It had been a couple of months since I moved to Bangor in Maine with my family, and we all loved it here. Bella, Nessie and Edward lived in a own cottage only five minutes walking- human speed, from our mansion. And to get to Jacob´s house it was just about fifteen minutes with a car. All of his pack- members lived in the same area as Jacob. I and Esme, shared are three- store- house with Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie. But no one of us, had been as happy as now in a long time.
We all had our family, our mates, even Rosalie had started to accept the life she had been given, I had my work at the Bangor hospital, the kids went to school. Esme home- schooled Nessie, but also the others helped her when they had the time. And no one would expect us to have any more trouble with the Volturi.
Nessie was now the age of two, but looked and acted like an eight - year- old. And when we first moved here, we had explained to everybody, that I and Esme were married. Jasper and Rosalie were twins, and were fostered by me and Esme. Emmett and Alice were adopted, so was Edward. Bella and Edward were married and "Nessie was Bella´s little sister"
Today was Thursday, and on Friday, everyone except me, Esme and Nessie would go out on a two days long hunting trip. I looked forward to the weekend, when me and my beloved one would have very much appreciated time with our granddaughter. Just us three.
I smiled where I sat by my desk in my office. Thinking about my family, I really couldn´t have asked for no better family. I leaned forward again and grabbed a pen to make some notes in my papers on the desk when my cellphone called.
"Dr. Carlisle Cullen yes?" I answered.
"Hello Carlisle, this is John." My colleague, John Leslie, one of my dearest friends.
"Hello John, what can I do for you?"
"Could I ask you for a bit of a favor?"
"Of course you could."
"You see, I wouldn´t ask you this if it wasn´t absolutely necessary, but you know I´ve got a seven- year- old named Angela."
"Yes I know that."
"Yeah, and well, my wife´s mum have gone very poorly, and she lives quite far away from here, she obviously haven´t got far left. And I´m gonna drive my wife there this weekend, starting on Friday. But the thing is, we wouldn´t want that to be Angela´s last memory of her grandmother, so we wanted her to stay here. But it´s seemed like there´s some major event this weekend, so all of Angela´s friends and their families are busy. And with tickets already booked, they can´t take Angela. So… I was wondering if you would like to have Angela at yours from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, while I drive Lucy to see her mum."
"Of course, I would like that very much." I answered him, and even though John couldn´t tell. I had a huge smile on my lips.
"Oh, thank you very much Carlisle. I cannot put in words how grateful I am. Oh, thank you."
"So… what do you say, should I come and get her at yours or…"
"No, I will bring her over…. I´ll start driving around five, so is a quarter past five in the afternoon okay?"
"That would be great."
"Okay, thank you, I guess I´ll see you tomorrow then!"
"Okay, see you, bye." I hung up, and stood up to tell Esme the news.
On Friday, I only worked until half past two, and then I went to the grocery store- with a shopping list, that Nessie had helped me to fill up. Nessie was really excited about having someone about her age over for the weekend. And she had filled the shopping list, with every kind of junk- food, snacks and soda a girl her age could think off.
I knew that Esme was gonna disagree with me, with buying so much junk- food for the girls. But what could we do? We were both really excited about the visit, and neither of us could say no to Nessie. I sighed, and threw down some peas, broccoli and carrots in my shopping- basket, so there at least would be anything healthy to eat in the house. At last, I´d finished my shopping trip, and headed for the mansion. Where Esme and Nessie were already waiting for me to be home.
"PAPA." Nessie shouted when I came inside the door, I put the grocery bags on the floor and lifted her up when she came running.
"Hey Ness, had a good day with your gammy?" Nessie nodded.
"Did you buy ice cream? And crisps? And burgers?" I knew Nessie could have gone on with every item she had asked me to buy. So I interrupted her there.
"Yes Nessie, I bought everything you asked me to buy." I took the grocery bags again and we walked together to the kitchen.
"and I also bought…" I pulled out the vegetables I had bought. Nessie grimaced.
