Hello everyone!

This is the next chapter. I'm sorry as it may not be very long or very good, as I haven't had any time at all to write. I will continue this story though and try to, in my limited amount of free time, to keep this story going.

By the way, if there are spelling mistakes or the words are merged together (likethis) I just want you to know that it's because my computer is playing up. :/ But oh well. :)

I hope you like it!

Unexpected

Twenty minutes past five is when the surgeon arrived. I'd relocated to the kitchen, now that it was a more suitable time to prepare dinner. Charlie protested though, insisting that Renee might have picked up them something from the shops; well, that was his excuse. Instead, I decided to wash up. I was listening to the heavy rain outside when the doorbell rang. Charlie let the doctor in, greeting him humbly and offered to take his coat before leading him into the living room.

They chatted comfortably for an immeasurable amount of time, seeming to have a lot in common- or at least a lot to talk about.

Renee wasn't home yet and I started to get nervous; the rain was pounding fiercely against the window and I silently preyed she was under cover.

Lost in thought I heard Charlie beckon me to join them.

Show time.

Slowly and surely, I placed the mug, and the tea towel I was drying it with, on the counter before feeling my way to the living room.

They shifted when I entered, both rising from their chairs.

"Bella, this is, hopefully, your new doctor, Dr Cullen. Dr Cullen, this is my daughter, Bella."

Cullen? Oh no.

I was extremely conscious of my palm's sweating when Dr Cullen shook my hand.

"It's nice to meet you and please," Dr Cullen said, his voice was friendly but held a lot of authority underneath. "Call me Carlisle."

"Carlisle," I greeted him, nodding my head at the puzzle coming together. He's Edward's father. I had the strange urge to courtesy, I'm glad I didn't.

"Well, Bella, your father tells me you want a corneal transplant?" He asked, business-like in an instant.

"Yes," I answered quickly but slightly tentative.

There was a pause. It seemed to me that he heard my nervousness. "Right, well, enough of that talk for now. Let's get to know each other better, shall we?"

What over reply could I give except, "sure"?

Carlisle or Charlie, I couldn't tell which, but a pair of arms guided and helped to settle me on the couch.

"Would you like a drink, Dr Cullen?" Charlie asked, stood in the doorway, half in and half out of the room.

"Carlisle,"Carlisle insisted, "Please, and no, thank you."

"Bells?"

"Water is fine, thanks dad."

Charlie trotted off to the kitchen to assemble the drinks. I heard the kettle being switched on and the water starting to bubble. With Charlie gone, it was just Carlisle and I left to talk. After a while of timid, polite conversation, the topics I wanted to avoid most cropped up.

"Are you settling in well in Forks? What with a new school and all?"Carlisle wondered, kindly interested.

He was making it exceptionally difficult for me to lie to him, "Yeah, school's great. I prefer it to home-schooling, definitely." I chuckled at the memory of Renee learning most of the stuff with me.

He laughed with me a little. "I'll bet. And are you making friends?"

Another brief hesitation, "Yes, I guess. Everyone has been really helpful."

"Good," he approved, but something in his tone made me feel he didn't really believe me. "My children go to your school, have you heard of them?"

Unwanted hesitations, "Yes, I have. Though I've only spoken to one of them."

Now why did I have to say that?

"Were they nice to you? They weren't giving you any grief?" He joked.

If only he knew…

"No. Edward was very…" I was running out of adjectives, so I used his "nice."

Carlisle deliberated for a second, but I was saved by Charlie crashing in to the silence of the room.

"Here you go, Bells." Charlie said, placing a glass in my left hand.

I was glad to know that from then on the topic of conversation didn't stray back to school, or friends… or Edward.

We talked, joked and laughed for about forty minutes, then the atmosphere changed, and the conversation grew more serious.

"Are you sure this is what you want, Bella?"Carlisle asked, mirroring my parents' careful tone very accurately.

"You sound like my parents," I told him, "But yes," the lie very easily spoken now, through repetition. "Well…I'm…it's just…I'm a bit…worried, if I'm going to be honest with you."

