Summary: Dr. Carlisle Cullen is hired for a job that goes wrong.
AVA
1
Carlisle Cullen gently placed the bloody scalpel into the saline solution before removing his surgical gown and gloves. He resisted the urge to rub the sweat on his upper lip like he always had to after several hours of surgery -the countless amount of times his preceptor had barked at him whenever he tried to touch his face after his surgical rotation was enough reminder that Carlisle, don't touch your face after removing the mask.
His hand stopped in the process of removing his mask. Carlisle glanced at the unconscious body on the metal table. He knew better. There was no way a man could be conscious and remember his face after the trauma he experienced in the last few hours.
"You don't feel weird about cutting someone up like that?" Mr. Ohno asked behind him.
Carlisle, eyes half-lidded, answered monotonously, "It's just skin. It's my job."
Mr. Ohno shivered comically and shrugged. "'It's your job'." He laughed hysterically for a minute. Despite the way his body shook with his laughter, his bright red hair was slicked so well back that not even a single strand fell out of place. "Well, our company appreciates your…job, though this must be your vacation money considering how well your practice is doing."
Carlisle glanced back at the still body. The man's chest still rose up and down deeply. Deep sleep. He needed it. The man had not only had all four of his limbs removed without anesthesia but the men paying Carlisle had given him enough to ensure that the man on the table would survive it -and feel it.
And he thought about this when returned home that night. He stood by the sliding patio door and looked onto the backyard where his beautiful wife Esme and their son Edward played and laughed together. Edward was nearly six in a few weeks and every time Carlisle saw his little boy, he thought that Edward was certainly his mother's son.
"Honey, welcome home," Esme hollered from where she stood. Edward tackled her legs with a loud giggle and they rolled on the grass in laughter. There was a feeling in Carlisle's chest and he thought that maybe he smiled.
It's just a job.
Two days later, he stood in front of Mr. Ohno's desk, expressionless as the man dug into his gums with a floss pick and said, "Dr. Cullen…the company has found that the wrong man was on your table the other day. We understand that it was due to our request but-" Carlisle found himself grinding his teeth in mild annoyance at Mr. Ohno's pauses "- unfortunately, since you are an outsider…our company needs to hold you accountable for…your actions." Mr. Ohno waited for some kind of reaction. Carlisle gave none. "Since we understand that the company has some fault in this, we have chosen to spare you…. Your wife and child…unfortunately…they have met with an accident."
Mr. Ohno caught Carlisle's eyes narrowing slightly. He smiled a smile full of pity and understanding. "You know how it is, doctor. If it were me, I would've just killed you and gotten the whole…mess over with. But at least you leave here unharmed and you are still a young man! Plenty of time for you to get a new wife and kid, right?"
Carlisle left Mr. Ohno's office without a word.
A month later, he found himself on a cute, frilly website with an incorrigible amount of cartoon bunnies and lullaby music playing in the background. He readjusted the cellphone on his shoulder while the girl on the other end hummed while she waited. At the top of the page read in large, bubble letters: "AVA - find the girl best suited for the job!" with an anthropomorphic white rabbit holding a peace sign.
"Sir, we are more than happy to suggest a girl based on your preference!" the girl chirped happily.
Carlisle scrolled through a number of pictures of attractive, young girls and stopped on an image of a pale girl with short, pastel-pink hair. "I want someone…crazy."
Carlisle met her, Alice, the next day in the park next to the hospital he worked at during his lunch break. He didn't have high expectations for the girl but while he was briefly employed at the company Mr. Ohno worked for, he had heard a few whispers about AVA and how its girls were dedicated to satisfying its customers. Of course, they didn't come cheap.
The girl approached him without hesitation, a polite smile on her pink lips. Her thin fingers were hooked around a baby-pink backpack and, now that Carlisle noticed it, the girl was entirely pink. From the roots of her pastel-pink pixie hair, her hot pink nails, her clothes, and even her high-heeled boots were pink.
