Wow, it is hard for me to imagine that I wrapped up the first Medical Miracle in 2009. So much has happened in my life since then that has kept me from writing fan fiction, something that I have always been upset about, since I made promises long ago to write sequels and stories that have never happened.
I recently finished re-reading Medical Miracle for the first time in years. I read all of it in one day, and fell in love all over again with the story that truly started it all for me.
You see, in the years since my last update, I have attended and graduated from college. I now have a BA in Creative Writing and History with a minor in Writing. Since graduation, I've moved away from home, and have started a job writing articles about country music related news and topics.
After re-reading Medical Miracle and all of the lovely reviews I received, even years after I wrote the last chapter, I felt sad that I never wrote the sequel that I promised. Brooke was, and still is, one of my all-time favorite characters that I've ever created, and after I finished re-reading Medical Miracle, I felt I owed it to her to continue her and Carlisle's love story.
So with that being said, I know I've taken a long time to fulfill this promise, but I am finally writing the sequel to Medical Miracle! My updates may be few and far between, but I feel I need to do this not only for me, but for all of the fans who read and fell in love with Brooke's story over the years.
Thank you all so much for your continued dedication and support!
Explanation of "T" Rating: When I started writing the first Medical Miracle, I was a young teen, and was hesitant to write any SC or swear words into my story mainly out of fear that my parents would see and ask what in the world I was writing, haha. Also, at the time my knowledge of more, ahem, adult themes was not all that great. Reading through the old Medical Miracle I couldn't help but laugh at how I tip toed around writing swear words and SC into the story. So with all that being said, I am going to increase the risqué nature of this sequel, and it will contain some minor swearing, violence, and SC/adult themes. But I am sticking with the "T" rating because I still don't intend on going overboard.
Genre: Romance/Drama/Humor
Pairings: Carlisle and other character, Edward and Bella, Emmett and Rosalie, Alice and Jasper, other characters and other characters.
Full Summary: When Brooke Jeffers came to work as a doctor's assistant at Forks Hospital, love was the last thing she thought she would find. But as it turns out, she fell head-over-heels for her boss, a certain attractive, blond doctor named Carlisle Cullen. Eventually, Brooke learned Carlisle was in love with her too, but their relationship faced a series of challenges from the start, including a brief separation, Carlisle's jealous former girlfriend Viviene, and the fact that Brooke is terrified of vampires. After overcoming all of those obstacles, you'd think it would be smooth sailing into a happy ending for Carlisle and Brooke. But their struggles are far from over. This story picks up right where the first Medical Miracle left off, following Carlisle and Brooke's always-challenging relationship. How will their love story end?
Author's Notes: I randomly came up with the idea for this story years ago. I had no idea what to do with Esme to make it possible for Carlisle to be with Brooke. Since I adore Esme, and didn't want to kill her off or have Carlisle cheat on her/get a divorce, in this story I regard Esme as someone who never existed, or at least never crossed paths with Carlisle.
A few warnings, I like to make up names of towns, colleges, etc. sometimes, so some places I name may not be real places.
I have a limited amount of medical knowledge, but when it comes to medical situations in the story I will do my best to research each one so I can portray them accurately.
**I assume I no longer need to provide a spoiler alert for Breaking Dawn details, but just in case, here's your spoiler alert.**
Renesme has not, and never will exist in this story. However, the method through which she was able to exist could be possible in an altered form at some point. Also, if this isn't obvious enough, since Renesme does not exist, Jacob never imprinted on her. Though that isn't too important, since Jacob's role in this story is extremely minor. He never even made a physical appearance in the first story.
If you've never read the original Medical Miracle, you can probably follow this story just fine, but there are some aspects of the story you're simply not going to understand unless you've at least skimmed through the first one. It's a good read, I promise. :)
With that, I hope you all enjoy the far overdo sequel to Medical Miracle. This first chapter is going to be a bit of a recap/introduction, but I'll pick things up as I move along in future chapters.
I am so happy to bring Brooke and Carlisle back to all of you. :)
Chapter 1
When people think of a hospital, the word "life" is not always the first to come to mind. Rather, all of the negative words that can be associated with a hospital seem to pop up first: sickness, disease, injury…death.
But it is true that life can be found within a set of hospital walls. Every day new life is born in hospitals, as babies make their way into the world and take their first breaths.
Every day the loving, caring hands of doctors and nurses help heal the sick and injured, allowing them to walk out the doors with a brand new chance at life.
More than most, I know from personal experience that a hospital can be a place of life, and not solely because it was in a hospital that I was rescued from a near-death experience. No, it isn't that at all.
I found life in a hospital the day I decided to go to one to apply for a job as a doctor's assistant. I found life in a hospital the day I opened the door to that doctor's private office and he smiled at me and said "hello." I found life in a hospital every time that same doctor looked me in the eyes and told me he loved me.
