The doctor's children had never had a potential 'mother' before now. Yes, they had the parents that had given them life but they died just as everyone else they knew did eventually but things like that didn't matter. Who they were in their past lives didn't matter to anyone mostly because they had no clue as to who they were.
They considered Carlisle to be the only father they'd ever truly known but he would never try to replace the actual parents of his coven. It was just curious to see him taking more than an interest in someone, someone who knew about what they were and faced it with trust and confidence.
Carlisle held his emotions on his sleeve and opened up to anyone who would ask, but he'd never truly let himself experience what it was like to love someone because he knew that he did love her though he did not tell. He figured that the pulling he felt when she was near or far was the feeling one got when they knew they were to be together, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, till death did they part. Only, he didn't want it to be for the worse because who would? Carlisle would never want to burden her and if asked to leave and never be seen again, he would because it was what she wanted. He never wanted her to be sick, yes, he was a doctor and more than capable of healing her but keeping her in good health was for his own selfish reasons: her blood would not smell the same, it would become revolting.
Carlisle knew that if Lenore was on the brink of death, he could save her and offer her the type of life he led, one that involved immortality but also brought a fear far worse than death—killing another to sustain one's own life. He thought about it a few times, about changing her but they didn't actually sit down and talk about it. He was sure she thought about it as well, what he had to offer, but she said nothing.
The only people who knew an inkling as to what Carlisle felt were the two men that looked into his mind: Jasper and Edward. Yes, they'd try to explain it to the others of the coven and help them understand that it was just as the way Edward felt toward Bella, how Alice looked at Jasper, how Emmett was able to keep Rosalie in check. It would seem that Carlisle had her.
The couple walked along the hallway that led to a large room, the heavy brown door was closed. Carlisle took a key from his pocket, put the key in the knob and turned.
"This is my study," he told her as he led her inside and left the door open behind him. Lenore looked around the room, there were numerous books that lined three of the four walls painted a light blue to complement the hardwood floors and thick white throw carpet beneath a large oak desk.
Carlisle walked over to the object and pulled a string to turn on the modern desk lamp. That's when she saw them, on the back wall were dozens of paintings from different eras of the past few hundred years dominated by the largest in the middle. It was of four men: they stood on what looked to be a balcony lined with several pillars in the background. They were dressed in period clothing each dawning waistcoats that seemed to be inspired by English, Itialian, Spanish and French dress clothing.
Two of the four looked down at the lower level not pictured. When she took a closer look, Lenore noticed one man, different from the group, standing off to the side as he was not the prominent figure in the painting. His hair was shorter than the rest and was blonde, he leaned against a pillar with a swagger consistent with the time. It was Carlisle.
If Lenore didn't know any better she'd have thought they belonged to the House of Medici, a family originating from Italy and rose to prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the fifteenth century.
"Who are these men?" She asked still studying the painting.
"The one in the middle is Aro. The two off to his sides are Caius and Marcus," Carlisle indicated to the two as he said their names.
"They're a coven in Italy. It was smaller back then and for a time, I stayed with them but left to come here to America. They are the equivalent of vampire royalty."
"Is there such a thing?"
"No, not exactly but if there was, it'd be them. They do keep the peace and are a force to be reckoned with. If a vampire begins to make a spectacle of them self, the Volturi take it upon themselves to find the committer and are killed unless they have special powers like Alice or Edward. If they do, they are offered a place within their guard."
"I thought that vampires were immortal," Lenore said as she turned her attention back to Carlisle.
"They cannot age but they can be killed, one must burn the body left behind, if not, the vampire can pick up the broken pieces of their body and mend them but it is excruciating and may take several years."
"It sounds painful."
"I wouldn't know, I've never done it, but there are stories."
"Do you ever think of going back to them?"
"No, I have my reasons for staying," he said as he looked at her with an expression Lenore didn't know what to call.
"They're here?" The couple head someone from outside in the other room ask.
"Yes, they're in the study," Edward told the disembodied voice. A moment later, they saw a young woman walk to the threshold of the room accompanied by a darker skinned man.
"Re, Jake, come in. Meet our guest," Carlisle said as his face lit up at seeing his grandchild.
The two walked all the way in and came face to face with the woman they'd heard so much about and were glad to finally put a face to the name.
"Renee, Jacob, this is Lenore," the doctor said as Lea shook hands with the two.
"It's nice to meet you finally, Carlisle has said so much about you. He can't shut up about it," the woman, Renee, told her.
"It's nice to meet you too, I'm glad to finally know all of Carlisle's children."
"Funny you should mention, I'm his granddaughter."
"I didn't know vampires can have children."
