volturi coming back, all these demons, that whole Carrie thing, Michelle getting injured by the children of the moon, and this latest loss to name a few. We've had a lot of great memories too, don't get me wrong but it's been so hard. You have a great life here and I wouldn't....couldn't really ask you to leave so perhaps just mom, dad, Jacob, Sparkles, and I could leave?" She asked uncertainly.

"Where would you go?" I asked curiously.

"I don't know. I haven't really thought it through that much; maybe Aspen or Canada. Somewhere, we haven't been in a while." She said biting her bottom lip. She got that habit from Bella, I smiled to myself.

"Well Nessie, this definitely deserves a family meeting. Let's go downstairs and gather everyone to discuss." I said standing up.

"Are you sure? I don't want upset anyone." She gulped.

"Don't worry, you won't." I said with a smile as I placed my hand on her shoulder and we walked out of my home office.

            We made our way downstairs to the living room where some of our family were already milling around. Others were called in as well as the Watchers who obviously foresaw this meeting. As everyone trouped in and sat down, I quickly recapped the conversation that Nessie and I had and then voiced my opinion for the first time to my family. I knew the Watchers already knew so they just nodded smiling. My family was very surprised. Jasper spoke first:

"Carlisle, are you sure?"

"I am. I had noticed subtle changes in how we were treated by the people here in Hanover. Our not aging can't be explained by 'plastic surgery or good nutrition' anymore." I said with a small laugh.

"So this means we're moving again?" Edward said as a statement of fact.

"No please, you all don't have to." Nessie broke in, nervous again.

"It's alright Nessie, this is a choice that I knew I had to make sooner or later. Besides, you know we all move as a family. A now much larger family." I said looking at Rogue who winked at me with a smile. At that point she stepped in and said:

"And we can make it a ton easier for all of you. Just like luggage and things, we can 'poof' houses. So as long as you know where you are going, we can 'poof' your homes to your new piece of property so you don't have to build or buy new ones. I know where Carlisle has decided on moving and we'll scope out the locations more thoroughly so we know where to place which houses. Not to mention, do some up to code work on the houses to make them livable for the harsher conditions."

            That took some getting used to. Moving houses? Wow. We had a main Cullen house already at this location but it needed a serious remodel plus added on wings and the up to code refurbishment. Esme, Emmett, Rose, Alice, and Jasper were up to that task. While Rogue was explaining the house moving and such, I had my wheels turning in my head about everything else we had to do here before we left.