Even though I wasn't looking for it at the time, and certainly didn't want it, I found love in a hospital. And it was that love that granted me the opportunity at a brand new life. Soon, the love and the life I had never wanted became the thing that I would constantly and persistently fight to keep, no matter the cost.
It was summer again, the same time it was a year prior when I first started my job as the assistant to Dr. Carlisle Cullen at Forks Hospital. If you would have told me at the time that I would one day fall in love with the man I called my boss, I would have laughed in your face.
As a matter of fact, I had many people, including the doctor himself, tell me I was going to fall in love with him. And I did laugh, a lot.
Of course, everyone was right. Despite my best efforts I quickly fell for the gorgeous, blond doctor who by some miracle loved me in return.
If love was enough, our relationship would have been the easiest in history. But there were so many factors working against us. At the time, I thought that he was decades older than me. He had adopted children that were my age. He was my boss. Oh, and there was one big problem by the name of Vivienne, who happened to be his other, insanely jealous girlfriend.
Luckily she was hardly around, so the only thing we had to worry about was maintaining the good doctor's reputation. So we kept our relationship hidden, telling no one but close family members and friends about the arrangement.
Still, there were other challenges on my side that sometimes threw a wrench into things. I moved away from Washington for a short time to take part in the Alaska University spring medical program, something I had dreamed of attending from a young age. The separation was hard enough, but the real challenge came in the form of a suave, hip-hop dancing ladies' man named Adam, who I considered my best friend. He considered me his one true love.
But the greatest conflict between Carlisle and I came in one, simple fact…
I was terrified of vampires.
Carlisle was a vampire.
I didn't know that he was a vampire at first. In fact I didn't know until nearly a year after I met him that the reason he never ate, never slept, had topaz eyes, and was inhumanely handsome is because he was a centuries-old creature of the undead.
After watching a vampire horror film over Halloween, I had reoccurring nightmares of being bitten by one. So when Carlisle finally gathered up the courage to share his secret with me, to say I was terrified would be an understatement. To make matters worse, that same night my beloved grandfather was killed by a vampire, who turned out to be none other than Carlisle's other girlfriend, Vivienne, who was looking for me.
I eventually came to terms with Carlisle's condition, and we were ready to patch things up when Vivienne decided to make a random appearance at the Cullen house. She attacked me before engaging in a battle to the death with Carlisle. Somehow, I managed to climb into his Mercedes and run her over, allowing him to get the upper hand and eliminate her from our lives once and for all.
Although Carlisle survived, I wasn't aware of it until he walked into my hospital room, since I had been unconscious for several days as a result of my injuries. The joy I felt at the sight of him, knowing that we were finally free to love one another is indescribable.
With Vivienne gone, a huge weight was lifted off our shoulders. But as we both knew, it was best if we kept our relationship hidden for a bit longer, purely for the sake of Carlisle's reputation. People had been buzzing about us since day one, but we knew that if we showed too many signs of romance too soon, they would assume we had always been together, and then Carlisle's reputation and job could be at risk.
We figured we could deal with hiding things for a few months more, especially since before Vivienne's death we were mainly hiding things in order to stay alive. Now, there wasn't so much to fear.
Our life together could finally begin.
It was mid-July, a few months after Vivienne's death and two weeks until I got to take the cast off of my wrist. When my alarm went off to wake me up for work my eyes fluttered open as I stared up at the ceiling of my childhood bedroom.
After my grandfather died, my cousin Sandra and I moved into his mansion, which he left to me in his will. To him, I guess it was only logical to give me the house, since I had grown up there when my grandparents took me in following the death of my parents in a car accident when I was only two years old.
I yawned and stretched, accidentally bumping my injured arm on the bedside table as did so. I screamed out in pain, causing my cat, Fluffy, to look up at me in confusion from where she peacefully rested on my stomach.
"Sorry girl," I said, picking her up and placing her beside me on the bed. She didn't seem pleased that I had moved her, but I had to get up and get around for work.
I went into the bathroom and attempted the daunting task of combing out my blond curls into more controllable waves. After throwing on something to wear and putting on a little bit of makeup, I rushed downstairs to grab one of the banana nut muffins Sandra baked before she left for dance class.
When I chose my small apartment in Seattle, I did so primarily because it was close to where I went to college. But when I learned that grandfather had left me the house, I was more than anxious to move in because it was closer to Forks, which meant it was closer to work, and therefore closer to Carlisle.
Even though I had made the drive to Forks what seems like a thousand times, it never felt any shorter to me. I would always get anxious on the way, desperate to make my way to the wooden door with the shiny, gold plaque that read "Dr. Carlisle Cullen."
It wasn't raining for once, an unusual thing, but was still as cloudy as always, with the sun nowhere to be seen. However, this was something I was grateful for, since I now knew that Carlisle couldn't go out in the sun. I was one of few people, I'm sure, that looked at the weather forecast and cursed whenever I saw sunshine in the lineup.
