An: I have no idea where this is headed, but isn't that what makes the best story?

EPOV:

Carlisle rushed out of the basement looking frazzled and excited. His thoughts were wild and out of focus.

"Edward, you'll never believe it, but I've finished!" He grinned in a proud way as if he had just found a cure for cancer.

"You finally finished your project?" Esme poked her head in and looked at her husband adoringly. "I thought you would never get your head out of that room. What is it?"

"Can we see it?" Alice came into the room.

"Yes." Carlisle looked flustered. "But it doesn't have the finishing touches on it yet. It is missing a few key components, but…"

"Oh come on, Carlisle," Esme kissed his lips lightly. "I want to see it. You spent so much time working on that thing."

"I did, didn't I?" He smiled and his golden eyes twinkled.

"Only about a decade." Alice huffed. "And if you don't show it to Esme now she will sneak in when you go to the hospital tomorrow."

"Alright." Carlisle looked down at Esme, who was almost ten inches shorter.

Edward, I looked up as he thought my name instinctively. Thanks for not telling her before it was finished.

I nodded vaguely and Esme didn't notice. Carlisle had been thinking about some robot for years. I knew the schematics to it better than I knew my own past. Every moment of the Carlisle's nine years had been consumed by the idea of a robotic human. Even when he was with Esme, he always had a part of his mind caught on that robot.

Carlisle guided us downstairs into a room I recognized even though I had never been permitted to enter before this day. Esme looked around at Carlisle's workshop with awe, while Alice and I took it all in easily. Both of us had seen this place before indirectly.

"It's lovely." Esme breathed while looking at some drawings. "What are these things?"

"Those?" Carlisle said distractedly. "Oh, um, those are just telerobots I made a long time ago. Simple really."

"What's a telerobot?" Esme picked up a small metal thing carefully and examined it.

This is really amazing. He is so smart. I can't believe that he could make all these things…telerobots. I must remember that word. I could use it later. Maybe I could take up robot making. Carlisle likes it as a hobby…

I blocked her thoughts politely, although they still nagged at the back of my head. It felt like she was screaming them at me.

"Telerobots?" Carlisle repeated. "They're robots that can be controlled by people far away. They have to have an operator though, but the good thing is that they can be used in a different room or even country. I have another one over there that I made for surgical purposes."

Esme followed the direction that he pointed in with interest.

"That thing?" she pointed at a collection of wires and metal combined into a giant machiene.

"No, no." Carlisle chuckled. "It's on the table."

"The table?" Esme looked on the desk. "There's nothing on the table other than papers."

"It's right there." Carlisle picked up a small microchip and held it out for Esme to take. She did so as if it was a precious diamond that might fall and be lost forever.

"Is this…wow!" she turned it over. "How does it work?"

It's so small. Is this some kind of joke? I can never really tell with Carlisle whether he is joking or not because he is so serious and…

Carlisle explained how it would work and a bright image of the telerobot and its working formed in my head from Carlisle's thoughts. I understood the ways that it worked and the reasons for why each thing was there. Unconsciously, I was becoming a robotic expert simply by being around Carlisle.

Alice cleared her throat behind us and we all turned to look at her.

"If you don't mind, I would like for you to explain to me how it works." She said talking about the project that had taken Carlisle so long. "I know what is does, but I have no idea why it…"

"Hold your horses." Carlisle raised a hand to quiet her. "I'm getting to that."

"Wh-" Esme tried to ask what he had built but was cut off by a silencing finger on her lips. Her thoughts then became distracted from the thoughts of robotics and shifted to a more sensual manner and I tried not to laugh at how focused she was on his finger touching her.

Love was a stupid thing. I had seen it and heard around me more than anyone else, but I never had wanted to feel the way my family felt. I knew the emotions very well from Jasper, and I heard each of their thoughts.

Love was just complicated. I would rather be a loner than worry about my partner in the way Alice worries about Jasper.

"Come here." Carlisle took us towards a sheet that was covering what he had spent so long working on. Hold his hands up like a magician; he pulled away the sheet in a flourish.

Esme gasped and covered her mouth instinctively. Even Alice, who had a very good grasp of the thing, was surprised by the likeliness to a human.

The thing was a robot that looked exactly like a human. It had the features and shape of a female human of an undistinguishable age. Its eyes were closed and it looked as if were sleeping at peace. If I hadn't known previously, I would have assumed it was just a dead human due to the lack of pulse.

