Edward was happy to finally get away from the house and the rest of his family as he squeezed his Volvo into the parking place on East 1st St in the small town of Port Angeles, just northeast of his home town of Forks, Washington. His whole family had been cooped up in the house for the past week because of the bad news his adopted father had recently come home with.
Even staying close to the house and walking around the forest near his home, he had felt trapped. He knew he was taking a big risk going out, but he jumped at the chance to finally get away from home. Esme had needed some things that could only be acquired in Port Angeles and nobody else was around to object to him running this errand for his mother. The rest of the family were all off hunting a couple of miles away from home.
The bad news had come home with Carlisle eight days ago after he had returned from the pub where he would meet with his colleges from the hospital after work to keep up the façade that he was actually a human. He had heard the news from one of his doctor friends Henry Sleck. Henry was a long time fixture at the George and Dragon Pub and it had been just plain luck that he had been there that night to hear the bit of news that had concerned him so much.
Carlisle went to the pub shortly after Emmett had really pissed him off earlier in the afternoon. Emmett had broken all of his book cases and scattered his antique books all over his study. Emmett had been yelling and screaming like a hyena while throwing things all over the place. Carlisle had repeatedly told him to control himself and stop, but Emmett had just kept going. Once the bookcases were broken and all the damage done, Carlisle had screamed at Emmett, "I told you a dozen times to control yourself, but you kept going on like a mad man until you broke all of the bookcases and damaged several of my favorite books you moronic imbecile". Emmett told his father that he was sorry, but something "had just come over him" and he could not stop until the study had been completely destroyed.
Carlisle was fuming. His father had collected those books over 350 years earlier and he was fighting back every muscle fiber in his body not choke the ever living shit out of his adopted son. To make matters even worse, Jasper was trying to manipulate his emotions to stop him from attacking Emmett and he hated it when Jasper tried to get inside his head and influence his mind. He could "feel it" every time when someone tried to control him and he didn't know what was worse; the destruction of his study or someone trying to boss him around telepathically. So Carlisle announced to everybody to clean up this mess and that he was going to get away to calm his nerves. The best way for him to do that was to go to the pub to talk business with his friends and try to act like a normal person for a little while. Before he went out the door he yelled "And I mean it! That mess better be cleaned up before I get back home".
As Carlisle entered the pub shortly after the incident in his study, he saw many of his doctor friends gathered around several of the tables spread throughout the bar. As he scanned the room he noticed Dr. Henry Sleck frantically trying to get his attention. Once they had made eye contact, Carlisle walked over to the other side of the bar to shake his friend's hand. Henry shook his hand more emphatically than usual and he also seemed quite nervous. "Hello Henry, it's always a pleasuring seeing you after work. I'm glad that you are here tonight.". "Yes, it's good to see you to Carlisle, and quite fortuitous as well. I have something very important to tell you and I was just about ready to leave to go up to your place to discuss this matter but I needed a couple of beers in me before going up there".
Carlisle noticed that Henry was quite anxious and not acting like his normal, calm, cool, collected self. "Sure Henry, I'll join you while you finish your beer, what's on your mind"? As soon as he asked his question he knew this wasn't about something going on at the hospital. Before Henry answered him, he gave a nervous glance around the room as if he was looking for someone that shouldn't be there or to check for people who were close enough to listen in on them.
Once he was satisfied that no one was within ear shot, he said "Some man checked into the Emergency Room this morning. He was complaining of severe abdomen pain and he told the triage nurse that he suspected that he had food poisoning". Carlisle thought for a moment that maybe this was just about work and not really that important and added, "Well, you're the best man for that job, you are a great GI doctor".
"Of course and thank you. I was called down to the ER to evaluate this patient. There are very few patients that time of day in the ER and I had just finished doing all of my rounds, so I got there quickly after being paged. When I went into the exam room there was a man that was about 30 years old and he looked very healthy. At first glance, he didn't look like he was in much distress. As you well know, food poisoning, especially in the early stages, is quite painful and will put even the most macho man down on his knees. If you know what I mean."
Carlisle knew exactly what he meant. Every time he drank alcohol he was "down on his knees" in front of a toilet, barfing it all back up again about 4 to 5 hours later. Still, he did not know where Henry was going with this and he asked, "Well, what did your exam reveal".
"My exam revealed exactly what my first impression of the patient was. No food poisoning, that's for sure." Carlisle was about to say something and Henry held up a hand and said, "Let me explain. When I started interviewing the patient, he was very vague when answering all of my questions. So I had no more information than when I started. When I asked him to remove his shirt, he refused. I told him that he would need to remove his shirt so that I could perform a physical exam of his abdomen and that's when he suddenly grabbed my arm and told me that he didn't have "food poisoning". He said he was here to talk to me about something that had nothing to do with medicine or his abdomen".
Now Carlisle nerves started to perk up. He also gave a quick, nervous glance around the room as he asked Henry to continue. "His grip was very powerful and at first, I was very angry that a patient was trying to assault me. Then I looked into this mad mans eyes and my anger immediately went to concern. Mostly, concern for my own safety. While still gripping my arm he got off the exam table and stared down at me. He was at least six feet two inches tall and he weighed about 240 pounds. He told me that if I did not answer all of his questions truthfully, he would know it and I would pay for any lies I told him".
"My anger and concern then went to outright shock and fear. Here was man who could play full back for the Sea Hawks and he was threatening me over something that I had no idea about. I told him to let go of my arm, stop threatening me and that I was going to call the authorities. He then threw me by my arm into a chair and told me 'I'm not afraid of the authorities and I'm certainly not afraid of a sniveling doctor like you. Now shut up and answer my questions'
At this point in the conversation Carlisle concern went into overdrive. If this event had happened this morning and Henry had called the authorities, he would have heard about it much sooner than this. This had to have something to do with him personally or one of his family members. He had had many conversations such as this one over the centuries but he did not want to appear overly emotional to Henry. So he gave him the appropriate shocked look and asked, "What kind of questions did this "Full back" ask and what was his name".
"I didn't get his name Carlisle, at least not his real name. After he left I went to the admitting desk to get his information. After looking it over it was all generic bullshit. An address that didn't exist, a phone number that was bad and I even had the ER clerk run his insurance info. It came back with no one having any record of this person in their system. The name he checked in under was John Ball and I'm sure we can assume that wasn't his real name."
"Yes, yes Henry. I'm also sure that wasn't his real name after all of what you have told me. But what questions did he have for you that were so important that he faked an illness just to ask them. I mean really, couldn't he have just waited for you to get off work and confront you in the parking lot"?
"I thought about that after he left the ER and we were checking up on him. Someone might have seen him confront me in the parking lot and called the authorities. And like I said earlier, the ER at that time was almost empty. The admitting clerk said she really didn't get a good look at his face because he was faking being doubled over from the pain and all she cared about was getting the proper insurance card. The triage nurse said the same thing and added that whenever she was taking his vitals or assisting him to the exam room he would turn his head away as if he were afraid of what she was doing to him."
"OK, that all makes sense. An up close and personal confrontation with you in a sealed up exam room with very few witnesses who never really saw his face. But Henry, why all of this nonsense? What were the questions he asked and what does this have to do with me"?
"Nothing about you Carlisle. All of his questions were about your son Edward".