I DO NOT OWN THE CHARACTERS OR THE PLOT OF THIS STORY!
© Stephanie Meyer 2008
Uselessly I searched for the patient I was assigned to, lost without my sense of smell.
As a new vampire, merely 280 something years old, my sense of smell still threatened to overcome me. It was a tool that I went without a lot in those days, except at home with Edward, or hunting for the animals that squelched my thirst. Yet still I searched for Esme, the woman who's story compelled me like her eyes compelled so many other young men.
She had had pains in her womb that day, and, as a cautious woman, she had gone to the doctor for explanations. He had feared the worst, but took the tests anyway. When his suspicions were confirmed, he very reluctantly told her: a miscarriage. Distraught, she had hurried home. But without her baby to keep her company, she was scared and hurt.
She had walked to a cliff nearby her home, and looked onward over the sea.
What is the point in life, she thought, if you have no one to share it with? My husband is dead, and now so is my child. And without a second glance, she flung her pregnant body off of the cliff, into the abyss below.
If a nearby fisherman hadn't spotted her fall, she would be dead: many bones broken, including the spine, and a concussion, to top it off.
I am more scared than ever, she had told me, because I am in a foreign place, with white, clean, walls, and people with cold skin and cold eyes.
So as her fever raged on, she talked of her story, of her life before her suicidal attempt.
And she was so beautiful!
Rather than being pointy and skinny, unhealthy, she was rounded, yet still slender–– she was a healthy, beautiful woman, and I believed that I was falling in love with her.
She had been moved to the morgue, my colleges told me, for there was no way to save her without surgery. Since they lacked proper equipment for the surgery, within hours she would be among the dead.
So I went from bed to bed, searching for the dark haired maiden that claimed my heart.
And finally, finally, I found her, and the sight of her stopped my unnecessary breath in it's tracks.
She was so weak.
Her skin, usually alight with color, was pale, with a tint of blue from the cold of the morgue.
Her eyelids, closed, were so transparent that I could almost see through them, but this wasn't what scared me the most.
Her heartbeat was slowing, gradually, but not so much that I couldn't hear it.
This was what decided her fate, that snap decision that not even Edward could pick out fast enough to realize what I was doing.
Oh, he would be furious, I realized, as I came home with her body in my arms, as he realized my intentions. But he would go running, and that would blow off enough steam so that I could explain.
So I grabbed her from her bed, and as there was no one to be seen, I ran, the way I did only when hunting.
As I raced home, I heard light footsteps of a vampire–– it was Edward coming to meet me.
"What in the world are you doing, Carlisle." he said, an eerie calm spread over his voice, "Do you realize how much danger you have put the human and us in?" his voice was growing louder, and the birds ahead were getting startled, wondering what this loud creature was doing.
"look at her, Edward. can't you see that she is weak?" I said, pleading.
"Whatever you must do, do it, and we'll talk later." he stormed, and ran off in the opposite direction, defeated.
In four days, she grew stronger with the venom coursing through her body, charring her on the inside. Her spine healed, as well as the concussion, as far as I could tell.
But it was the screaming that got to me.
I knew it was agonizing, for I had experienced the pain myself. And yet she lay as still as possible, just screaming. If we lived near anyone, they would think I was murdering someone.
Maybe I was.
Maybe she wouldn't survive it. I had only seen Edward through the transformation, and maybe some couldn't survive it.
When she woke up, relief spread over me like water, soaking up the worry.
Her eyes, so blue before, were crimson red, like cherries.
She was startled, that much was clear.
She sat up abruptly, and then jumped at her swiftness.
She looked around silently, then her eyes found mine.