Falling Upward

by Penguin.is.my.name

When Carlisle finds Miranda, half frozen and on the run from the souls that have invaded the Earth, life for him, the Cullens, and Miranda will change yet again. But will Miranda's strained relationship with the Cullens stand in the way of their attempts to help her? Or will they only succeed in uncovering Miranda's most painful memories about her past?

11. Chapter 11

As promised, here is a Carlisle chapter! Oh, yes, and just in case it isn't obvious, I am not Loretta Lynn.

Chapter 11 Carlisle

"… The souls' medicine is perfect, but in the caves, they don't always have access to it." Miranda told me. "Or, when they do, they don't know what is wrong with someone who is sick, because they don't have anything a hospital would have to diagnose them. But you have a century of experience, and your senses help you too. If we go to the caves, you could be a doctor again!"

We were in my study, where Miranda had spent the past half hour trying to convince us to move to Arizona, where I could be a doctor for a resistance group of humans. "I appreciate what you're trying to do for me. But it really isn't a good idea. In the desert, in Arizona, we'd never be able to hunt. And we've always been able to blend in, but we've never lived with humans permanently. Don't you think they would get suspicious if we never ate?"

"Well… I mean, I thought that we should tell them what we are."

I was shocked. "I… You know we can't do that. The Volturi would never allow it."

"We don't have to tell the Volturi. They'll never find out. How could they?"

"Trust me, they will. They always do."

"But… we'll be in Arizona! They're in Italy! We won't turn ourselves in, and they won't be able to. It's a perfect idea."

I shook my head.

"Alice told me how much you loved being a doctor. I feel bad for making you miserable for the past 7 months, and I want to make it up to you."

"You don't have to make anything up to me."

She shook her head. "No. I was wrong."

I sighed. "I'd love to be a doctor again. But I won't risk my family. The Volturi will find out, one way or another. It's just the way they work."

"How do you know how the Volturi works?"

"Because I was once a part of it."

"You… no. I won't believe it. You never could have been a part of the Volturi. You're a vampire who wants to save human lives! The Volturi are just the opposite of that!"

"Miranda, look." I pointed to the painting of the Volturi and me. She stared at me in disbelief.

"You… I trusted you, even if I only started to like you in the past few days. I can't believe this. The Volturi!"

I suddenly remembered what she had told me on her first day with us, when she ran out of the house.

"When the souls took over, I wasn't in the woods the whole time. For a month or so, my family and I took shelter in… Italy. Volterra. The… Volturi… gave my family food and shelter. Of course, at that time we didn't know what they were, only that they were helping us, and a few of the other human families that they had taken in. One day, they brought all of us into a tower…"

Of course she would be upset that I had once been a part of the Volturi, after her experience with them. "Miranda, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. I should've-"

"Don't talk to me!" She screamed. "I trusted you! I was starting to forgive you for doing this to me! Well, that's gone now!"

She ran out of the room.

"Miranda, wait." I said.

"Don't!" She screamed back. "I said not to talk to me!"

I heard her door slam and within seconds, Loretta Lynn's now familiar voice filled the air.