The only thing that marked it as a human was the fact that its skin was smooth and flawless. Rather than having skin made of cells with flaws, it had a perfect skin made of Polytetrafluoroethylene, which was a heat and water resistant plastic. I knew that Carlisle chose it so that the robot wouldn't have to be confined to dry land. Potentially, this robot could go anywhere.

"She's beautiful." Esme pointed out.

"She's missing hair, Carlisle!" Alice said upset. "Why didn't you say so? In all of my visions she had hair!"

"Well, why don't you get hair for her?" I suggested lightly. I found it amusing that she would fret over something so minor as how it looked when she knew what this robot was capable of.

"I'll be right back!" Alice said quickly and she rushed of with a vivid image of a brown wig in mind. She came back a minute later holding a mass of brown hair.

"How'd you pay so fast?" Esme asked curiously.

Alice shrugged. "Stole it."

"Alice!" Esme reprimanded. "We have unlimited money. How can you…"

"I left a few hundreds in the cash register." Alice said hurriedly. "I just couldn't wait to pay and act human. They won't even notice."

Her thoughts proclaimed that she was lying. She had a vision of the woman at the register finding the extra 600 dollars and sneaking it into her pocket. If Esme knew this she would freak out and spent weeks trying to get things back to the way they should have been.

"Well…" Esme pursed her lips. "Let's see how it looks, at least."

Cheerfully, Alice reached up and placed the brown hair upon the robot's head. Carlisle came over and put some glue on it and together they perfected the already pretty robot.

She looked like an oversized doll with her frail looking body and pouty raspberry colored lips. Her nose was small and average, but she still could be considered decent looking if she were a living human.

"There." Alice stood back and admired her work. "Now she looks real."

"She is very pretty." Esme beamed proudly. "Can she move?"

"Can she move?" Carlisle laughed. "Of course she can move."

"Not just that either." Alice added. "Carlisle, you really are a genius, you know."

Carlisle looked humbled. "Thanks, Alice."

"What do you mean 'not just that'?" Esme asked.

"This robot can walk, talk and feel emotions." Carlisle explained smugly. "I am almost positive that it is the first robot to ever feel emotions."

"It can think!?" Esme touched the robot shocked.

"I wouldn't say that. No robot can really think, but it can feel."

That is pretty impressive. Alice's thoughts came into my head easily. I was so used to her voice, it was hard to block it out. Esme's thoughts came to me almost as easily too.

Carlisle is so amazing; I wonder how he comes up with all of these things. I am so blessed to have met him…

I gazed at the robot inquisitively. I had seen the thing through Carlisle's eyes, but it was strange to be seeing it for once through my own. The machine was more human than I could have anticipated. After years of seeing the mechanical side to the robot, it was hard to connect my idea of the mechanics to the more human side to it. I couldn't piece together the two sides.

"How do you turn it on?" Esme wondered.

"Verbal commands." Carlisle explained. "Do you want to do the honors?"

"Oh, me?" She looked excited and taken aback. "I couldn't, really! I mean, you've worked so hard to make it, I couldn't just…"

"Esme, please?"

"Oh…okay." Esme's hand rose to her cheek. "What's the word?"

Carlisle spelled it out to her and we all waited expectantly for her to say it. She seemed uncomfortable from the attention but said it anyways.

"Love." She said clearly.

The robot's eye's fluttered open to reveal thickly rimmed brown eyes. It moved smoothly and there was almost no hint of artificial intelligence about her. Her movements weren't jerky or sudden, but were rather even.

The only hint of being a robot was a faint whir of her inner mechanics working. The sound would be silent to a human ear, but if I focused on it I could distinctively hear the purr of metal running.

"She's beautiful!" Esme breathed.

"I thought of you when I made her." Carlisle smiled. "She has the same shape as you, did you notice?"

I had known that before I came down here, but now that I saw the two of them next to each other, the robot did have the same heart shaped face as Esme.

"Carlisle…" Esme whispered. I turned away and attempted to shut out their dreadfully romantic thoughts from my mind. I felt like I was intruding upon a secret.

Sorry, Edward. I turned at the sound of Alice's voice in my head. I know you hate when people have… 'intimate moments' near you.

