Recommence ° Edward Cullen[Rewriting]

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Chapter Twenty-One | Behind Rose-Coloured Glasses

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"How is she?"

Night had fallen but those in the Cullen home didn't sleep. Of the five who remained inside, four sat in the open library as they waited for Alex to wake up. Chairs had been moved around, two by her bedside and another pair near the window. Carlisle and Esme sat in the ones closest to the window, Edward by Alex's side and Charlie by the glass doors, shutting them quietly behind him. Bella remained wide awake in the guest room, advised to sleep but unable to do so. Too much had transpired in a day alone.

"Has she. . ?" The father took a few steps closer to his daughter but paused shortly after, stopping awkwardly where he stood. There were a few reasons he was hesitant to wander near and one of them was long, thick and white, hissing in distaste.

"She should be awake soon. Her—she shifted a bit earlier." It was Edward who answered him with a murmur Charlie had to strain to hear and in doing so, he missed the moment the boy nearly slipped up. Alex hadn't moved aside from the rise and fall of her chest but her heart, once deafeningly still, now beat near erratically.

"So, does that thing ever sleep?" Charlie muttered to himself, eyeing Ember as she watched him. She was coiled on Alex's stomach, immobile for the hours since Carlisle had finished doing what he could for his daughter. Staring the beast down, the sheriff could've sworn her eyes narrowed even though snakes didn't have eyelids. 

"When she's not eating, sure." Charlie's eyes were sharper than usual, picking up on the light tone and the small smile Edward wore, the boy seemingly fond as he reached out for the snake no one had dared disturb once she'd settled. He didn't hesitate to wrap nimble fingers around her lithe body and though the man half-expected it, he didn't get bitten for his efforts either. "She's sweeter than she looks, it's just," he glanced at the snake as she wound her lower half around his torso, her head in his palm, "she's as worried as we are."

Ember appeared to be in familiar territory as she settled around Edward's shoulders, resting her triangular head on his collarbone, positioned where she could still keep an eye on Alex. The man stared at the boy he presumed to be younger than him, dark eyes observing. "Sweet, huh?" he echoed, a thought occurring to him. "You knew about her." A statement rather than a question. And one with a double meaning. Because Charlie wasn't only talking about the snake but his daughter as well.

Years since he had adopted his little girl and not once had he ever been privy that there was anything unusual to this degree and now. . . his whole world had upped and changed. And it seemed like he was the last to know.

Amber eyes met his gaze, though only for a moment. "It was. . . it was an accident, really. For both of them." Charlie's eyes flicked to the snake, trying to fathom how he could've missed its existence for years, "and Alex's isn't mine to tell but Ember, she likes to be heard and at the time, neither of us was listening."