A/N: S. Meyer is still the proud owner of all things Twilight. I take no profit from this other than enjoyment.

Thanks again to Sharon, who gave me this prompt and waited patiently for me to figure out how I wanted to write it. I'm so glad that you like it!

Lead Me Not Into Temptation

Chapter 2

I spent the rest of the week working out how best to deal with this new and confusing situation. I contemplated several times the idea of calling Aro, my old friend and leader of the Volturi, who had been around much longer than I, and therefore had experienced many phenomena which I had not, but I was not yet ready to admit that I was struggling with the call of human blood. Especially not to Aro, the vampire who spent the better part of four decades trying to convince me to consume what was "natural" for my kind.

I also avoided discussing the issue with my family, despite several attempts on the part of Jasper to get me to discuss what was bothering me. I simply couldn't allow myself to seem weak to the ones who had always looked up to me. They needed me to be strong, so strong I would be.

With very few answers, and even less certainty, I decided that gorging myself on blood before reporting to work on Monday morning was a good starting point. I walked into the hospital a few minutes before my shift began, my belly sloshing with the blood of two bucks and an antelope, as uncomfortably full as a vampire could probably get, I supposed. My hope was that, being so full, I couldn't possibly be attracted to any blood, not even Bella's.

I saved Cassy's room for last, just in case, and approached it with a nervous anticipation. I rapped lightly on the door and took a deep breath before entering, filling my lungs with what I knew would be the last bit of oxygen I could safely inhale for the next few minutes.

My precautions served me well, and, for the first time with Bella present in the room, I was able to examine Cassy thoroughly. My muscles and jaw remained tense, as I knew it would be exceedingly dangerous to allow myself to relax at all. I used my voice as little as possible, since each word used up another molecule of my precious oxygen, but Cassy, being the curious eight year old that she was, did not make this task easy on me.

"Do my stitches look better today, Dr. Cullen?" she asked in a sweet, high-pitched voice.

"Mmmhmmm," I replied as I gently prodded at them with my index finger, pleased with the way she was healing.

A moment later, as I was checking her reflexes, she asked, "My knee is jumping higher than before, isn't it?"
Again, I hummed my approval. The little girl frowned slightly, looking slightly hurt.

"Dr. Cullen, my mommy told me that when grown ups don't talk back to me, that means I am bothering them. Am I bothering you?"

Not able to bear the burden of hurting the child that I genuinely liked, I took her hand in mine, smiling warmly, and replied. "Of course not, Cassy. I'm just concentrating on my work. I'll come back later, and we can chat, after I finish all of my surgeries."

And after Bella is gone.

Cassy nodded her head and offered me a small smile. "Ok then," she said softly.

Clenching my fists tightly in my pockets and feeling the uncomfortable burn of the last of my oxygen dwindling in my lungs, I knew that my last words would have to be chosen carefully if I wanted to get out of this room without incident.

I smiled at Cassy, and then turned toward Bella. "Enjoy the rest of your reading time, Bella," I said, then returned my gaze to Cassy, "I'll see you this afternoon, sweetheart."

With one last smile, I walked out of the room, heaving a huge sigh of relief, glad to have successfully navigated my encounter with Bella's blood. I took a deep inhalation of the recycled hallway air - this was my mistake. Even though the door to Cassy's room was closed, I had breathed in deeply enough to catch some of Bella's sweet freesia scent that lingered in the hallway.

I stiffened, clenching my jaw tightly as the venom began to fill my mouth and scorch the back of my throat. For a moment, I stood still, my feet planted firmly to the floor, willing myself to stay where I was rather than allow my hand to reach out to turn the knob that would open for me the door to my downfall.

Focusing every thought I had on resisting, I walked down the hall, and, deciding on my way that some fresh air would do me a world of good, stopped to press the button to call the elevator. I waited only a moment before the heavy metal door opened, and then stepped inside, pressing the button for the ground floor.
Just as the door was closing, a soft voice called out for me to hold the elevator. Without a thought, my chivalrous nature took over and pressed the "door open" button. An instant later, when I looked up and saw that the voice which had called out to me belonged to Bella, I inwardly cursed my parents for bringing me up to be a gentleman.