"Yuk."
"Well, you know, if you don´t eat your vegetables, you´ll get no dessert." She her tongue out to me. I couldn´t help but chuckle, as I kept on putting the groceries where they were supposed to be in the kitchen.
"How long is it ´til Angela comes?" Nessie asked me when I came out to the family room, after changing my working clothes to jeans and a light- grey sweater. I checked my watch.
"An hour. You´ll have to be patient for a while longer." I sat down in the sofa and started reading in one of my medical- books. I heard Esme and Nessie talking about how great the weekend would be, and smiled at their excitement, even though I was at least as excited myself.
Already at five minutes to five, the door knocked, and I and Nessie walked there to welcome our guest. I opened the door, while Nessie stood there, almost jumping of excitement.
Angela was a truly beautiful child, she had dark- brown hair, after her mum I understood. But still her father´s bright blue eyes, which gave an expression that she was a clever child. Her cheeks were a bit round- exactly as they should for children that age, and she was about normal length for her age.
"Hello Carlisle. Sorry we´re early." I shook hands with John and his wife.
"It´s all right. Carlisle Cullen."
"Lucy Leslie," I kneeled down to reach down to Angela´s level, and reached my hand forward.
"Hello there, I´m Carlisle Cullen… what a weird name huh?" I knew my name was old- fashioned, it had been hundreds of years since it was popular, and especially kids used to think it was weird. But Angela didn´t take my hand, she hid behind her father. Nessie took a step forward.
"Hi, my name is Reneesme, but you can call me Nessie! My papa told me about you, he said your name´s Angela, I think that´s a pretty name, do you like Barbie´s. We can play with mine if you want to…."
"So Angel," John kneeled down in front of his daughter. "Can you go play with Nessie, so can I and your mum talk to Dr. and Mrs. Cullen for a minute?" Angela nodded, and laid her arms around her father´s neck.
"Bye daddy."
"Bye Angel." Then Angela moved on to her mum.
"Bye mummy, say hi to grandma from me, and tell her that I love her." I smiled, as they let go, and Angela walked to the next room with Nessie.
"So, again, thank you so much for doing this, I hope it´s not too much bother."
"No… it´s really our pleasure." Esme said, and John pulled of the backpack that he had had hanging over one shoulder.
"This got everything she might need, some changes of clothes, pyjamas, tooth- brush, hair- brush, and a blanket and… he opened the zipper at the side, and pulled out two epi-pens.
"Peanuts, chickpeas, peas." He reached them to me. "There´s an extra in case one of them wouldn´t work. And… you should probably know that in case she would have an anaphylactic shock, as soon as she´s breathing again, everything she´s eaten the last hours, will come right up, so make sure you have a bowl or something ready." I nodded. "and… you should also probably know, that she´s never been to a sleepover before. So she might get a bit worried during the night. Call me if anything happens. And… again, I can´t thank you enough for doing this."
"It´s really our pleasure, Nessie´s so happy to have someone her age here for the weekend." Esme said.
John shook our hands again, and we said our goodbyes, but when John had started the car.
"NO." Angela came running from the next room, and meant to run outside and to her parents, but I caught her around her waist before she reached the door.
"Hush, it´s all right." I tried to comfort her, even though she struggled for me to let go.
"DADDY, MUMMY," she shouted, with tears streaming down her face. But she stopped struggling when we couldn´t see the car anymore. Esme kneeled down and embraced Angela. Angela sobbed against Esme´s shoulder. I patted Angela´s shoulder, and then took her rucksack and walked over to Nessie´s room to set up an extra bed for Angela.
When I came out again, Esme was drying the last tears from Angela´s cheeks, and then sent her off to play with Nessie. Not long later, the sound of running steps, and the two girls laughing filled the house.
"I´ve heard many bits of beautiful music. But that sound beats any kind of music." Esme sighed of well- being, leaned against me, and closed her eyes. I got my medical- book, but was soon interrupted by Nessie and Angela.
