A/N This is the first Twilight fan fiction I've posted, and after all the B/E ones that I've started I'm shocked to be posting a J/A first. Oh well. Needless to say, I don't own Twilight, or probably even most of the plot (especially since it gets more and more Girl Interrupted as I think about it) and I make no moolah from it. I wouldn't be slaving away in my dungeon day after day if I did. Just to clear things up, this is a teaser, of sorts. The next chapter will start from the beginning.
I had seen how tenderly he would care for me. I already loved him, despite not having met him yet.
"I watched a wasp kill a spider today."
Dr Cullen peered over his spectacles, regarding the girl in front of him for a moment before asking, "In real life, or in one of your dreams."
She refrained from reminding him yet again that her dreams, as he called them, were merely real life that hadn't happened yet.
"In real life."
She fiddled with the small straps hanging around her wrists, meeting the doctor's gaze evenly. He stared back, though she knew he had given up on expecting her to elaborate without prodding.
"Where'd you see this?"
"Outside my window." She coughed once and rearranged herself on the uncomfortable grey couch. "Charlie put up a good fight though."
His blonde eyebrows raised and he gave her a questioning look.
"Charlie?"
"The spider. I named him Charlie after Charlotte, from Charlotte's Web."
"Mmhmm…"
He gave an interested hum and scribbled something on the notepad on his lap, causing her to smile to herself. God only knew what he and the other doctors would make that mean about her. Childlike tendencies, an inability to connect to people, an incessant need to live in a fantasy world. She had heard it all before, first from a never-ending line of high-paid psychiatrists and then from the steady stream of doctor's who had seen her at the institute.
Once he finished his notations his blue eyes met hers once more.
"What happened?"
"The wasp got caught in the web and the spider tried to spin him up. Then the wasp got angry and flew off, then came back and they started fighting. I guess he managed to sting Charlie since he was hanging from the web." She looked thoughtful then added, "Then the wasp came back and cut off Charlie's legs and took them somewhere."
She already knew what the next question would be.
"Why is this important?"
"I don't think it's terribly important, not in the grand scheme of things."
"Why tell me then?"
She shrugged.
"It was interesting to watch. And I'm kind of sad Charlie's gone. I liked watching him spin his web. It was pretty."
She knew she sounded childish, but she really couldn't help it if she encouraged the doctors' perceptions of her. It was easier once they had labeled her and put her in a box on the shelf with all their other cases.
"You don't get a whole lot of pretty here, do you?"
Then again, Carlisle Cullen was proving to be sharper than most of the other psychiatrists she'd seen. He seemed to understand that underneath the alleged psychosis and delusions, she was still a person.
She smiled serenely.
"The art in the hall is nice. And Rosalie is very pretty."
The corners of his mouth twitched up at that, though he tried not to show it.
"One girl can't compensate for all the ugliness in your life, Alice."
She shrugged once more, glancing up as the clock struck twelve and saved her from having to answer.
"It was nice talking to you again, Carlisle."
He nodded, an amused air still about him as she stood and headed for the door. Before it could fully close behind her, she stuck her head back into the office.
"Tell Zafrina it's not as bad as the doctors say. Her son will walk again."
Carlisle's eyebrows shot up and she closed the door quickly, before he could ask her any questions.
Later that day he found Zafrina sobbing in the nurses' rec room. Her son had been in a car accident and was paralyzed from the waist down. As the woman sobbed into another nurse's shoulder, Alice's words ran through his mind unbidden and he suppressed a shiver.
So yeah, odd,I know but let me know what you think.