"What the hell happened to you?" Lea's sister asked taking in the sight as she held her newborn child in her arms. Lea let out an unsteady laugh.
"I uh, I fell and Dr. Cullen helped me out," Lea answered as her face grew red with embarrassment.
"I should've known," she smiled a weak smile as she lay in the hospital bed, the affects of birth starting to catch up with the new-found mother.
"Dr. Cullen this is my sister, Anne," Lea told him over her shoulder.
"It's nice to meet you and the little one. Lenore tells me her name is Wendy," he stepped from behind the wheelchair and over toward the bed.
"Yeah, she's named after our mother," the woman answered as the child began to fuss. Anne started to rock her child in her arms as she ran her hand over the baby's head. When little Wendy began to calm, Anne looked up.
"Do you want to hold her?" The mother asked her sister.
"Are you sure? I…what if…" Lea stuttered, her palms became sweaty and the tips of her ears burned red.
"You'll be fine, just be gentle," her sister coaxed.
"Dr. Cullen would you?" Anne asked.
"Yes, of course," Carlisle walked all the way over toward the bed, snaked his hands underneath the child using one of them to support the head and the other for the rest of her body. He made sure that his grip was not too tight but that the babe was secure, he walked over to the new aunt. As he moved, he swayed his hips and rocked his arms. The vampire looked down at the tiny human. She was adorable. Her skin was pale with a few red splotches, no hair that was covered with a hat, her eyes were open and her arms wiggled about.
"Hello, pretty girl…" Carlisle spoke softly to the child and when he did, she looked into his eyes curiously. The doctor smiled back.
He missed the feeling of holding a newborn life in his hands. He had delivered babies before and held Edward's child numerous times before she grew, but he missed the warmth. He missed the smell of a child, not the blood, but the powder and baby wash, and though he hated old milk, that's what the child smelled of; Carlisle was perfectly fine with that.
He held her out to Lea who looked down in awe. The aunt looked again to the mother, who nodded with a weak smile. She rubbed her fingers together, took a sigh and held them out. Gently, Carlisle placed the newborn in her arms where she held the babe.
Lenore was never truly comfortable around children and the good doctor sensed this.
"It's alright, you've got her," he commended. For a millisecond, they both looked into each other's eyes and it felt right. It felt familiar but at the same time alien to both of them. They turned away in fear of the other and the two looked back to the mother who still smiled.
What a perfect family they'd make…
Startling everyone in the room, a voice boomed over the intercom.
"Visiting hours are now over, all visitors, please make your way to the exit."
With one more look, Lea held the child out to Carlisle. He picked up little Wendy and walked her back over to her mother.
"She's beautiful."
"Thank you, Doctor."
"Carlisle, please," he insisted.
"Well, that wasn't so bad, now was it?" Carlisle asked Lenore in his attempt to lighten the mood and wheeled her toward the elevator.
"Not as bad as I thought it might go," she tried. Her mind was still trying to get over the emotional stresses that were put upon her in just a little over an hour. He wheeled her out to the parking lot. With the doctor's help, Lea got up out of the chair and was handed a pair of crutches the doctor had retrieved when Lea was talking to her sister just before she and him took their leave.
"Thank you."
They both turned to go their separate ways. As he was walking and she hobbled away from each other he thought about this woman. He couldn't let her slip though the cracks of his fingers because he was too scared to do anything.
Before they went their separate ways and to their own cars, Carlisle spoke up, "Lenore?" she turned around rather quickly and did not go unnoticed by Carlisle.
"Yes?"
"I might sound crazy and you might think it's a cliche, but did you feel that thing that happened?" He knew how stupid it sounded and it might've made him come off like a douchebag. Normally, the doctor was so much better with words but there really was something there, something that happened. He couldn't explain it, but he knew what it meant.
He'd found her, more than a dozen lifetimes spent, and finally, he found her. He didn't scour the globe looking, and he never knew if he would find the person this monster was supposed to, in time, love, but alas, it happened. When it did, she was not exactly what he was expecting. Carlisle knew that Alice had her fair share of visions of this woman but he never wanted to know. He wanted it to be a surprise, instead, it hit him like a freight train.
Automatically, Lenore knew what he was talking about as Carlisle hoped.
"Yeah…" she said as she felt a twinge of the affect and the need to be closer.
"Then maybe I'm not going to sound so stupid, but would like to grab a drink sometime?" He asked, tilting his head to one side and shot her a smirk.
She could just be my drink…He joked in spite of himself. He never ate human food nor drank what they had to offer but the thought of getting to see her again made him giddy.
A drink with this man?' How could I say 'No.'?
"Of course. I have you're number, so I'll call in a few days when the ankle gets better?" Her face burned red hot and was glad the parking lot was somewhat dim. Lenore wasn't sure what was happening as it was all so sudden, but she was never one to miss out on things that might just change her life, sometimes for the bad, but more often than not, for the better. She didn't know what to think of this man. He was different, not just compared to other people she met that took an interest, but there was something about him that was vastly different from anyone. It was almost as if he wasn't human and she didn't know whether or not that would kill her.
She laid her cards out on the table and decided to chance it.
"Yeah, yeah that sounds great."
"Okay, see you then," she smiled back and crutched her way to her car.
