He'd tried everything, everything that was in his power. He was a doctor and that meant that there were some people that could not be saved but knowing that fact didn't make his job any easier.

"What was her name?" Carlisle asked as he looked at the clock on the wall to give an approximate time of death.

"Her driver's license was recovered from the scene, Fischer. Lenore Fischer."

"Wai…wait, what?" He asked not quite sure wether or not he heard Clara correctly. He looked back at the face of the person he'd just killed. He hadn't recognized her before, perhaps he was too busy trying to save her he didn't bother to even glance. If he was saving someone on the brink of death, did it matter what they looked like? In that one instance, it did. Perhaps he might've given it just a bit more though he gave everything he had and then some. He might have been a bit quicker without trying to arouse suspicion. He might have thought harder about ways to save this woman.

"Lenore Fischer," Clara looked at the man, "doctor, are you alright?"

Carlisle stepped back from the gurney and bumped into the counter supplied with medical equipment.

He looked at the thing on the operating table. It's face was bloodied, bruised and swollen. It looked in no way to be the woman he was to meet within just a few hours. Lenore's features were delicate, her eyes were large and doe shaped…

The thing's hair was matted and stuck together. The limbs were out at odd angles. Boney lumps and gashes showed where used to be soft, pale skin. But beneath it all, he could still see her. He could still make out the trace hint of his Lenore though his mind was still trying to catch up.

He wondered how he'd been unable to see it before.

"Can vampires go into shock?"

He remembered being asked that question what seemed like a lifetime ago. Not many years had passed but it seemed the question still rang in his ears. Bella had asked him that on a phone as Edward stood nearby.

Carlisle knew about love only because he craved it with every fiber of his being. He'd been so close to feeding this hunger. For his human aspect, or what remained, emotion, empathy, friendship…love, his human aspect could no longer be had. It was this human aspect that provided the foundation for family, his family. What he felt, his children and grandchild felt as well. If anyone of the coven reached new heights, everyone else did too and helped the others to set a higher standard for living than previously thought. If someone hit rock bottom and kept falling, their family was there to help them along and climb back out of the abyss: together.

He wasn't alone but at the same time, he was, indefinitely. Those words, words he'd taught his children meant nothing to him any longer. He looked down at the floor, his eyes hazed over, if he could have, tears would have welled up. He felt the floor beneath him, it was shifting.

"Carlisle," etiquette be damned to Clara at the moment. He looked up from the floor as his head hung. He looked like a madman. His hair had become disheveled as he tried to save the woman. His normally steady hands shook as his chest heaved in and out.

He looked back at the face of the person he'd just killed, he looked at what he'd done, and back to his nurse.

"Carlisle, I know it never gets easier…" Clara spoke.

"No…no, that's not it…" he answered only after he found words and was still unsure if they were even formed correctly.

"What is it?" Clara asked growing concerned. It was rare that the doctor ever lost a patient, even within the five years since working at the hospital, Clara had seen all of Carlisle's most traumatized patients somehow manage to pull through and recover.

"I…" he no longer looked at the nurse, "I…I loved, Lea…" he said as he just about staggered back over to the gurney.

Without knowing what he was doing, he made his dominate hand into a fist, placing one on top the other and continued to press against her chest still trying to create a heartbeat. Carlisle counted in his head the number of beats. He took his face to her's and planted his lips on the thing that Lea, his Lea, had become. He tried to give her bloodied lips mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He tasted the blood and normally, his teeth would grow significantly for his source of food, only, they didn't. It was revolting as it coagulated and dried, staining her lips crimson.

He retreated back to C.P.R. and pressed harder, "…please…please…please…" he begged. He did not know who he was pleading to but in that moment, it just seemed like the best thing to do.

Clara stood by as she felt the hot sting of tears. The man didn't seem to want to give up.

"Carlisle…"

He ignored her. When she knew she was going to get no where with him, she let her friend and colleague be and slunk away from the room.

"Come on!" He yelled as he pressed harder and harder until he heard bones crack. To his highly sensitive ears, he could make out the sound though he knew Clara could hear nothing, not knowing she'd already left.

"You're not dead…you're not dead…you're not dead…"

Sometimes he jumbled the phrases together and others, his words were barely a whisper that escaped his lips.

When he knew it was a hopeless venture, he stepped back and for the first time in his existence as a vampire, he lost his footing. He fell to the floor and heaved in and out. He breathed so hard his chest made groaning noises that traveled out of his mouth and he wished himself to cry though he knew no liquid would come.

"It's your fault," he blamed himself.

He thought about her, not what she'd become: a broken, bloodied, bruised thing, but rather of her smile, her laugh, her pretty face…

She left him, she was his illusion, his dream, and now he'd woken up. She was the only thing he yearned for and he waited for his Lea to walk though the door and comfort him only she didn't come, she was replaced by this thing. She was gone and now, he wished he had given her everything. Carlisle supposed it was his payback for not doing so while she was alive.

