A/N: Standard disclaimer applies. SM owns it all, I'm just cooking in her kitchen...
Carlisle Cullen was the most tired he'd been since his internship in Chicago. Being a General Practitioner in a small town like Forks, Washington was as busy and draining as the hours he'd pulled at Chicago Memorial all those years ago. 'Slow down, they said. Go be a small town doctor and semi-retire, they said. Spend time with the wife and kids, they said.' rolled through his thoughts on this Friday afternoon in the first week of October, He had only two short appointments after lunch and this school physical now before he could go home and take a nap before his son's first basketball game of the season. He was grateful that it was at least a home game so he wouldn't have much of a drive to get home that night.
So far this week he'd delivered two babies, set one broken arm for an enthusiastic eight year old on his first tree-climb and stabilized one heart attack before life-flighting the 72 year old man on to Seattle, all in addition to his two ER rotations in the local hospital and his usual office hours in his private practice. Semi-retirement wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
He finished charting his last patient and met his nurse, Sheila, in the hall on the way to the next one. He saw the thick file and frowned down at her. "Does this one keep all her records in her own hands? Good grief, that must be an inch thick!"
Sheila gave him a sour look and responded, "All? This is just this year's alone! You should see the rest of the pile on your desk. I guarantee you this one will take a while."
With a look of shock on his face he just stared at her for a few seconds. "Well, I guess you'd better shift my two follow-ups this afternoon to Dr. Gerandy's clinic so I can do a good work-up on her. It looks like it'll take a while."
Taking the file from Sheila's hands he walked to the exam room, knocked on the door and hearing a quiet assent opened the door.
"Hello Miss Swan, I'm Dr. Cullen but you can call me Carlisle, I have a feeling we're going to be seeing a lot of each other." could be heard as he entered the room and closed the door behind him.
Charlie Swan was so surprised that his normally quiet disposition went flying out the window when he got home. "Is this what your mother wouldn't tell me about, Bella? You need a doctor's release not only from gym but to use the elevator? And these prescriptions! One for a cane, one for a back brace and all these drugs! It looks like an addict's dream here. Let's see...a high dose of Motrin, an antidepressant, an anti-anxiety, a muscle relaxant and enough narcotic pain medication to open my own pharmacy! At least three of these are scheduled drugs! What the hell have you been doing?" He only slowed when he realized just how upset his daughter was by his reaction.
She finally just shrieked back at him, "Yeah, Charlie! I'm running illegal drugs out of the freaking Chief of Police's house! I managed to con a doctor I've never seen before to supply me with drugs that I don't need or use just on my say-so! This is why Mom and I never told you about this. All you needed to know was the diagnosis, not the reality of the pain control problems. I won't use a cane, I can't stand the thought of it. My rolling backpack will give me enough support if I'm careful and I swear you won't have to pay for a brace because I refuse to wear one of those torture devices. Yes, I do need the elevator because of pulling the backpack but that isn't as obvious as the rest. As for the drugs, Dr. Cullen insisted on stronger pain meds because of the change in climate. One day in this cold, green hell and I can barely move!"
She finally ran out of steam and sat down at the kitchen table. "Dad, he spent over an hour and a half with me on my history and confirming all the medicines and accommodations. What else can I do? I hate taking the pills. They make me sick and I can't eat, but if I don't eat I have even more trouble keeping them down. I don't even come close to being an addict. If I could get away with never taking them again I would." Her sigh was deep and sad. She hated talking about this with anyone, especially her dad. She really wished she could talk to her mom but that was no longer possible since the accident killed both her mom and her stepdad. Alone, that was all she could feel at this point.
Edward Cullen was on a natural high! It was only halfway through the first quarter and he already had scored ten points and assisted with six more. At 6'3" he was the perfect height for post forward for his basketball team. Their fast break was killing the guys from Port Angeles and his fall-away jump shot was making it worse for their opponents.
At two minutes left in the quarter he went up for another jumper and knew there was something wrong on the way down. The guy guarding him had not even tried to block his shot but instead had slid his foot just far enough under Edward's dropping feet for him to come down wrong. He screamed as the pain flared through his ankle up to his knee. Before he knew what was happening his dad was there, holding him as still as possible. The team trainer was there with an immobilizer before Dr. Cullen could even ask for one. "Eric, let's get him straight to my car and I'll get him to the hospital for an x-ray STAT." Not knowing anything more than that it hurt, Edward tried to argue, "Dad! I have to stay for the game, we can get an x-ray once we've finished this!"
"Son, you've played all you're going to play for tonight and maybe for a long time. Now stop arguing and let us get you help NOW." Carlisle had seen how far his son's ankle had twisted and heard a pop even over the crowd noise. He couldn't be sure how bad it was, but he was pretty sure his son's season was over.
