Still Waters

Please remember a few things as you read this: 1) I don't own Twilight or any of its characters – those are Ms. Stephanie Meyers' property, I'm just borrowing them to play with them and hopefully amuse myself with my spare time. Any characters you don't recognize belong to me- Nikki,Cara and a few others are all my fault if you don't like them – feel free to review and tell me why. Also please note no money is being made from this journey into Ms. Meyers world to tinker in it. I promise to return all property unharmed but amused when I am done. - Silentdovesong

'This has been the strangest year of my life, I only wish Didyme had lived to see this. Marcus thought as he walked through the woods outside the Cullen home. He had taken the invitation from the newest Mrs. Cullen hesitantly but it had afforded him time to try to understand the relationships he was seeing.

Jasper had on the surface broken one of the tenants of their ways – one mate, and he had taken a second and what was more bewildering to him was that Alice, spunky and spirited as she was completely behind this. And the other, stranger female Elyshia seemed to have no overt loyalties other than to Kaashaa even though he had witnessed the effect of a bond between her and the other male, Taron. And yet as reciprocated as it was neither seemed influenced by Chelsea's abilities.

"Penny for your thoughts?" the voice startled him and he whirled around to find himself about six feet away from a woman of about 5'4" woman dressed in dark jeans, boots and a rich blue sweater.

Marcus stiffened as he heard her heartbeat echoing in his ears fighting himself not to breathe in her very human scent taking in her appearance instead. She was a willowy-thin pale skinned creature with hair the color of cocoa spilling out from under a ball cap to keep the sun off of her eyes, and he saw as he tamped down his Hunger with effort that she had eyes the color of emeralds. "Just woolgathering." He answered his slightly British accent slipping out as he watched the smaller figure. This was most definitely a test he wasn't sure he was going to pass.

"Uh huh," the woman answered her tone lightly sarcastic, "And I'm quite sure that thought you just had was like a knife in the gut twisting from your expression."

"Something like that," Marcus conceded watching her carefully and praying that she didn't move closer, two steps and she would be in arm's reach which would be most definitely too much temptation. "I should go, my ... host is expecting me back ."

"Sure, just don't get eaten by bears when you're out woolgathering." The female smiled faintly and turned to walk away again and he watched as she walked back into the depths of the woods….

"The bears should be the least of your worries," Marcus said to himself as he walked back to the Cullen home.

Voices greeted him as Marcus opened the door to the house and he heard the sound he recognized as Carlisle's pager and saw his friend's expression turn grave then move through the throngs of people for his coat. "Excuse me Marcus I've got to go the hospital paged me on an emergency." He said darting around him to exit the house and jumping into his Mercedes.

Not even twenty minutes later Carlisle strode into the hospital pulling on his lab coat smiling benignly at the harried-looking ER triage nurse who pointed him toward one of the rooms holding out the chart to him. Flipping it open as he opened the door to find the frantic nurses trying to get IV's into a willowy young woman laid out on the bed her eyes closed and barely breathing, and he could hear the heartbeat fading as he approached the bed even if he used his stethoscope to listen in a hurry as the nurses finally managed to get an IV started. "Stay with me just a minute more Miss Cara Xavier and we'll see if I can get you fixed up." he murmured as the heart monitor abruptly flatlined causing him to have to reach for the defibrillator paddles in the same instant one of the nurses moved the hospital gown she was wearing giving him the space on the frail looking body to place them "Clear!" he barked, his British accent escaping his careful control as the fight to get a heartbeat back began in earnest.

A small vial of ephedrine, a second administering of the defibrillator paddles and the use of oxygen and the young lady had a steady heartbeat and her breathing was easy as Carlisle frowned to himself and ordered a mild sedative to let the woman rest as he gave the order for her to be moved to the ICU where she could be closely monitored out of the high-stress environment of the emergency room.

Carlisle followed the orderlies moving the bed to the floor careful to not tangle any of the lines of tubes and risk having to have a nurse redo the IV. He opened the chart that the nurse had given to him and he was intending to write down what he had done when he nearly swore as he read on the chart:

Name: Cara Dawn Xavier

Age: 19

Address: 1523 Valley View Dr.' Port Angeles, WA

No Known Emergency Contact; patient has never revealed who to contact

….

Illnesses and surgeries: frequent bouts of bronchitis due to weakened immune system, allergies, Stage 4 Uterine Cancer.

It was as if a blow to the chest, the woman was barely older than his own adopted daughters had 'died' at and this woman would die very likely he read onward by the holidays.

It would take effort to put his emotions in check and focus on how best to treat the patient he'd been called in particularly for. It wasn't just his weekend on duty the nurses tended to nudge him toward the patients who needed just a bit more attention and this young lady was no exception. He waited until she was safely inside the room and set about ordering the first round of blood work that would give him some answers and made a note he wanted her sedated at least through morning.

Carlisle monitored the young woman and was sitting in the physician's lounge when the lab attendant appeared with a stack of papers and a tired smile, "I was supposed to go home two hours ago but I saw these were for you and you don't order tests like these without a reason so I did them before sleep. Which I'm going to go do before I fall on my nose." The youthful man smiled and walked out of the room giving Carlisle the chance to read over the results.

He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly through his teeth as he read the discouraging results of the tests. The cancer had taken firm hold of her body and showed signs according to the blood count, of spreading to other parts of the body. She didn't have much time, and the fact that there wasn't an emergency contact deeply troubled him. A young woman like that should have a family to support her through the cancer, and he suspected as he read the results again she hadn't had much treatment probably due to the high cost of fighting any cancer. He rose to his feet and went to do a last round before heading home his head and heart both aching because if nothing else, a human being deserved dignity, and it seemed to him this woman would be denied that in life.. and in death.