"Papa, can we have some sweets now…. Pleeeeease." Nessie showed me her biggest smile, but I knew I´d have to say no.
"Not before dinner,"
"Which I will start doing now. What do you say Angela, burger or fish- fingers?"
"Burger please." She answered shyly, and then the girls came climbing on me, or more likely. Nessie climbed on me and Angela stood next to the couch and watched until I grabbed her and jacked her high up, she screamed a little bit of the excitement, and then giggled. The rest of the last moment before the girl´s dinner. I spent running around playing with them in the living room. Until Esme called for dinner. She had put up each burger, some French fries, some carrot sticks and a glass of milk for each girl, Nessie gladly jumped up on her chair and started eating. Angela I had to lift up on the high chair, as it was too high for her to climb up on. I and Esme left the room as the girls ate.
After dinner, the clock had passed seven, and it seemed like the thought that Angela would be spending the night seemed to hit her. Because she sat down in the sofa, and seemed sad and afraid, and didn´t want to play with Nessie any more. I let them have a big bowl of sweets and a pringles- tube with crisps, and put on a Disney- movie, to keep Angela´s thoughts off the night for a while. It seemed to work, but when the movie ended, it was time for the girls to go to bed, and even though Angela shifted clothes, brushed her teeth and everything else in silence. I could see that she was nervous about this. As we put the girls to bed, I talked to Angela for a minute.
"And then remember, that if you want something, or just want to see an adult, come straight to my office okay?" Angela nodded, as I tucked her in, I left a night- lamp stay on as I turned off the light in the ceiling, wished them good night, and left the door- just a little bit open as I and Esme left the room, Esme sat down in the living room and read a book I´d given her earlier this week, and I left for my office to do some work.
Not an hour later, Esme came into my office, Angela was walking right behind her, I pushed my chair backwards and stood up.
"Hey sweetie, can´t sleep huh?" I kneeled down to be on Angela´s level.
"My throat hurts," she almost whispered, but there were no sign of hoarseness in her voice. As a vampire, I could almost hear the difference between one who´s really got a sore throat, and one who´s lying. But I lifted Angela up on the table, and got my bag anyway.
"Hey, open your mouth, and say ah." I put the flashlight on and looked down in her throat.
"Ah." As I´d guessed, there was no signs of a sore throat either, so I turned to Esme and we talked a little, but too fast for human ears to catch.
"There are no signs of a sore throat… I think she´s telling us this because she wants to go home." I turned around towards Angela again, and talked at normal- human- speed again.
"What do you say Angela, should Esme warm some milk, and put some honey in it. If you drink it I´m sure your throat will feel loads better later." Angela had her arms crossed over her chest, tears slowly streaming down her face, and sniveled.
"My throat hurts, and I want my daddy to come and get me."
"I know," I sat down in my chair and took her hands in mine. "But you know that he can´t come and get you now. Tell you what, Esme makes some warm milk now, and you can drink it so your throat feels better, and if you then will be a good girl and go to bed, we´ll call your daddy and talk to him the first thing we do in the morning." Angela was still crying, but nodded.
"Come on then," I lifted her up and walked over to the living room, where I sat down with Angela on my legs. The warm milk with honey Esme made, made Angela relax and after less than half the cup, she was so drowsy, I had to take the cup from her hands before she dropped it and burned herself, and then I tucked her into bed again.
The next morning, went Angela got up she was a lot happier, and just shook her head when I asked if she wanted to call her dad. I smiled, and decided to let her call in the evening instead, maybe it would be easier for her to fall asleep tonight if she had spoken to her dad right before bedtime.
For lunch that day, Esme made fish- fingers with peas and broccoli- minus the peas for Angela of course. But as I had just served the girls their food, Esme called me to help her with something on the second floor, and I walked upstairs to do that.
Nessie pov
"Why haven´t Angela got any peas on her plate?" I asked my papa when he gave me and Angela our lunch.