Hold on to me again…come here.

Carlisle was tired of being alone. He had his family and knew they'd be there for him even in the darkest of times but his Lenore went off on her own and left him alone in this. He was tired of fighting, tired of trying. He was good at running but he was getting slower.

If you love me, don't let me go…

He wanted to be away from this place. He felt it, in his un-beating heart, the absence she'd placed in her's. Some days, Carlisle was built of metal but he'd been stripped clean. He picked himself up off the floor and walked over to what was left of his love.

He looked down at her and in his mind's eye, he saw what she used to be: an actress, an artist, a clumsy, snarky, awkward woman who loved to laugh and make jokes. There was nothing that he could see that she wasn't but the darkness became her and she was no longer any of it.

"I will always be here for you and I will never go away."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

With expert hands, he carefully reached around her neck and peeled the bloodied velcro off the orange neck brace. He placed it on the bed just next to Lea's hand. The thought about biting her crossed his mind but even though he knew there were some injuries even venom could not overcome, he damned it to hell. He was going to try. He couldn't lose her. He couldn't.

He looked up to the windows of the room, the shades were drawn so no one could see the deed he was to fulfill. He looked again at her face: just a skeleton of bones wearing clothing stained with blood. The human soul is a terrible place but seeing as Carlisle wondered of he had one…he doubted he'd go to hell anyway.

Would I?

Lenore's absent heartbeat charged him guilty of murder and biting her was the only thing he could do in a ditch attempt to save her.

He tilted her head away from him, leaned over and bit. His brows furrowed.

I need you to recover. Please, I can't make it on my own. I am alone…I am broken and cold as if I had been dwelling in a dungeon and you came and brought me a home. We're a team, we're in this together. You soften my every edge and made me a better man. You brought out the best in me that I could possibly offer.

If you survive, I'll give you everything I have...please. I'll teach you everything I know, I promise. I'll be better than I ever was. I'll hold you closer than ever and I will never let you go...I promise.

You are loved...more than you know. Though you may not know it, I'll show it in everything I do. I'll give it all away if it would make you happy...

Stay with me...

She wandered around in darkness that was her own mind. She looked, trying to find something without knowing what. She stumbled upon a scene from her life.

It was of her and her angel.

Music played on a bluetooth speaker from her phone. They danced slowly in her apartment. They both smiled and were content to have stayed in this moment forever. Lea smiled at the scene as she knew what was happening, the best parts of her life were flashing before her, most of which, though she hadn't known him long, were of Carlisle.

When the song ended they still held each other close at an arm's length.

More Than a Feeling by Boston had come on and Carlisle sang her the lyrics. He'd misspoken a few lines and Lea laughed just as he did as well. They danced crazily and sang out of tune, they acted as if no one was watching them to judge because there wasn't.

It was just Lenore and Carlisle…

The memory faded slowly away in a grey mist.

Lea continued to wander on the beach of her mind. She heard the waves as they sent both a calming and eerie feeling.

Every rock kicked stored certain memories labeled with numbers. She kicked another and found the day to be raining. It was her parent's house just on the edge of Forks' city boarders. Through the window, she could see that the power was off as thunder rolled above and a few seconds later lighting struck nearby.

The child Lenore used to be sat with her sister in the candle light as the storm had left them in a power outage. They sat at the kitchen table playing a card game. The children were alone in the house and when the power went out, Lea had become afraid so Anne comforted her.

Old maid…I lost. I always lost to Annie…

A haze of smoke came upon the memory and Lea found herself in another area of her beach. She walked on the shore and over to a fallen tree and saw a car pass, her father's car. The dark brown truck drove on by not taking notice of Lenore.

When she was eight years old, her and her father drove out to Seattle to buy clothes for the upcoming school year. They listened to loud music as her father sang to her. Lea sang her bits and laughed when her father sung his…

Had she known that her father would leave their family, she would have made an effort to make more memories such as this.

Then, just like that, it was gone. Lea turned from the tree and instead felt herself touching the water, her feet were bare. The cold reached up to her knees. She looked out into the foggy mist and the most important memory played. The one she promised never to let go of.

She kissed Carlisle in his home. They were alone as Renee had gone out to see Charlie with Jake, Alice and Jasper had gone to the movies, Rose and Emmett were out of the country for a few months, and Edward and Bella had gone to Alaska to visit their cousins in Denali.

"Lenore, please…I can't," he sighed. Carlisle held the woman close in his arms, their foreheads touching, eyes closed and just a body's shift away from another breath-taking kiss.

"I know you can," she coaxed. Lea opened her eyes and stole a solemn glance from him. She knew beneath it was nothing but pure love and intimacy, but at the same time, it was restrained like Lenore was not getting all of him and Carlisle wasn't letting her take it.