I was going to reply to Alice but then Esme started to think about Carlisle in a very passionate way. I focused all of my attention to the robot to avoid their tender thoughts.

The robot was staring at me with a contemplative expression. I couldn't read the robot's mind, but I didn't expect to. It was just a robot, no matter how pretty or lifelike it was.

"What should we name her?" I asked everyone quietly.

"Huh?" Esme turned to me with her eyes slightly out of focus. Her thoughts drifted back to the robot and I was grateful. "Oh, um…what do you think Carlisle?"

"Anything you want." He murmured.

Scandalous thoughts of him taking Esme into his bedroom flooded my mind. I grimaced.

"Please stop!" I growled. "You're almost as bad as Emmett."

"Sorry, Edward." Esme apologized. "We're always forgetting how we affect you and Jasper."

"S'okay." I mumbled. "Just try to censor some of your thoughts when I am in the room."

Sorry, Edward. I can't believe I was so stupid to forget that you were here. I just can't remember things when I'm around Carlisle. You know how it is, don't you?

"Esme," I sighed. "I said it's fine."

"Names." Carlisle changed the subject. "We need to think of a name for her."

"Alice?" Esme asked.

"I don't know any names yet!" She held up her hands. "You haven't decided on one. My visions don't work until you are thinking of deciding on one."

"Esme, I think you should name her." Carlisle said.

"Me?" Esme looked puzzled and her thoughts changed from images of Carlisle to names she had thought of when she was pregnant. "I don't know. I would need some time to find a perfect name. I need a pretty name, but simple. It can't be to extravagant but it has to be sweet."

"I'm sure you can think of a name." Carlisle patted her shoulder.

"I need more time!" She looked at the robot. "I spent nine months trying to choose a name for a child, I can't be expected to just pull out a perfect name."

"Use a name search online." Alice muttered.

"What's that, dear?" She didn't hear what Alice had said.

"There are web pages online that have lists and lists of names." Alice said quickly. "Things have gotten more advanced than they were when you had a child."

"Online." Esme repeated. "That's a brilliant idea!"

"Come on!" Carlisle pulled Esme out of the room quickly.

I turned to Alice, who was leaving as well.

"Hey!" I cried out. "What should we do with the robot?"

Take her with you.

I groaned as I realized that I was stuck with the left over job. I was always the extra person in charge of whatever was left. Turning to the robot, I sighed.

"All right." I frowned and heaved her up into my arms. She was heavy and I actually had to strain while carrying her. She must weigh over a ton.

The robot grabbed onto me tightly and closed her eyes with an expression close to fear as I lifted her.

"Stop pulling on my shirt." I told her uselessly. No matter what Carlisle though, this thing couldn't understand. "You are going to tear it."

Her grip tightened as I began to walk up the stairs. Obviously, she hadn't understood.

When I reached the place where Esme was, I set the robot down. She seemed happy to have her two feet on ground and a slight smile appeared on her face. It was scarily realistic. I had to remind myself that is was only a mechanical reaction that had been programmed into her.

"What do you think about the name Abigail?" Esme asked. "Or how about…Asmara? No…wait…look at this one…Azmarie. Isn't that pretty?"

"Very pretty." Carlisle agreed.

"Maybe that could be her middle name…Marie." Esme clicked on the next page. Apparently, she was going in alphabetical order through the names.

"I like the name Bailey." Alice pointed to a name on the list.

"Oh no." Esme shook her head. "That is a boy name. Oh…how about Beatrice?"

"No…not Beatrice."

"Wait." Esme whispered. "Bella…how does that work? I think she looks like a Bella."

"No, it should be Isabelle." Alice looked at the robot with her head tilted.

"Isabella sounds better, don't you agree Carlisle?"

"Both are very pretty names." He smiled.

"We could call her Izzy for short."

"No!" Esme gasped. "That sounds like a name for an iguana or something dreadful."

"Fine, we could call her Bells for short." Alice frowned.

"I like Bella, still." Esme sighed.

"Bella is a very nice name." Carlisle said approvingly.

"What do you think?" Esme asked the robot. "Do you like the name Bella?"

The robot smiled faintly and gazed at the computer.

"Bella." Alice said quietly.

"Bella Marie." Esme breathed. "A very good name."

I still like Izzy. Alice thought.

An: Review and I will give you a cookie!