Long overdue, I know. Here's the latest instalment for all those still reading.

Disclaimer: All characters owned and created by Stephenie Meyer.

This chapter is unbeta'ed – any errors are mine and I apologise in advance.

~o.O.o~

All I Want to Hear

Chapter 15

Sofia and Carlisle talk for hours, a voyage of rediscovery.

Edward eats the meal that Carlisle has already prepared for him, watching and listening, seeing a side of Carlisle he hoped but never dreamed he would meet. His love is animated, shining from within, the sight of which gives Edward intense joy. When the day reaches its midpoint he makes his apologies to Sofia, his own day drawing to a close. She rises, her arms open, drawing him into a tight hug that robs him of breath, leaving only love to sustain him. He holds himself together and, giving her a beaming smile, he leaves the room.

At the foot of the staircase, Carlisle catches up with him. His eyes are still tinged with red, his beautiful, naked heart evident in his shining gaze. Reaching for Edward, they sink into a deep kiss, each pouring as much love as they can into it until they can be alone. When Edward moves to leave, Carlisle holds tight to his hand and for a moment they just wallow in their happiness before their fingers slide free, leaving Edward to climb the stairs alone.

Carlisle returns to his mother, finding her with his photo album open on her lap. She touches each page tenderly, crinkling plastic the only sound in the room aside from her breathing. Looking up, she smiles and turns the album, displaying the picture of them all as a family.

"I always loved this picture. I have it in a frame at home. It was the last time we were all together before Rosalie left." She sighs.

"How is she, Mama? Rosalie? Is she happy?"

Sofia nods, reaching for her purse.

"She is. She's only been home once since Sebastian was born, but she sends us lots of pictures. He's two now." She holds out a small album, open to pages of a smiling Rosalie with a wide-eyed little boy on her knee. He takes the album and turns the pages, assimilating these images into his own life. There are pictures of the family at the beach, building sandcastles with their little boy, the ocean grey under a lacklustre British sky.

"Alistair is very busy and they can't get away much as a family. He works high profile cases that are often in the news. I wish she would come back for a visit, even for a few days. It would be wonderful to see them again." Her voice grows wistful. "I wonder if she doesn't want to come because of what your father did to you. She asked about you often after, well, after what happened. I had to tell her that we had lost touch. She stopped asking then. She knew it hurt me, you see. It's so hard as a parent when your children aren't around." She squeezes his hand between her own. "I swear I didn't know until now what your father had done."

Shaking her head, she smiles, the clouds of sadness clearing from her eyes. She releases his hands and for a moment Carlisle feels the loss.

"But now I can tell her that I found you and that you're happy and settled, with a career and a wonderful man at your side. Maybe she'll come home to visit again – the three of us could spend some time together and you could meet your nephew."

Nephew. A new life in the family.

Carlisle's fingers worry at his hair, the thoughts running fast and unchecked beneath the fragile surface.

"Edward asked me not long ago if I thought I was an uncle now. To be honest, the idea had never occurred to me until that moment. I never allowed myself to think about the past, although it haunted me, I can't lie. Now I find out he was right." He sinks forward, his hands clasped behind his neck.

Sofia watches her son's anxious behaviour, wanting to understand.

"You said that Edward rescued you, but you didn't say what from. Did you just mean from living alone in New York, or was there more to it?"

Fingers scrape through his hair now, a flash of pain-induced focus sharpening his thoughts.

"I hid there, Mama. I hid from everything. I suppose you'd say I became a recluse. Edward, he saw through it all, gave me something to live for and, crucially, he gave me the time to process what was happening. He stayed on the phone when I could barely speak, just keeping an open line for comfort." He drags his hands from his abused hair. "He saw someone worth fighting for when I couldn't see a reason to fight at all. He never rushed me, never pushed. He waited for me to be ready for a relationship. He was so patient. It didn't happen overnight, that's for sure."

Sofia tenderly places her hand on his arm, her thumb making soothing motions over the skin.

"Because he saw you, my son, the real you. He saw your heart."

Carlisle ducks his head. "He showed me his from the very start. There's no pretence with him, no charade. I fell for him the first time I heard his voice, which sounds crazy but there it is. Meeting him just confirmed what I already knew. He's wonderful. I'd say I don't deserve him, but he'd chide me for it. I'd never have found you without him and his perseverance. He has no family of his own and has spent so many years alone. He didn't want that for me when there was a chance of something real…"

"And now here we are. I still can't believe it." Her finger chucks him under the chin in a gesture, both familiar and comforting, from his childhood. His helpless smile tugs at her heart, her little boy once again sitting before her, the years stripped away in a blink.