"You have no need to worry. I'll do whatever I can to make you feel more comfortable, okay? I could tell you more about your surgery or drop a leaflet around …?"

"Thank you," I said, whole-heartedly.

"That would be brilliant, thank you," Charlie agreed.

"It's no problem,"Carlisle assured him. "Anything I can do, Bella, just ask."

"I just have some questions…" my voice trailed off at the end.

"Ask away,"Carlisle said warmly.

"Will it hurt?" I asked, playing tensely with my fingers and clicking my fingernails on the glass.

"No, I promise, we'll make it as painless as possible," he answered, using a plural for the hospital staff. When I didn't ask another question right away, he pondered, "Was that the only thing bothering you?"

I laughed a little, "No, I have tons of questions."

"I'll answer them as best as I can," he assured me.

He was so open and kind, the opposite in what I'd seen in his son.

Maybe seen is the wrong word, felt is possibly better.

There was something strange and different about Edward that he was intensely trying to hide, but I didn't feel anything like that from his much more social and thoughtful father.

I felt I could open up to him, and that's what I did.

I admitted all my anxieties, which he considered logically, before comforting me with reassuring facts. We talked for another hour, Charlie adding a thought or question now and then into the conversation. Somewhere within the hour- I wasn't sure when- Renee arrived, greeted Carlisle and joined us in the living room.

After a while I asked, "Will you give us a minute?"

"Sure, Honey," Renee said, steering Charlie out of his seat and out of the room, his heels were digging all the way.

When I heard their feet stepping on the tiles in the kitchen, I turned to Carlisle. "Can you promise me something?"

"Of course, Bella. What is it?"

An awkwardness I knew would come flooded over me, "can you promise that…when I wake up…someone will be there? I've already asked my parents, but I was wondering- if there was the chance that they couldn't be there- then at least a nurse, or someone, could be there with me. I don't want to be alone."

Carlisle didn't say anything for a moment, I wondered what his reaction to this was. His voice was understanding, "I promise, it shouldn't be too hard."

"Thank you," I thanked him wholeheartedly again, but it didn't feel enough.

"Speaking of your operation," he continued and I went into deadlock, I didn't like talking about it and definitely not right now. My hands started to shake. "You have to arrive at the hospital a few hours earlier then your appointment, is that alright?"

"Yes, I knew that already. The hospital left a message," my tone was clipped; I tried my best to disguise it.

"Right…then there really isn't anything else to worry about, Miss Swan. Everything will be taken care of." Little sentences like that was one of the things that scared me, I had the feeling of everyone keeping something from me again-even though I'm sure I wouldn't want to know, I still didn't want to be in the dark. And I've been in the dark for so long…

I mentally shook the thought away and smiled at his words instead of scream. "Call me Bella, Doctor."

Carlisle laughed, humoured and kind but still professional. "If you call me Carlisle."

I contemplated that, "Deal."

He laughed once more.

Renee and Charlie heard our laughter and came to investigate. They sat down in their previous seats.

"What's so funny?" Renee asked, a little miffed that she'd missed something that could lighten her mood.

"Nothing," I told her, not being able to hide the smirk on my face.

For two more minutes from then we talked. Only this time it was a more casual conversation: the weather, the news, sports- recent things. Charlie took a hold of the conversation when it reared into sports. It got me to thinking how he never could talk about that stuff to Renee or me, only to his friends.

Renee was the one to bring up the surgery again and Carlisle once more smoothed out all the creases, setting our minds at ease.

When Carlisle had erased our worries until we couldn't think of anything else to fear, we all rested back a little more comfortably.

Dr Cullen seemed pleased, "If there is anything else, you can always call me," he paused to place a card in my hand; it was very professional, heavier and thicker than paper- a business card. I felt so grateful when I trailed my fingers over it and found that the numbers and letters were sticking out; if that weren't enough, there was brail on there to. "And we'll talk it through."

"Thank you," We said individually.

"Now I really must be going," Carlisle said, standing up.

"Thank you again, Carlisle," I told him as he left.

He paused briefly, "My pleasure, Bella."

Renee sounded too eager, "Thank you, Dr Cullen. We really appreciate everything your doing and at such short notice…" Her voice faded off as she led Carlisle to the front door.