And then before he could even raise his eyes to hers to greet her, she passed him and walked deeper into the city.
He sighed and finished his ham sandwich in peace.
Thirty minutes later, while he finished up his notes for the patient he just visited, he got a phone call.
"Hey, Doc! I am right outside the office. What would you like me to do?"
Carlisle stared at the phone for a second. He wanted to ask the immediate questions like "who are you?" and "what are you talking about?" but after that second of staring at his phone, the pink girl from the park flashed through his mind.
Just as he was about to answer her, he heard her voice tinkling through the phone like bells. "Aw man, can you pleeeease let me in? I really gotta use the bathroom -my stomach's killin' me!" He imagined she was holding her gut dramatically the way she spoke.
"Leave Mr. Ohno alive," he said.
"Okay!" she said cheerfully.
The phone call ended.
Carlisle entered the office building warily at first. He glanced around the walls to look for cameras but one look, he could tell that Alice had already taken care of it with the wires hanging out of the surveillance cameras.
There was an entire hallway leading up the elevator smeared with blood of the security guard -one working for the company, he supposed. He calmly took the elevator up to the third floor where he was greeted by at least ten more dead bodies riddled with bullet holes. He followed the trail of blood down another hallway to a small conference room where Mr. Ohno sat at the head of the table, a serene expression on his bloodied face.
Carlisle looked at him nonchalantly and glanced at the girl sitting a couple of seats away from Mr. Ohno, tongue peeking out the corner of her mouth, working on what looked like homework. She grinned when she saw Carlisle and quickly put away her work.
"Hey, Doc! I got your guy. What would you like me to do to him?" She clasped her hands behind her back and rocked back and forth.
Carlisle stared at Mr. Ohno in silence.
"I'm usually requested for quick-kills, but my last job was torture, so I got lots of refreshers on that. Well, it's a little harder when the say to be creative with it, but you know, I do my best. It's not easy to be creative when you're in dark little room where you got nothing to inspire you, you know? No scope for the imagination. Though if you give me a theme -"
"Thank you, Alice," Carlisle said. "I'd like him to be transported safely to the basement in my home. I'd like him to be alive for at least another ten to fifteen years."
"Oh, that's it? Sweet! Will do, Doc!" Alice said cheerfully. She ripped off Mr. Ohno's sleeve with one pull and stuffed it into his mouth, then grabbed a fistful of his hair and dragged him out of his seat, out the door.
"Hey…doc, whatcha doin' there?" Mr. Ohno asked. It was hard for him to speak now since he was missing most of his teeth. The ones pulled from the back had been the worst of it.
Carlisle, eyes half-lidded like always, looked up at Mr. Ohno, whose red hair had become longer and turned to a stark white, with boredom written all over his face and said, "I'm dipping your finger in liquid nitrogen."
Mr. Ohno raised both eyebrows in genuine surprise. "Seriously? Huh…I didn't know I had any left." Carlisle didn't reply to this. He just watched as Mr. Ohno's last finger broke off. The man didn't even flinch as it happened. "I don't why you bother -you know I'm used to it. It doesn't even hurt anymore." Carlisle, still, didn't reply to this.
They both watched the small television in the brightly lit fluorescent basement while a comedy duo cracked a joke at one another. Carlisle and Mr. Ohno chuckled together at a joke.
Carlisle got up from his rolling chair and removed his gown in the specific order he learned and once again stopped himself before he wiped his hand across his upper lip. He washed his hands with warm water and listened to the laughter of the audience in the comedy duo's special and Mr. Ohno's wheezing chuckles. He didn't think Mr. Ohno was going to last much longer. A shame. At least he can say that the hired help was money well spent.
He turned off a couple lights and made to leave, walking towards the television.
"Hey…doc, weave it on, will ya? It gets kinda lonely down here," Mr. Ohno pleaded.
Carlisle thought of his beautiful, kind Esme and his sweet Edward. He flipped off the television, turned off the rest of the lights and went back upstairs to enjoy the rest of his Sunday.