He reached the driveway to his house. When Carlisle put his car in park, he took a few moments to himself to contemplate the day's events. He turned the key in the ignition toward the 'off' and looked inside the bay widow. The light was on and he heard Renee's laughter. He got out and closed the door behind him. Normally, after his shift, Carlisle would park his car in the garage, he didn't know why he hadn't this time. Taking the key, he locked it and walked toward the front door.
Just as his hand reached for the door's knob, Alice swung it open.
"Well, you've certainly had an interesting day, haven't you?" She asked her father as she stepped toward him and gave him her signature hug as she always had after he got home.
"I take it I don't need to tell anyone then?" He smiled as he returned the fatherly affection.
"If you like, but I already have, we just need details!" She singsonged with a huge smile on her face. Just as quickly as she ran down the stairs, she was back at the top of the landing announcing Carlisle's arrival.
He followed suit, before he had even a chance to take off his coat and set his briefcase down, he was bombarded with questions.
"What's her name?"
"Is she nice?"
"Alice said she was pretty…"
"Edward said that you can't get your mind off…"
"Everyone! Calm down!" Carlisle raised his voice to be heard. Just as the words left his lips, the house settled.
"Her name is Lenore, though most call her Lea," he answered the first question.
"She is really nice, if a bit clumsy," he turned to Bella, answering her question.
"Yes, I'd like to think she is very pretty," he said as he directed his answer to the youngest of the family, his granddaughter.
"As for what Edward said," he turned to his son who sat at the piano, "get out of my head," he sighed furrowing his brows and sounding exasperated. Edward just sat there quietly and smiled, knowing what Carlisle thought of the woman and continued to play the little ditty he'd written that morning.
"Now," he turned his attention back to the riot, "anything else?" He asked as a new wave of questions hit. He closed his eyes irritated. Carlisle was not a violent, malevolent man. He cared deeply for his family and would prefer if a fight would not break out, however, if it did, he was the one to settle it. He was not cruel and was also not cowardly. His love and compassion ran deeply, even more so than Edward, who could read minds and Jasper, who could feel and influence others' emotions, understood.
They both tried to wrap their heads around Carlisle's feelings for his family but found that is was very complicating which made it all the more intriguing.
"Can I put my things away first?" He raised his voice once again.
"Fine…" he heard from Rosalie.
"Hurry up!" Emmett urged.
"Get on with it," Alice said.
They let him though and he stripped himself of his outermost layer of clothing and hung it in the coatrack along with his scarf. He didn't actually need a coat as the cold never bothered him or any vampire for that matter, they only used them to keep up with their facade. Carlisle only used the scarf as sort of a perpetual barrier to protect himself as it offered comfort. He walked over to his study that he kept closed and when he opened it, Carlisle set his briefcase down on the desk in the middle of the room.
He took another moment to gather his thoughts but everything just drifted back to the woman he met earlier: the way she spoke, her snark, her scent, the way her hair naturally fell and most of all: the pull.
He walked back out to the living room and found almost everyone patiently waiting. When everyone was settled, he began his tale of Lenore…
After all was said, every one was doing their own thing: Edward was still at the piano but was now joined by his wife and whispered what he knew about the woman, Alice and Jasper had gone out on a hunt, Rosalie and Emmett were in their suite doing whatever they were and Renee was reading waiting for Jacob.
Carlisle sat in his study alone.
He did nothing but think. Suddenly an idea popped into his head. A way to keep his privacy from the mind-reader of the house. He knew Edward would never try overstep the boundaries of reading the doctor's mind but sometimes he didn't know about that boy. Yes, he was a father finally making Carlisle a grandfather after a few decades but that didn't mean anything. Edward was always curious.
"I'm going out for a bit!" He called to no one in particular. He grabbed his keys out of the bowl where everyone put their keys to their cars and to the house and snagged his coat off of the rack. As he walked down the stairs, he divided his scarf in two by folding it down the middle, wrapped it around his neck and threaded the double ends into the loop.
He never needed sleep and was never tired, he never felt the affects of his twelve-hour shifts at the hospital so he walked out the door with a skip in his step and closed it behind him with a subtle slam. He went over to the edge of the woods and did nothing but think with every step he took.
He thought about the woman that he met only a few hours before…
"Dr. Cullen," he was stopped in his tracks. Carlisle knew exactly who it was simply from the doglike smell.
"Jacob, how many times do I have to tell you, call me Carlisle."
"Nah, I don't think I ever could. Is Renee inside?" He asked. The thought of calling Dr. Cullen 'Carlisle' made Jacob feel slightly awkward though the two men knew each other for almost ten years.
"Yes, just go right in," he said as he took a few more steps, "and Jake?"
"Yeah?" The shapeshifter turned back.
"Don't keep her out too late."
"Yes, sir," Jake said turning back toward the house.
"And don't call me sir, I'm your…" Carlisle tried to find a word that described the relationship the two shared.
"What are we, Jake?"
Jacob took a few moments to think, "I don't know…" he said rattling his brain to find a word. "Um, the vampire grandfather to my…imprint?" he said trying out the sound of the words.
"I don't know, let me get back to you," Jake said.
Carlisle simply nodded and was off. The werewolf stayed a few seconds to watch as the doctor's form distorted and disappeared into the woods.