I pulled into the parking lot of Forks Hospital and whipped into my usual parking spot beside Carlisle's newly repaired black Mercedes. As always, my heart skipped a beat at the sight of the car, and I quickly scooped up my bag and my always-necessary umbrella before starting the trek through the parking lot.
The automatic doors flew open as I approached the lobby, which was surprisingly empty except for a couple of people flipping through magazines off in the corner by an artificial plant and a statue of a bear. Oh, and of course there was Gertrude, the receptionist, who called out the second she saw me.
"Well good morning Brooke!" she said, beaming over the top of her desk.
"Good morning Gertrude," I said with a smile, even though this exchange of pleasantries between the two of us was one of my least favorite parts of the day. All I wanted was to make my way down the hall, inside the office, and into the arms of my doctor.
"Nice day today, isn't it?" she said. "The hubby decided to go fishing today."
"It seems like a good day for that," I said, glancing down the hall. "Maybe he'll bring home a nice catch for you."
"Oh I hope so. I've wanted some fresh fish for so long, but the weather just hasn't been right at all. You know?"
"Yes, I understand." I told her, still glancing down the hall. "Sorry to run so soon, but I know I have a lot of work to get started on. Do you know where Dr. Cullen is this morning?"
To me it sounded weird to call him by his professional name and title. Which I knew was odd, considering the fact that up until a month prior that's what I always called him, even to his face. For so long I found it hard to call him by his first name because somewhere in my mind I still considered him my boss, and I was showing him the respect as such. Plus, as I now knew, it was hard to keep from slipping up and calling him by his first name in front of people at work. But after my near-death experience, it was like a switch flipped inside my brain, and now it felt natural for me to call him by first name.
"Oh yes, he was out here just a few minutes ago," Gertrude said, flailing her hand in the air. "He went off down the hall to do something and look attractive somewhere."
I laughed, "Well thank you Gertrude, I'll try my best to find him."
"No trouble deary!" I heard her call as I basically ran down the hallway, probably looking a bit too eager to get to work. I passed a couple of nurses and that may have said hello but I have no idea if I said anything to them.
As I made my way to the office, I noticed that the door was open. But as I glanced at the large, wooden desk with the mammoth-sized stack of papers I had to file, I was disappointed to see that my "boss" was nowhere to be seen.
"Hmm," I said to myself, putting my purse in its usual place and shrugging on my lab coat. "That's odd."
Suddenly, I heard the door close, and found myself pinned against the wall with a pair of bright, topaz eyes staring into mine.
"Hello darling," he said, placing a series of delicate kisses along my neck.
I sighed and shivered, wrapping my arms around him to draw him closer to me. "I am never going to get used to you showing off your vampire speed around me," I said, as he kissed up the length of my neck before planting a single kiss on my lips.
"It's nice to be able to finally show it off to you," he said, smiling at me as he caressed my cheek.
I shook my head and smiled in return, "What, were you hiding behind the door or something?"
He chuckled, "I thought I'd surprise you."
"Well congratulations, you succeeded, and nearly made me faint in the process."
"Then I would have needed to give you mouth-to-mouth," he said, kissing me again, a bit more passionately this time.
I giggled in between his kisses. "Isn't that what you're doing right now?"
"Perhaps," he said, kissing me a few more times before inching back a little. "I would love to do this all day but…"
"I know, I know, we have a lot of work to do."
My eyes must have darted over to the stack of papers on his desk, because he looked that way. "You don't have to worry about those right now. It's been a mess for days and can be a mess for a few more hours," he said. "Why don't you come along with me while I check on a patient upstairs?"
"Do you like my company, doctor?" I teased.
"Oh no, not in the slightest," he said, leaning in to kiss me once more and making me giggle again. I had a feeling that he would always possess the power to turn me into mush.
"Think we've been in here long enough to make the nurses start whispering?" I asked him, straightening out his lab coat.
"My dear, they started whispering the day you walked in here with an application in your hands."
"True," I said, "but do you think they've whispered enough for this morning?"
He looked toward the door, really seeming to contemplate what I said before he turned back to me, brushing his lips against mine as he spoke.
"Let them whisper just a while longer," he said, kissing me again.
As far as I was concerned, they could whisper for all eternity.
Wow, I can't begin to tell all of you how good it felt to be in Brooke's head again. I apologize for the slow start, but I felt like that was the best way to kick this thing off.
I will try my best to update at least once a week, but with my busy schedule and intense writing commitment that I have for work, I may not always have the time, energy, or inspiration to do so. But I will try not to keep you waiting too long between updates, just know they may be sporadic at times.
I hope you enjoyed this first chapter to Medical Miracle 2! I know I enjoyed writing it, and I am beyond happy to be able to finally continue this story.