"Just be gentle," at those words, Carlisle too looked at her and unknitted his brows. He looked into her dark eyes.

"I don't know if…"

"Please," she begged, "trust me."

He gave her a nod and shifted closer, their eyes locked in on one another's. Slowly, delicately, he planted his lips on her's as if one wrong move might shatter her into a million tiny pieces, just as well, it might have. Hands roamed freely and lips danced in a heated kiss of passion with both participants trying to outdo the other. Lea ran her fingers through his hair and tugged playfully eliciting a groan from the doctor.

When the kiss broke, she felt lightheaded and for a moment, Carlisle thought she was going to faint. When Lea regained her composure, he looked at her with a smug sense of self-satisfaction due to his ministrations. All that she had to do was quirk her brow and, if he could have, it would have sent him blushing.

He led her by the hand and into his suite. Since Lea had been spending more than a few nights there, Carlisle had taken it upon himself to buy her a bed. At night, they whispered in silence the way lovers do and when she grew tired, she snuggled up close to Carlisle. The only thing separating their entwined bodies was a layer of clothing and the duvet as the doctor did to want her to shiver in her sleep.

He'd lay awake as he did not sleep and would watch her. He wondered what she dreamt and if it was him she was seeing. Sometimes, she'd mumble his name and a sleepy smile would cross her face. He would kiss her forehead, the tip of her nose, or whichever cheek was not facing the pillow.

When morning came, she'd wake to breakfast in bed with a cup of her favorite drink just the way she liked it: sugar with a dash milk and just a drop of actual tea. While she ate, Carlisle would be in the shower and getting ready to head out to work. After she finished her breakfast and cleaned her dishes, she'd show herself out the door.

Only, this was the first time they were doing what she asked of him. He'd refused, not because he was not interested but rather worried about hurting her, he wouldn't even be able to look at himself in the mirror if any harm came to Lenore by his doing.

He laid her down and shifted his weight above her, straddling his love.

"Are you sure?" He asked, leaning his weight on his forearms placed on either side of her head. He played with a stray lock of her hair between his fingertips.

"As sure as I'll ever be," she said as she inhaled and gave him a reassuring smile. Then she did something unexpected and caught him off-guard, she grabbed his shoulders, lifted herself using her legs and pinned him to the bed. They both laughed at the astonishment on Carlisle's face and when it subsided, he kissed her again, with more passion as if this kiss might have been their last. He trailed the kisses down her neck and it took everything from him to not bite, instead, he kissed her.

Love-bites…he thought.

Lea snaked her hands around his shoulders and pulled him closer though he was as close as two can be. She moved and the friction sent the equivalent of vampire chills and euphoria shooting though Carlisle's body. She sat up, still straddling him and looked down. She looked down and saw the man she knew she loved with every fiber of her being. His hair was pushed back in a way Lea had never seen, his eyes were darkened instead of golden brown and the rest was plastered with a look of longing. She never wanted to forget the moment and would think of it whenever she thought about this man.

He looked and her. They way her blonde hair was waved as it fell into her face that was blushed and her lips smiled. He wanted this memory, this moment, to last him the rest of forever.

She reached down to the collar of his button-up and undid the fasteners. He got the notion, sat up and shrugged it the rest of the way off revealing crystal-like skin beneath. It looked like his body was covered with diamonds underneath his skin. She leaned her head to get a better look as she'd never seen such a thing in her life. She knew that this was what he did in the sunlight as it streamed from the window, but she'd never witnessed it before that afternoon.

She kissed the spots that caught the light in her eyes and Carlisle reached one hand around her body in a tight embrace and with the other, pushed her head closer to him. He reached under her shirt feeling the hot, soft skin beneath.

Lea continued to kiss him and he continued to relish in it. With another kiss on his mouth, Lenore stood and undressed herself before him. What he saw amazed him beyond belief. Vampires gave off a type of pheromone that scented them like a cologne and made them appear more attractive than the average person, but that was nothing compared to her.

When she straddled him again, he was overcome with a passion he'd never, in his three hundred and sixty some odd years of existence, had ever felt before.

Unbeknownst to either of them, they conceived a child...

Okay, I know…it's a bit melodramatic but what's a vampire love story with out a bit of melodrama? And before you all start yelling at me, I'm already thinking of a few ideas for the next chapter! I hope you all like it and I hope I conveyed what Carlisle feels for Lenore correctly and vise-versa.

Tell me what you think by sending me a message or leaving a review! Speaking of reviews, to the reviewer Debbie Hicks, do you mind re-explaining that one to me? I got a few Star Trek references and that's about it...

Anyway, as always,

-Your daily dose of romance

P.S. if any of you guys follow my other stories, then you'll probably recognize that the last line was a stolen rewrite from Till the End of Time, a Doctor Who fanfic that I had to put on hold for a while while I write this.