"They can't but it's a long story, I'll explain it someday but you have to meet Jake," Renee said with a bright smile. She seemed to be the most 'normal', whatever the word meant.
"Hello."
"Hey," Jake said as he shook Lea's hand and gave Carlisle a warning look. Lea noticed the young man's hand was incredibly warm.
"Anyway, we'd better be off. Billy is expecting us, we'll see you around then, yeah?" Renee said as she took Jake's hand were gone again just as soon as they'd come.
"She seems nice," Lenore told Carlisle as soon as the two were gone.
"Yeah, she is." He said as he took her by the hand and led her to see the rest of the house now that everyone had had a chance to meet Lenore.
The clouds hung over in a dreary ambiance as Lenore sat at the nook windowsill watching the rain pour down onto the world outside. With no job and Carlisle working at his, she was fairly bored as she heard the pitter of the rain as it fell onto the roof of her apartment building. She nursed the earl-grey tea with milk and extra sugar. She took a sip and found that it was scalding hot and burned her tongue.
The heat from her body began to fog the window and she wiped it down using the sleeve of her sweater. She looked away from the window down to the phone she kept in her lap and decided to call her sister. She wanted to see the kids and her sister as they'd not really made time for such matters since the hospital trip, quite literally.
Lea dialed the number and it rang a few times until someone answered.
"Hello?" A male voice answered.
"John? I didn't know you came back. How was New York?" Lenore asked her sister's husband. Lea and John were quite good friends as the former introduced him to his wife. They got along quite well together and on occasion, were partying buddies.
"Yeah, I came back a few days ago. New York was great, glad to be away from the rain for a few days."
"I know, don't get me wrong, I love the rain but I like the sun too. Did you get the promotion?"
John was a colonist for a local newspaper and, for a segment he wrote, received attention from the New York Times for his work on social aspects of hierarchies and how it impacted that of lower classes.
"I don't know yet, they said they'd give me a call within the next few days. So, what's up?" He asked.
"Oh, you know, the sky," Lea heard John chuckle, "anyway, I was just really bored and I wanted to see the baby, probably catch up too."
"Aren't you supposed to be going to rehearsals for the play?"
"It's a musical, not a play and no. We had to cancel," Lea said sounding slightly annoyed.
"That sucks, anyway, are you going to come over? We could always use the extra help, it's not easy with three other kids around with a two-month-old baby."
"Yeah, I'll be over in a bit. Hey, what's for dinner?" Lea asked, when she visited, she made a habit of getting a free meal out of it too.
"Hamburgers and hot dogs."
"You really do know how to spoil a woman."
"Then hurry up while the food is still hot."
"Okay," Lenore hung up the phone and as she was about to make her way to getting ready, her phone rang again. Without looking at the caller I.D., she answered.
"John, I already told you…"
"Lea?" A man asked. It took her a second to recognize his disgruntled voice. It was Peter.
"Peter, hey. What's up?" She asked nonchalant.
"I was thinking about you and I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner with me later on tonight," Lea noticed his voice and something about it seemed off.
"Oh, I was just about to have dinner with my sister and her family. I'm sorry," she waited a beat, "hey, are you okay?"
The man on the other end of the line sighed, "I care about you."
Lenore grinned and took a beat, "I care about you too."
"No, I mean…" Peter tried to find a lack of better words, "I like you...a lot and it sucks that we don't get to see each other every day any more."
Lenore's smile faded, "I didn't know you felt that way. I'm sorry, but I've met someone else."
"Who?" He asked, his voice raised a few octaves.
"Carlisle Cullen."
"The doctor?"
"Yes," Lenore answered curtly.
"Is it the good looks?" He asked.
Lea dug her fingernails into the palms of her hands until she could feel trace amounts of blood.
"Don't be so stupid. Of course not," she answered though clenched teeth.
"Is it the money?"
"That's nice," Lea spoke, "I'm glad you think I'm petty."
"I don't like him…" He began.
"Why? Because he's not you?" She bit back.
"No! That's not it…there's something about him that rubs me the wrong way!"
The way this man who had no right to talk about Carlisle, made Lenore more than angry.
"Shut up, Peter! You're just jealous because you've got the world's biggest crush…"
"I'm trying to look out for you…as a friend!" he interrupted her train of thought.
"Don't give me that shit! We both know that this has to do with you and me and your delusional way of thinking! You don't think that I listened to the whispers about us at the theater and what they thought we were?" She yelled back, no longer sitting in the nook and held the phone tighter in her hand.
"Did it ever occur to you that he has kids just a few years younger than you?"
"What does it matter? All families are different! If you must know, his sister died and he adopted them and as for Rose and Jasper, they grew up in an orphanage!" She knew it was a lie, however, Lenore would defend Carlisle until her dying day. She didn't care what people thought of her, but she cared more than anything about him and his family.