"Because she´s allergic to them. She gets very sick if she eats peas." I nodded, to show I had understood.
"Carlisle, can you come and help me with something?" gammy called from the second floor and papa went upstairs to see what she wanted. When papa had gone up, Angela leaned towards me.
"Can I taste a pea?" she asked.
"But papa said you´d get sick if you ate peas." I answered her.
"One won´t do any harm, please, I just want to know how it tastes." I thought for a second, then I took a pea from my plate, and reached her it. She put it in her mouth, and chewed a couple of times, then she grimaced.
"Yuk," she said. "disgusting," But Angela still swallowed the pea, and then she started scratching her chest and throat.
"I…. I think…" she began, but fell to the floor, struggling to breathe.
"PAPAAAAAA." I shouted.
Carlisle pov
I was upstairs with Esme when Nessie´s shout echoed through the house.
"PAPAAAAAAA, HELP!" and just by the sound of her shout, I knew that something really bad was happening. I listened more closely, and then heard a sound I knew exactly what it was- Angela was struggling to breathe. For that moment, I didn´t care about keeping our secret safe, in a split second I was downstairs in the kitchen, and kneeled down next to Angela. I looked up to the scared expressions on Esme and Nessie´s faced.
"Esme, get the epi- pen," I said. She nodded and ran away as I tried my best to make Angela relax. Luckily, Angela was still breathing when Esme came back with the epi- pen. I did what I was supposed to and counted to ten seconds after sticking the needle in Angela´s thigh. Her breathing slowed down, as I knew what was coming- I helped Angela to sit up, and told Esme to get a bucket, Nessie to get something to put Angela´s hair up with. But they weren´t fast enough, and by the time I could tuck the bucket in under Angela´s chin- she had already vomited, on herself, on me and on the kitchen floor. Esme helped me to put Angela´s hair in a pony- tail, and then I showed them both to go out of the room. I didn´t want to be rude, but I knew that if it was a time when Angela wouldn´t want an audience- it would be right now.
For good five minutes, I sat with Angela on the kitchen floor. John sure hadn´t been exaggerating when he said that everything she´d eaten the last few hours would come up. Angela kept on dry- retching long after there was nothing left in her stomach to bring up.
I kept on stroking her back and told her soothing words during the whole time the retching lasted. Then I lifted Angela up, got some new clothes for her and for me, and walked into mine and Esme´s bathroom to get us both cleaned up. I placed Angela- who seemed to be half- sleeping, on the edge of the bathtub, pulled off her everything but the T- shirt and underwear, and then did the same on myself, before using the shower to get us both cleaned up.
I then carried Angela to mine and Esme´s bed, before getting my phone and calling John.
"Dr. John Leslie, how can I help you?" he answered.
"Hello John, this is Carlisle. I called to tell you that Angela had an anaphylactic shock earlier today." With my hearing, I actually heard the sound of screeching brakes, and the sound when John hit the seat again, after being thrown forward when he braked.
"I, probably should have told you to stop the car before I told you that. Are you all right?" I heard John starting car again.
"Yes, yes I´m fine. Just was a bit freaked out, is she okay now?"
"Yes, she´s sleeping now. I called because as you know, the afterwards of an allergic reaction today can be very different from one person to another, and especially with kids, so I was gonna ask you what´s gonna happen now?"
"She´s gonna sleep for another seven or eight hours, when she wakes up she´s going to be a bit sad and confused. She´s gonna ask for something to eat, but don´t give her anything but Gatorade, ginger ale or water. Then she falls asleep again, probably until in the morning, and then you can give her some blueberry- soup, white bread or banana. Where you there when she ate… what was it she ate?"
"Peas, and no, I wasn´t there, but I´m gonna ask my Nessie about what happened as soon as I´ve finished talking to you."
"Okay… ehrm, We´ve got a couple of hours left before we reach the hospital where Lucy´s mum is, and as you know, driving when you haven´t slept for too long is very risky, so I´ll have to take in on some motel tonight. But I´m gonna try to be there as soon as possible."