"I need more coffee. Mama?" He holds up his mug. She nods, handing hers to him. He walks through to the kitchen, setting the mugs down and allowing himself a moment to breathe, to process. His head feels overloaded; it will take time to acclimatise, to incorporate these newly learned truths into the blank pages of his own backstory. More than anything he craves Edward's arms around him, grounding him in the now.

Making the coffee, he carries it through to the lounge room and sets it down, seeing the 'tell' of her twisting hands, absently rubbing the pad of her thumb back and forth over her other thumbnail.

"What is it?" His soft, low words are hesitant. She looks up with a half-smile.

"I was wondering what to tell your father." She makes a conscious effort to still her hands, splaying her fingers before placing them on her knees. "He knows I've come to find you, but I don't know how I'm going to make him see that I need to be a part of your life, lives, from now on. If you and Edward will permit me to be." Her anguish is evident in her impassioned eyes. "I can't walk away again, my son. At last, I know that you are happy and safe, but I can't just leave it like this, exchanging stilted phone calls on Christmas and birthdays with your father's disapproval clouding our words. We've lost so much time and I want our family to be healed."

"He's not going to change, Mama. Everything that's happened, every returned letter… he had the chance to open and read them, to accept my remorse at losing everything I loved. I begged for forgiveness in every one, but he did nothing but mark them return to sender, still sealed. He didn't want you to come here. I can't see him ever wanting me in his life again. I've spent years wishing I could change that." His voice breaks, vulnerable, mourning the loss and the wasted time.

She shakes her head.

"But he didn't stop me coming. He could've come after me, but he didn't. He shouted and cursed, but he let me leave."

He looks at his mother, noting the straightened spine, the firm set of her shoulders.

"I don't want you to make trouble for yourself, Mama. I can't come between you again. I couldn't bear that."

He sees the defiance in her stance, remembering when his father had yelled at her for making him a soft mama's boy. She had stayed silent when he ranted but been full of cuddles and cookies when his father was out of earshot. She had listened to him, helped him on his chosen path, fought against his father's demands and restrictions.

She was not weak. She had lived with his father long enough to choose her battles and win by whatever means were necessary.

"He has lost the high ground now. What he has done to this family is no longer a secret from me. I will find a way. I promise it, my son."

Carlisle nods, trusting in his mama's words.

~o.O.o~

He cooks them lunch, the two of them talking while he works. She commends his cooking, tasting as they go, remarking that he has her flair for flavours.

When their plates are empty before them, Carlisle knows it is time to tell her the one thing that may cause her additional pain.

"Mama, you should know that I changed my name. I was sure that Father would want no record of me and so when I chose my pen name of Cullen I decided to make it permanent. Legally."

He feels he has disappointed her, discarding his given name, disassociating himself from the vineyard and the family line.

Her face drops but she nods in understanding.

"That explains why you disappeared. I tried to find some record of you but it was as if you had dropped off the face of the earth. I understand now but I can't lie to you - it pains me, but I see why you felt it necessary."

"You have to know it wasn't to punish you, Mama. It was a way to hide, a way to escape pointing fingers. I needed a clean slate."

She is quiet, sipping her glass of water. A fresh wave of anxiety crashes over Carlisle. Setting down the glass, she sighs.

"That will be a hard thing to explain to your father. He sent you away, yet his stubbornness will override common sense. I will find a way to make him see that you did this for him, to spare him further embarrassment as you said. You and I both know that I don't see it that way." Her sad smile betrays the hurt in her heart.

"I can change it. If it would make everything right again, I could change it back."

She shakes her head.

"Your name is who you are. You've made a life and a career being who you are now. The new you fell in love and made a future. It would be insensitive to ask you to do that. I want you to know that I am proud to be Carlisle Cullen's mother." She pauses.

"I need to call Rosalie. She'll be so happy that I've found you…" Hesitating, she looks at Carlisle with pleading eyes. "Can I call her? I need to share this wonderful news."

He breathes deeply, concentrating on blocking out the roaring blood pounding through his ears.

"Of course, Mama." Together they walk back into the lounge room for her to retrieve her purse.

"I'll just—"

He indicates the door before she grasps his hand.

"Let me. I'll break the news to her and answer her questions. Yes?" She peers at him, concerned as only a mother can be. Pressing a kiss to his hair, she extricates her phone from her purse and jabs at her phone screen with a fingertip, finding her contacts list at last.