The elevator doors slowly closed, trapping me inside the tiny box with the woman who I was sure was either a instrument of torture sent by God himself to punish me for past sins, or the serpent from the Garden of Eden, appearing to me in human form to tempt me and bring about my fall from grace just as he did Adam and Eve thousands of years before this.

Blood. Tantalizing, mouth-watering blood.

She stared straight ahead, her face flushed a slight pink, presumably from the effort of her brisk walk down the hall, bringing her alluring fragrance to the forefront of my thoughts.

Blood. So sweet, begging to be sipped slowly and savored.

I felt my hands begin to tremble and my tongue ran over my lips in anticipation. My mind seemed to be covered with a haze that made it difficult to think coherent thoughts. I knew that I was only seconds away from losing my control completely.

Blood. I needed it now.

Searching for anything else to focus on other than her scent, I began to examine her face as if I were a sculptor preparing to mold the clay into her likeness. I took careful account of each feature, truly looking at Bella for the very first time.

Her hair was long, with a very slight wave to it, a deep mahogany, with strands of red and blond throughout, and I was sure the color was an exact replica of the wood of the desk in my study at the house. Her cheekbones were high and prominent, still holding onto the lovely pink flush that tempted me so. Her nose, not too big nor too small, had a slight bump a quarter of the way down from her brow that suggested to me that it had once been broken, and was covered with a small smattering of freckles that seemed to convey a touch of innocence in the young woman. Her lips were full and plump, the lower one moist as if she had licked it just before entering the elevator. The man in me felt the sudden urge to lean in and press my lips against them. Her...

Then I realized it. My efforts at distracting myself had been much more than successful. Looking at her, I saw that Bella was beautiful. And now she was tempting me in more ways than one.

The door opened, and I was out the elevator and hospital doors without a word before Bella took her first step.

The next few weeks passed by in much the same manner. Cassy remained in the hospital, undergoing a round of precautionary chemotherapy as recommended by the oncologist, and I continued to oversee her care. This meant that every weekend was spent in Canada, hunting moose, and each Wednesday morning I glutted myself on local wildlife before reporting to the hospital for my shift, knowing that Bella and her nearly irresistible scent would be there, waiting to entice me and bid me to leave my vegetarian lifestyle behind.

Each exposure had become the slightest bit more manageable, though it was still a rather extreme hardship to be in the tight quarters of Cassy's hospital room with the scent of her blood perfuming the air. I had discovered on our last meeting that, if I focused as hard as I possibly could on attending to my patient's medical care, the smell of freesias would retreat to a small enough portion of my mind that I could unclench my teeth and speak to Cassy without seeming like a caveman.

Speaking to Bella, on the other hand, was a much larger challenge. Speaking to her required looking at her and giving her more of my attention than my tenuous grip on control allowed. It had been difficult enough when it was only my vampiric nature that she called to. But now? The elevator that we had shared weeks before, when I had truly seen her as a woman, now had my other half – the man within – drawn to Bella as well. For her own safety and mine, though, I could allow neither desire to be satisfied.

Being the gentleman that I was, however, I was unable to be rude to the young woman. So I was forced to pinch my thigh, as I had during my second exposure to her scent, far more often than I would have liked. I could tell simply by watching the furrow of her brow that she recognized my discomfort when speaking to her, and she, being polite as she always seemed to be, therefore kept our conversations to a minimum. There was no doubt in my mind, however, that she would have preferred more amiable communication between the two of us. The truth was, I did too. I only wished that I could provide it.