"Drive carefully, I´d rather see you come here late, than not at all or in a OR bed, fighting for your life" Inside joke. "Does Angela have a favorite flavor of Gatorade?"
"There is one called, strawberry kiwi… something, it´s pink in color I think. But she´ll go with any flavor."
"I´ll be sure I make this right. See you tomorrow."
"Yeah… see you Carlisle." I hung up on John, and the next second Esme came into the room.
"How is she?" she whispered.
"She´s good now I think. I put her in here, it´s the biggest bed, and the bedroom where we best can keep an eye on her" All the other bedrooms where either on the second or third floor. But ours were on the ground floor, with two family rooms, the kitchen, my office. "Could you sit here for a moment, I need to speak to Nessie a little, then I´m gonna need you to go to the store for me."
"I´ll do that. And oh, I cleaned the kitchen floor."
"Thanks love," I kissed Esme´s forehead, and rested my face in here hair for a split second. Before walking into the biggest family room, where Nessie sat in the sofa, with her head down, and her hair hanging as a curtain in front of her face. But I heard her snivel and sob in silence.
I pulled out a handkerchief from my pocket and sat down by Nessie.
"Reneesme Carlie Cullen." She´d know I was being serious when I used her full name. She nodded, but didn´t look up, I wasn´t going to give her a lecture, or shout at her, especially not before I knew the whole story.
"Nessie, look at me please." I started stroking away the hair in her face. She looked me in the eyes, with tears in her eyes, and on her cheeks.
"I´m sorry for giving her a pea." Nessie whimpered. But I held up my hands to silent her.
"First of all. I want you to tell me exactly why you gave Angela that pea, when I´d told you she would be sick if she ate peas. Did you want to see what would happen?" Gosh, not even I believed that Nessie would have done something like that, she was very eager to learn, but she would never put anyone in danger. Nessie reached her hand forward, and I leaned forward a little, so she could lay her hand on my cheek.
Just as Nessie´s warm skin, touched my cold, pictures off Angela asking Nessie if she could have a pea filled my head. I nodded, to showed I understood.
"She wanted to know how peas taste," Nessie told me. "she said one wouldn´t do any harm. Papa, I was so scared… Do you hate me now" I held out my arms, and Nessie crawled up in my lap. Where I held her while rocking her slowly back and forth.
"Oh Nessie… I would never hate you, and you know that just as well as I do. And I´m not mad at you, but if that ever happens again, I want you to come and ask me if it´s okay for the person to eat one of what he or she is allergic to, okay?"
"Okay papa," she whimpered and buried her face in my shirt. The next second she was sobbing uncontrollably.
"Sch, sch," I comforted her. "It´s all right, just let it all out darling. Just let it out, papa´s right here. I´m not mad at you. Sch." I sat like that, for another quarter of an hour. When she had loosened the grip around my neck, I dried her tears with the handkerchief I had picked up earlier.
"Hey, tell you what. I´m gonna tell you what. I´m gonna ask your gammy to pick up some things from the store for me. And if you want to, you can go to build a bear, and pick up the softest teddy- bear you can find for Angela to have. And… if you promise me that if this ever happens again, you´re going to ask me first. I´ll tell gammy that you can pick up one teddy for you as well."
"Okay… I would like that."
"Will you promise?"
"Pinkie swear!" she held out her pinkie, and I hooked mine in hers.
"Good darling." I kissed away the last tear that was slowly streaming down Nessie´s cheek, and then I stood up, and took Nessie´s hand before walking to our bedroom, where Esme sat on the edge, with her hand on the part of the blanket where Angela´s knee was.
I told Esme what I had told and promised Nessie, and they went off, while I sat reading my medical-book on my side of the bed, with Angela on Esme´s side.
