A/N: So I was lying in bed letting my mind wander as we all do at the end of the day when the idea for this fan-fic popped into my mind. I decided to play around with the idea and attempt telling it in Carlisle's POV. If later on I decide that Carlisle isn't the right person to tell this story, I'll probably switch, but for now he's the best to tell the beginning. Enjoy!
Carlisle POV"Carlisle, phone," Alice said from across the room. The phone in our useless kitchen rang once.
"Dr. Carlisle Cullen," I answered. The voice on the other end was that of one of my frantic nurses.
"Oh, Dr. Cullen! I'm so sorry to bother you at home at this hour, but Dr. Gerandy is out of town an-and we have a bit of a…situation he--" The nurse was no longer talking to me, but barking orders at her coworkers. I heard her fumble with the phone for a few seconds and curse at the phone before the line went dead. I sighed as I set the phone back on the receiver. I walked back into the living room to grab my white coat off of the coat rack.
"I'll be back later. There's some kind of commotion going on at the hospital." I bent down to give Esme a quick peck on the cheek and turned to leave. Approximately five minutes later, I pulled my Mercedes into the hospital parking lot. There was no one else present in the parking lot, so I ran the short distance from my car to the emergency room entrance. As soon as I entered the building, the scent of another vampire flooded my nostrils. I quickened my step in fear of what I might find at the source of the scent. I could hear chattering voices along with a few sobs of anguish as I approached the end of the hallway. I reached the final room where the scent was the strongest. I was startled as one of the young interns rushed out of the room, her eyes filled with tears. The intern, whose name I thought to be something like Carrie, took one look at me and attempted to run away in shame. I caught her arm and pulled her back towards me to try and calm her down.
"What happened?" I asked firmly. She stared at me for a moment, blushing when she realized she was doing so. I'm used to it by now. The girl choked back a sob before speaking.
"The-the boy…h-he flat-lined, Dr. Cullen. He was fine and then he just…just…" She buried her face in her hands and began to sob again. I sighed. I really had no time for this, but I couldn't just leave the poor girl there to wallow in her grief over someone to which she probably had no connection. Besides, if what the girl said was true, there was no way for me to help whoever had just passed away. I gently put a hand on her shoulder.
"Look…Carrie, isn't it?"
She nodded.
"Carrie, deaths are always painful. I've been doing this for many, many years and I still have a hard time dealing with them emotionally. Physically, however, you cannot let them have the better of you. You have to keep going so that perhaps you can keep another patient from passing on"
"Yes, Dr. Cullen," she replied quietly. Her cheeks were flushed from crying, making the freckles disseminated across her face stand out. She looked so frightened; I couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor thing.
"Was this your first?" I asked her gently.
She nodded again, veritably holding back more tears at the thought of witnessing a second death.
"Well, it can only get easier from here. Why don't go to the bathroom to clean up a bit, and then go to the cafeteria and get something to eat," I said, reaching a hand into my wallet to pull out a five-dollar bill. She tried to refuse the money at first.
"I insist. You've just undergone emotional trauma, and I don't want to lose you as an intern. We need all the help we can get around here." I realized a second too late that I had said that I didn't want to lose her as an intern, rather than the hospital, or the nurses, or we as a whole. This has proven to present problems before, though she didn't seem to notice. I made a point of making sure my wedding ring was visible around my finger, just in case.
As Carrie thanked me and turned down the hallway, I exhaled sharply and took a step inside the intensive care room where, according to the intern, someone had just flat-lined.
"Oh, Dr. Cullen! Thank goodness you're here!" Cheryl, a loud, middle-aged nurse, said with much more zeal than necessary. I ignored her and stared at the body on the table. It was a pale young man with tousled brown hair, probably the same age or a bit older than Bella. As everyone in the room looked towards me for instruction, I realized that there was something both the boy and I knew that the nurses did not.
He wasn't dead. He just wasn't breathing.
A/N: Woah! Cliffhanger (not really, but kinda-sorta)! Sorry, didn't mean to do that…the chapters just kinda broke up that way. The patient will be explained more in the next few chapters. Questions? Comment? Concerns? PM me! I mentioned it at the end of "A Gentleman's Waltz" and I'm mentioning it again now… "A Cullen Christmas Carol" co-written by my friend Hemione W. Cullen and myself will be published sometime before New Year's (hopefully).
Happy Holidays!
-Alice C.