"Are you sure you're okay to do this now?" Her words are soft and concerned, not wanting to push him if he is not ready, but he gathers himself and nods. She steps outside of the room to make the call.

Sitting alone on the sofa, Carlisle is crippled with anxiety, his stomach knotted with barbed wire.

How will Rosalie react to the news? Will she want to speak to him? Will she even care that he has been found again after so much unpleasantness within the family unit? Will his big sister hear him out after all this time?

He hears his mother greet Rosalie and some of this fear is allayed by her taking the reins in the conversation, explaining the situation, defending his actions and explaining their father's part in the family rift. She speaks quietly, pacing the hallway until she feels the moment is right to reintroduce her children.

Upstairs, Edward is struggling to sleep despite his weariness, the excitement of the day whirling around in his thoughts. Fastening his robe over his pyjamas, he makes his way downstairs to where he sees Sofia on her phone, her free hand fluttering in the air during the one-sided conversation he can hear. Crossing the hallway, he slips into the room on bare feet and sits down next to his love, seeing his face light up with relief. He realises then just how hard today has been for Carlisle, the stress and fear alongside the joy.

Sofia re-enters the room and Carlisle looks up, the questions etched on his face easy to read. She hands him the small cell phone and nods in encouragement. Seeing Carlisle's hand shake, Edward reaches for the other and holds it tight, offering him all the strength he can give.

Carlisle's posture is rigid, muscles tensed in fight or flight response. Even now he fears rejection, persecution by those who should love him most. Edward is his constant, his touchstone, without whom his fragile, brave new world would crumble to ashes in his outstretched hands.

Taking the phone, he feels beads of sweat form on his lip and wipes them away with the heel of his hand in a feverish gesture. His throat clicks, no words come. The sound of a familiar voice drifts into his ear and his eyes fill.

"Carlisle? Is that really you?" She sounds the same, maybe a touch more world-weary, her life so different to what went before. There's a catch in her voice, and he hears his own rasped response clawing its way from his tight throat.

"Lee-Lee?"

The whispered name from their childhood opens the floodgates and he hears her quiet sobs across the miles between them.

"Carlisle… I can't believe it. She did it, she found you. She never stopped trying. Carlisle, I swear I had no idea about what happened between you and Papa. He wouldn't talk about you when I asked how you were." Her snuffles drift down the line.

"I know. I only just worked it all out too. He hid everything from Mama." He looks into his mother's anguished face. "None of my letters ever made it to her and, little by little, I gave up hope. I thought I'd never get to speak to any of you again."

"You were alone all this time? Oh…" He hears the regret in her voice. "Mama, she cried a lot on the phone to me. She took it hard, missing us both, but you… you were her baby boy. Growing up, I resented you for getting more of her attention, but having Sebastian I get that now. I would move mountains to be with him. I can't imagine how she coped with losing you." Her voice is thick with tears. "With Alistair's crazy work schedule we don't get home often. I should try harder."

"Are you happy though? With your life? You did the right thing, moving away?"

He can hear her smile cut through the tears.

"Oh yes. Alistair and I are so happy and Sebastian is just the most perfect thing I've ever done. I'd love him to know his uncle, for you to be a part of his life. And I so want my brother back."

"I'd like that, but Alistair… we don't really know each other and I-I…" He swallows hard. "Lee-Lee, I'm involved with a wonderful man. We live together here in Maine and he's everything. He's turned my world around." He gazes at Edward, rumpled and sleepy but here, right here where he belongs alongside him. "Would Alistair be okay with that? Because I'd love to see you and meet my nephew."

They say little, yet volumes are shared, each reassuring the other that they're okay, that their lives are good and fulfilling and they know they are loved.

When it gets too much, he passes the phone to Edward who is shocked, but introduces himself, happy to meet more of his love's family, to be accepted as one of them. Numbers are exchanged, promises are made. Edward hands the phone back to Sofia to say her goodbyes, feeling Carlisle sag against him. Years of guilt and self-loathing are peeling away, freeing the tender, precious soul so long trapped beneath Carlisle's own choking fear.

Edward reaches for Carlisle, his arms enfolding his love to ground him, to tether him to the present so that he can no longer drift backward into the darkness. When warm breath caresses his neck, regular and calm, he feels himself slide into sleep's velvet clutches.

The whole exchange has been overwhelming for all concerned.

~o.O.o~

Edward awakens on the sofa, a blanket pulled up to his chin, the room quiet and empty, door closed. For a moment he panics, wondering if he is late for work but then realising in an instant that Carlisle would never have let that happen. He swings his legs out from under the warm blanket, wrapping it around himself, and heads for the door.

