I don't own the Twilight franchise; I just like to play with the characters because SM is awesome and lets me. Thanks for that.

Ch. 1

I smiled as I heard her walking down the hall. The hospital was loud, but I would know that sound anywhere.

"Hello, Mrs. Cullen."

"Hello Rachel, how are you today?"

"I'm good. It's been a busy morning, but it seems to have slowed down. Dr. Cullen forget his lunch again?"

I smiled. I could hear the smile in her voice too as she answered, chuckling.

"Yes. I swear, he can be so focused and ready to get here in the morning that he always seems to forget something."

Rachel laughed good-naturedly. "Well it's a good thing he has an amazing wife like you to bring it to him."

She had no idea.

They finished up their conversation and I cleared the smile off my face, returning to the charts on my desk and looking busy as she walked the rest of the way down the hall and knocked on my door.

"Come in." I said, not looking up.

"Dear, how silly of you. You forgot your lunch again." She said, closing and locking the door behind her. "And I thought you might be…hungry."

I couldn't help the smile that spread across my face. Even after all these years, I was putty in this woman's hands.

_._._

Half an hour later we were sitting on the couch and my arm was around her shoulders.

"So, what did you bring me today, Sweetheart?" I ask, eyeing the lunchbox and sniffing carefully.

"A bunch of empty containers." She said, smiling.

"Oh, you know me too well." I replied, kissing her on the cheek.

Just then there was a light rap on the door.

"Come in." I said, glad that we'd remembered to unlock the door before moving to the couch.

"Dr. Cullen there's a—oh!" Sarah, one of the nursing staff said as she walked through the door and saw Esme and I on the couch. "I didn't mean to—I just—there's a—"

I smiled reassuringly. "It's okay Sarah, we were just catching up a little after lunch." I motioned to the lunchbox on my desk and Sarah eyed it, looking relieved. "Now what's going on?"

"There was a pretty bad car crash that's on its way in. Reports say the scene is a bloodbath, one of the passengers may have a severed leg and they had to use the Jaws of Life to get them out. Dr. Stern said he wouldn't mind another person on deck."

Es stiffened beside me at the term 'bloodbath' and I squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.

"I'll be there in a second, Sarah. Thank you for coming to get me." I smiled at her reassuringly and she hurried back out into the hall just as the call came over my office speakers.

"Well, duty calls." I said, easily lifting Es off the couch and pulling her into a hug. "You probably want to get out of here before they show up—this one is probably going to be pretty bad. I'll make sure to clean up before I come home for Jas and the others but I might be late tonight." I leaned back and kissed her forehead.

She sighed and pulled back, looking me in the eyes. "Thank you. I don't know how you do it, but I'm so proud of you for it and I love you so much."

I smiled. "I know you do. And I love you too. I'll see you tonight."

We kissed one last time and she was out the door, followed a moment later by me.

I paused a fraction of a second at the Emergency Room doors and took a deep, calming breath before pushing them open and entering just as the EMTs were bringing in the first of the wounded, and I was right. It was bad.

I just hoped that Es had managed to get far enough away that the smell wouldn't bother her.

~.~.~

A/N-So I promised myself that I wouldn't start anything else until MRS was finished—which it isn't—but this just wrote itself and I couldn't stop it. I can't promise regular updates, though it will be probably be easier to write than Dusk which means it will probably get updated more. MRS is still on for its regular updates. The reality of the situation is that the more I hear back from you, the more I work on that story. You want more of this, let me know! Besides that, your thoughts are just awesome and I love to hear them. =) Hope you all are having a better week than me, I came down with strep. Review and help me feel better? *sheepish grin*