Lea continued on in her rampage, "Every child he has is because he has a heart! That's more than I can say about you, judging a man just because he cares…" she looked at the phone, "good bye and don't call me again," she hung up the phone and threw it onto the nook.
As she walked out, she grabbed her keys and wallet as she intended to buy some gas for her car that was just under half a tank. Lea stormed down the stairs, walked over to her car, climbed in a slammed the door behind her. She put the key in the ignition, reversed out of her parking space and without looking both ways to turn onto the road, she began to make her way to the gas station just a few blocks down…
"Okay, do you feel any pain or dizziness?" Carlisle asked as he grabbed a pen light from his lab coat.
"No, not anymore," his patient said as the doctor shined a light into both of his eyes to see if the pupils contracted.
"Good. Here's a prescription for medication incase the migraines come back and you should be alright," Dr. Cullen said as he wrote several things down on the clipboard he held and replaced his pen back into his coat.
"Thank you, doctor."
"I'm just doing my job," he gave the man a smile. As he walked away, he thought about Lea and about the movie night they had planned for later on that day after he got off of his shift. He sighed and checked the time on his watch.
5:47 he read.
Can't time just go by a little faster?
He was anxious to see Lea as they had not seen each other since she met his family a few days ago. In that time, life seemed to go by slower than usual. He'd been busy with working and spent late nights in his office sometimes till well past twelve at night but truth be told, he didn't mind. The only thing he did mind was that he had been unable to make time for Lenore, he felt like he'd been somewhat neglectful toward her making the date-night they planned all the more necessary.
He walked behind the nurse's station while he reread his most recent patient's symptoms, and set the clipboard down, at the bottom he signed his name. Just then, he heard the emergency doors swoosh open.
He saw the spectacle and ran over toward the rapid response team on duty. As he was the main doctor in the hierarchy, it fell well within his purview.
"Code Blue Adult, Code Blue Adult!" He heard the technician yell.
Carlisle noticed something about this patient that he'd never noticed before even with emergencies such as these. He smelled the blood and it reminded him of the smell of damp earth just after raining and a flower, freshly picked, still too young to wither. He thought it was just his mind playing tricks and went back to the calamity before him.
"Female, early twenties, weight about 130, massive trauma to the head, probably multiple fractures, positive loss of consciousness at the scene…" the response team handed the patient over to Carlisle.
"What's your name miss?" Carlisle asked as he began to look her over and gauge the injuries.
"Can you hear me?" The woman didn't respond.
"Miss, can you hear me?" Carlisle asked again.
Yes, I can…she thought but she didn't feel her lips moving.
"Loss of verbal skills, possible bleeding in the brain…" the doctor told Clara as she wrote everything down.
He checked the patient's pupils, "Try and hold still," he told the woman.
"Both eyes are open, pupils reactive…still I want to order a head C.T.." he said to his team as he waved the light from his pen.
He continued on, "We're going to need three units of blood…" he told Clara taking his stethoscope from around his neck and put the ear pieces in his ears.
"Left lung is flailing, I need a 32 French tube now…"
Where am I? What am I doing?
A few moments later a nurse walked in with the nutrition that sustained the man who'd just ordered it, not for him, but for the woman who's life he was trying to save.
"Hang two units of blood on the infuser. I need an x-ray and somebody page surgery!" Carlisle didn't yell but the urgency in his voice could be heard, then there was that smell again, a soft, sweet smell that wafted though the air. Perhaps it was just the woman's perfume.
Just then the woman felt something wrong…
Beep…be…bee…
"Stay with me!"
Beep…beep…beep…
She tried to listen to the man, when she looked up, he looked like the closest thing to an angel she might ever get to see.
Though she remembered something he'd said to her a while back, "I'm a creature of the underworld, I can't afford to love someone…" She knew that once, it might have been true but no longer.
The harsh lighting was dulled by the silhouette of his face, she looked into the eyes that she'd grown to know so well.
What's that noise?
"We're losing her!" Carlisle looked her in the eye and she felt complete and at peace with the world. She was happy for she would have died a sad woman had she not been able to look at the man she loved just once more.
The woman felt her chest being pushed on, hard. Like someone was hitting her with a hard object but at the same time it was soft.
It's not hard, it's firm…
The firm hitting came in timed beats, one after the other after the other.
Slowly, Lenore let herself drift into the feeling until even that became numb, the only thing she was left with was her thoughts and even those slowly began to drift. Her eyes faded from bright to dark and back again until her vision became so blurry, her eyes closed.
Beep…beep…..be…..