He hears voices coming from the kitchen and stumbles in the direction of coffee. The clock tells him he's been asleep for a couple of hours and should really head back to bed - tonight's shift is going to be a killer on so little rest.

Carlisle looks up from where he and Sofia are sitting, his smile blossoming. Edward flusters.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to drive you both out of the room. You should've woken me…"

Carlisle's smile is so fond that it's all Edward can do to maintain eye contact, remembering that they're not alone. Sofia brushes off his embarrassment, reaching to rub his arm in a reassuring gesture. Carlisle makes more coffee, knowing Edward will need it. Holding out the steaming mug, he watches Edward wiggle a hand free, yawning into the blanket. His hair is mussed, his eyes exhausted.

"You didn't drive us out. You fell asleep and so I settled you on the sofa. We came out here for coffee a little while ago." He watches him sip his coffee, staggering to a chair. "It's still early, why don't you go back to bed? In fact, I know this is wrong, but," he frowns. "Why don't you call into work and take the night off? I know you have personal days to use and this way they have time to cover your shift. Today has been out of the ordinary, after all."

Edward takes a moment to focus, his mind dazed and sleepy.

"I was going to escort Sofia back to the Inn when I went into work, help her get settled in." He looks worried at the thought of abandoning her after all that has happened, but after allowing the thought to sink in, he realises it makes sense.

"If I call Charlotte, tell her a few details, she'll understand that it's a legitimate reason. I'll go do it now." He glances again at the clock. "Have you seen my phone?" He shakes his head. "Forget I asked. It's on the nightstand. I'll go get it."

Pushing back his chair, he runs his fingers through his hair and heads upstairs on leaden feet. He can't remember the last time he has been so tired, his routine broken; the memory surfaces unbidden of Carlisle arriving at his door unannounced but so very wanted. That had been the last time he had taken personal days to catch up on sleep. His face curves into a contented smile.

Finding the phone and fumbling through the directory, he makes the call to Charlotte.

~o.O.o~

To his immense relief, Charlotte is very accommodating and gives him a couple of days to rest and enjoy the time with their guest.

Dragging on warm clothes and stoically ignoring the siren song of his comfy bed, he is ready to go when Sofia's taxi arrives. It transpires she has decided to take dinner at the Inn and turn in early, the excitement of the day taking its toll, but not before promising to see them both the next day. The three of them make the short trip to the Inn, carrying her bags and collecting her room key. Edward makes sure she has everything she needs, showing her the restaurant and room service menus. With hugs all around, they leave her to gather her thoughts and settle into the cosy room. Before they leave, Carlisle programs his number into her cell phone in case she needs anything at all.

For the first time in his life, his own cell now has an entry in the directory marked simply as 'Mama'.

Back home, darkness falls and together they light the carved pumpkins, adding their own touch to the neighbourhood festivities. Carlisle has bought candy ready for any visitors and, sure enough, the knocking begins, carrying on for a good hour and a half before tailing off for the night. The candy bowl has been decimated, just a few stray pieces left when they finally lock the door.

Edward gazes with disappointment at the sorry sight in the bowl.

"No Skittles left. Guess I'll have to settle for these."

He tips the few remaining Milky Way bars into a bag and opens the kitchen cupboard to be greeted by a full pack of Skittles tucked behind the door. Turning with a grin, he looks at Carlisle who feigns surprise.

"Guess I forgot about the second bag."

"Oh, I'm sure that's what happened."

Carlisle chuckles. "Well, it could be true, couldn't it? I could've accidentally bought extra of your favourite candy and then forgot to hand it out."

Edward tosses in the bag of leftover candy and closes the cupboard, a smirk tugging the corners of his mouth.

"In that case, I am very happy to have such a forgetful boyfriend and may his forgetfulness always work in my favour."

Carlisle reaches for him and pulls him close, feeling him sink into the embrace.

"Always."

Carlisle cooks a light meal of eggs and toast for Edward, warming up some leftover lasagne for himself. When they have finished their meals, Carlisle insists on Edward getting some sleep. It's now after 8pm and, usually, he would be getting ready to leave for work. Turning off the lights downstairs, he sees no reason not to join him, his energy levels crashing after the emotional events of the day. There is no reason to sit alone downstairs when what he wants most is to be with his lover. He reasons that he can read a little if he isn't sleepy.

The reality being of course that both are asleep in moments once their heads hit the pillow.

~o.O.o~