Each day was a struggle for control, an internal war waging between my desire to feed from her and my desire to lay her in my bed and make her mine. She tempted me so completely; there was only a small portion of my mind that was fighting to stay strong. But I had to. I had grown convinced that Bella was sent as a test for me, and it was a test that I was terrified of failing. As if she herself was the key to the gates of heaven, breaking or destroying her, as I was sure to do if I got any closer to her, would be my eternal damnation. I therefore spent every effort I could hunting and praying for strength.

On Wednesday, I arrived at the hospital early, my belly once again feeling almost uncomfortably sloshy after spending the hours surrounding sunrise glutting myself on the blood of two does and a large mountain lion. I assumed that this day to be much like the others that had passed over the last month.

I have never been so wrong.

The day began as usual. I visited the nurses' station, learned the news from the overnight staff before they left, and performed my rounds. I did not have a surgery scheduled until after the lunch hour, so I was able to take my time, conversing with my patients as I examined them, enjoying learning more about the humans for whose lives I was providing care.

Cassy's room, as always, was left for the end. After a soft knock, I entered the room, offering a smile to both Bella and Cassy, and inquired about their reading. It seemed that they were now halfway through Anne of Green Gables, and the little one enjoyed telling me about it each time I saw her.

I let her give me the latest news of the young orphan girl as I examined her, checking her pulse and listening to her lungs, then took a moment to look over her latest lab results.

"Cassy, dear, would you mind opening your mouth for me, so that I can look inside?" I interrupted as she was busy discussing Anne's new teacher at school.

The little girl nodded and opened her mouth wide for me. I frowned as I peered inside, seeing exactly what I had expected to find – her gums were already very pale, confirming the anemia that I already detected through the scent of her blood and which the previous night's labs had suggested.

I stood back up and smiled softly at Cassy, keeping my thoughts focused on her and doing my best to completely block Bella from my mind and senses. "Cassy, it seems that you have what we doctors call anemia. This is a sickness that you get from the medicine we're giving you, and it makes you have less good red cells in your blood than you should. Do you understand that, dear?"

Cassy nodded, her eyes wide, showing me that she was afraid. I reached out and took her hand, giving it a light squeeze.

"It's ok, dear. I will talk with your parents about this later. For now, I don't want you to worry. I'm going to send in Nurse Julie in a little while with some new blood for you. It'll go right in here," I pointed to her central line, so that she wouldn't feel worried about more needle sticks, "and it will help you to feel better. You'll probably feel a little more tired than usual, so I want you to get lots of rest. Can you do that for me?"

Cassy nodded for me again, this time smiling a little. "I am feeling sleepy, Dr. Cullen," she said with a yawn. "Can I turn on some music while I rest?"

"Absolutely," I replied, walking over to the CD player on the window sill and pressing play. I then returned to the side of her bed, pulling the covers up over her frail body and whispering for her to have pleasant dreams. I made a few more notes on her chart before moving to place it in the holder at the end of her bed.

"Dr. Cullen?" Bella called softly from her perch in the corner of the room.

I glanced over at her, my muscles tightening instinctively as I tried to steady myself for the impact of her scent as my attention focused on her. It hit like a freight train, just as I'd expected it to, but my preemptive measures helped me to disguise my discomfort fairly well, I thought.

Bella blushed slightly and bit her lip, each action luring a part of me in. I locked my feet to the floor, willing them not to move, and I swallowed hard, forcing the venom back down my throat. "Yes, Bella?"

"I have a meeting with the volunteer coordinator in a little over an hour," she said as Cassy's soft snores began to fill the silence. "I was wondering if you'd like to have lunch with me in the cafeteria?"

The shock that I felt at her request must have registered on my face, because she immediately backpedaled.

"I just... I have some questions for you... About Cassy. I know that I'm not her parent, so there's not much you can tell me about her, but I thought maybe if I asked you general questions, you might be able to answer?"

I smiled a bit, understanding what she was asking, and feeling a bit of compassion toward the young woman who had obviously developed a genuine affection for my patient, just as I had.

"Come on, Bella," I replied with a nod, gesturing toward the door.