When Nessie and Esme came back, Nessie had one small teddy- bear, the bear was flower- patterned, and wore a purple dress. The other one was almost as big as Nessie herself- and would without a doubt be just as big as Angela, it was light brown- had really soft fur, and was dressed in a pink hoodie, with Angela´s name on it, and pink tennis- shoes. I chuckled at the size of it, and placed the teddy- bear at a chair until Angela would wake up. I wouldn´t want her to freak out when she woke up, and had a huge teddy- bear with her.
John had been right, seven and a half hours after the chock, Angela woke up. She began groaning and turning in her sleep.
"Angela? Angela can you hear me?" I asked. She whimpered.
"Daddy?"
"No, this is Carlisle, you had an allergic reaction, do you remember?"
"Not really." Angela opened her bright blue eyes and I helped her sit up and lean against the wall.
"Carlisle?" she said.
"Yes."
"I´m hungry."
"I know you´re hungry, but if you eat something now, you´ll be sick again. Drink this slowly, in small sips " I reached her a glass of Gatorade, she did as she was told, and then I showed her the teddy bear.
"Look what Nessie got for you Angela." I said. She smiled, and reached for the teddy- bear. I let her drink some more Gatorade.
"I´ll name it Carl." She said, about the teddy- bear. "Short for Carlisle- because you saved my life." I smiled at Angela, and then gave her some more Gatorade. Then I tucked her into bed again- of course- with Carl pressed against her chest, as she fell asleep again.
Angela slept through the night, and in the morning, I gave her some toasted white bread, banana and more Gatorade. She seemed much more alert than the day before. So I let Nessie into the room to play with her, and they played in our bed all day long. It´s truly amazing how much seven- and- eight- year- olds can think about doing sitting in a bed all day long.
At half past four, the doorbell ringed, and I went to open it.
"Hello Carlisle." John said when I opened the door. "I´ve come here to pick up my daughter." I smiled, and nodded, and just as John stepped in, Esme came with Angela´s clothes, that Esme had washed and dried. We walked together all three to our bedroom, where the girl sat, doing hand clapping games and giggling, but Angela stopped as soon as John came inside the door to the bedroom. I
"DADDY." She shrieked and jumped up on her feet, she ran across the bed, and by the foot of it, John lifted her up.
"Angel… you sure have a way of getting in trouble, why did you eat peas?"
"I wanted to know what they taste like, so I asked Nessie to give me one." Angela stepped down on the bed again, and with a bit of trouble, lifted Carl up and showed the bear to her father.
"Look what I got." John turned around and looked at me.
"You didn´t have to, to say something like-I wanna eat peas because I wanna know what they taste like. It´s very much like Angela. Esme gave the back- pack to John, and he pulled it over one shoulder, and then lifted Angela- who held Carl up.
"I´m sorry if this caused you too much scare and trouble." John said.
"It really was our pleasure- except for that allergy scare she and Nessie have had loads of fun. And so have we."
"I couldn´t thank you enough, I owe you one. See you tomorrow at work." John walked out the door, and I, Nessie and Esme walked after to wave goodbye to John and Angela.
"Bye Angela." Nessie said. "Please come and visit soon again." I smiled, but knew that because Nessie grew so fast, the time that they actually were playing together, would be short.
Just as we were going to go inside the house, Emmett came running out of the forest.
"YES." He shouted and boxed in the air, and the others came- one and one they came running. Jasper, Edward, Alice, Rosalie and Bella.
"Hey Ness." Edward jacked Nessie high up in the air, and she giggled.
"Had a good weekend?" Emmett asked. I looked to Esme, who looked to Nessie, who looked back to me.
"It was…. Eventful." I said. And then we all walked into the house so we could tell the others the whole story.
So… that didn´t turn out so bad did it? English is not my first language, neither my second. Please leave a review. Reviews makes my day.
And oh, I´ve never even seen a Gatorade… I´d guess that almost no one sell them in Sweden, so I have no idea which colors of Gatorade are easy or hard to find, or which tastes the best, But I found a list with tastes and colors of Gatorade, so I just picked one that sounded good.