A minute later the door slammed shut and Renee came back, "he's gorgeous."

Charlie made an uncomfortable noise and I laughed.

"Don't forget Phil, mum," I reminded her.

"Hmm?" she sounded as if I pulled her out of a thought. "Oh, don't be silly, Bella" although she still sounded far away.

Charlie coughed, "Well, I'm going to see what's for dinner," then he was gone.

"So what do you think of Dr Cullen?" Renee asked quickly.

"He's great. I don't think I could ask for a better surgeon." I smiled, loving how good it felt to tell the truth instead of lying all the time. However, now, I didn't have to lie-or at least not to everyone. I could be honest to Carlisle and he'd take all of the concern away. I was actually feeling better about my operation.

Renee sounded happy; the kind of happy that only existed before I went blind. "I think so too."

In the end, Renee made dinner.

She only had to offer once and Charlie couldn't pass an opportunity to watch the game. Unluckily for him, Renee gave him the task of setting the table. I was the only one sat on the sidelines, again. Though, unlike Charlie, I wanted to help.

They plonked me on a chair in the dinning room like an infant and I entertained myself by listening to Charlie complain frequently. Words like "unfair" and "always making me" and "missing the best game" were laced into his mumbling rant.

Silently giggling o myself, I laid my head in my hands, which were crossed on the table in front of me, and I tried to imagine the scene before as it happened. Plates and glasses being placed in an intricate pattern, knives and forks laid parallel to one another; a figure moving unwillingly to the sound of Charlie's footsteps…it wasn't until the figure turned around to expose their blank and blurred face, like the contorted faces in my nightmares, that I sat bolt-up right.

My unexpected movement must have caught Charlie's attention. "What's wrong, Bells?"

I chose randomly from a list of lies in my head, "table's cold." The memory of the face was still clear in my mind.

The chair opposite me slid back on the carpet and Charlie sat there. "Bella, if there's something you want to tell me-"

"Tell us" Renee corrected him, strolling in with a clatter of china cutlery.

"Right," Charlie agreed, sounding resigned, "us."

"There isn't anything to say, I'm fine."

"She's braver then you give her credit for," Renee put something in the middle of the table, clicked her fingers and then patted the back of my hand.

Clicking her fingers was something she did so she wouldn't scare me if she was going to hug me or tap me on the shoulder. It warned me in advance of her touch. However, there have been times where she didn't click her fingers or where she forgets to, but it just teaches me awareness and to strain harder with my hearing when being approached.

I mentally groaned; 'strain harder with my hearing when being approached' made me sound like some kind of animal.

Renee began dishing out food but stopped, "What's that face for?"

My heart pounded a little faster, was I pulling a face?

Before I could speak up Charlie began, caught off guard, "Um, well… er…it's just…What is it?" He asked, with a thin layer of disgust.

Renee huffed, "its good food. Something you probably haven't had in a long time." Charlie must have given her a look. "Please, I know your cooking. Have you been living off takeaway for all this time?" She teased.

"For your information, my cooking is perfectly fine. I may not be the best chief but I know my food, and that," there was a clang of metal on china, "doesn't look anything like it. Seriously, what is it?"

I inhaled, "smells like…potatoes…?"

"There are potatoes in here," Renee said, happy someone seemed to appreciate her efforts. "It's stew," she told the dubious Charlie.

"Another word for 'throw anything in and cook it' if you ask me," Charlie whispered.

"Well no one asked you, did they?" Renee rebuffed rhetorically.

She continued to serve the food.

"I still don't think it looks like 'food'" he joked.

There was a small bang followed by a grunt of pain. I hid my grin and suppressed a sigh, as I wouldn't be able to defend anyone in this argument.

After that there weren't anymore sarcastic comments or unneeded insults; we ate in harmony, chatting about unimportant topics and planning the days ahead that we had together. With both my parents there as distractions, I didn't have to think any further then what I was going to say next. I let myself forget and, for now, to just live in the present.

I want to say thanks to everyone!

And especially to all the reviewers, thank you. You all really make my day. :D

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