A/N: I don't own Twilight, SM does
Sorry for the long wait.
My new years resolution is to update monthly, so I chose a random date; I will now update both this story and 'Wife Swap' on the 8th of every month.
I know this sounds like a big gap, but I am about to start my final year of school (YAY!) so I need to be able to fit school work in there somewhere.
I hope you like this chapter
Hospital
Rosalie POV
My baby fainted. I listened to her breathing quicken, I listened to her heartbeat get faster and I watched her as her eyes roll back and her limp body fall to the floor. I just stood there and I let Jasper push her over the edge. I could tell she was terrified, but I just stood there and didn't do anything to help her. I was rooted to the spot as everyone around me rushed forward to help Bella. Frozen. I wanted so bad to go and help my baby girl but I couldn't move.
"Rose," Emmett's voice was soft in my ears, relaxing, comforting.
"Rose come sit down," Emmett said as he led me to Bella's bed, somehow uprooting me from my position on the floor. I didn't need to sit, perse, but it was probably a good idea. I looked over at Bella. Jasper had moved her into a more comfortable position, but left her on the floor, on Carlisle's orders, saying that when she regained consciousness, she would be disoriented and frightened, and it was best to let her have some space.
I distantly heard Alice and Esme showing the Denali's out, but I was mostly concentrating on Bella. Seconds later, Alice and Esme were next to me, Esme holding my hand, Alice standing next to me, trying to see past Jasper, Edward and Carlisle and get a clear look at Bella.
"Why didn't you see it Ali?" I asked.
"I don't know?" Alice replied, the guilt evident in her voice.
It took Bella 10 minutes to regain consciousness, 10 minutes I never want to relive again.
"Mummy?" she mumbled.
"Sweetie, I'm here," I assured her as I stepped forward.
"Mummy, I feel funny," Bella said.
"Oh, hunny I know, why don't we make you feel a little bit better," I suggested holding my hand out for her to hold.
"How can you make it better?" she asked.
"Mummy just knows, come with me," I said. Bella started to walk forward but she stopped suddenly after a few steps.
"Wait, is the scary lady gone?" she asked, frightened.
"Baby, they're all gone," I assured her.
"Did Kate go too?" she asked.
"Yeah."
"Oh. I liked her," Bella said, slightly disappointed.
Bella followed me down stairs and I sat her on her chair as I rummaged around and served her two scoops of ice cream.
"Yum, thanks mummy," Bella said.
In the hours after, Bella seemed to forget what had happened.
"Her mind has repressed the memories and decided that what happened was too hard to handle, in a few days, she won't even remember Irina or what happened," Edward said, answering my thoughts.
For the rest of the day, everyone kept a close eye on Bella, never left her alone, and talked softly. Emmett, even willingly took her out to play with Lucky, something that he hated doing.
"You got him, so you have to play with him" we said to him every time Bella wanted to go out and play with him.
Time doesn't really mean much to a vampire, but that evening seemed to drag on forever.
Finally Bella was in bed and I felt emotionally drained. I could tell everyone else was too. Although the Denali's were our best friends, I would never see them again if it meant Bella never had to re-experience today. She seemed to bond well with Kate, but I knew that they we a package deal, if we couldn't see one of them, we couldn't see any of them; they were an extremely close-knit family.
OooOooOooOooOooO
March – the next year
Carlisle's POV
The weeks wore on and we were now in March. In May, Bella will have been in our family for a year. One year has gone by. Now that I have a daughter who ages, time seems to fly. I was in my study, reading up on Cerebral Palsy, for one of my new patients. I could Bella in her room down the hall playing with her new fixation; the overhead train Esme and I had gotten her for Christmas. Three months on and it was still her favourite toy. Within the week after Christmas, Bella had been through four sets of batteries, so we limited her time with it for an hour everyday. Esme was in our room, pouring over blueprints for a garden she was designing for the retirement village in Seattle. Alice and Rosalie were downstairs talking, Edward was in his room and Emmett and Jasper were in the rec room, playing Emmett's new Xbox game.
The shrill sound of the phone ringing disrupted the peacefulness of the house.
"Hello?" I heard Esme answer the phone. The person on the other end of the line said something that even I, couldn't make out. I distinguished that it was a male and not someone I recognised.
"Yes, he's here. I'll get him for you now," Esme said to the person on the phone. She walked into my office and handed me the phone.
"Someone from your work dear," she informed me as she handed me the phone.
"Carlisle Cullen, how may I help you?" I said, expecting it to be a nurse or intern needing assistance with a patient.
"Dr. Cullen, this is Greg Milton, I am the vice president of staff co-ordination at Forks county hospital," the man said. I realised that Greg had become the new vice president of staff co-ordination only last week and I had not met him yet. "I was calling to inform you of a slight change in the hospital," Greg informed me. "We had a board meeting on Saturday and we feel that Forks hospital could use with being more family oriented and we have decided to try a 'bring your kids to work day.' I was under the impression that you had recently adopted a young girl."
"Yes, my wife and I adopted Bella ten months ago," I confirmed.
"We would be delighted if you participated in this day, to set a good example and encourage other doctors to bring their children to work. We are hoping that if this day is a success, we will make it an annual event," Greg said.
"Mr. Milton, I would be delighted to participate in this event," I agreed whole heartedly.
"Thankyou so much Dr Cullen. The 'bring you kids to work day' is scheduled for this Friday," Greg Milton said.
"Thanks Greg, hopefully I'll see you around soon," I said and hung up.
I thought this was an interesting idea, and I was excited to take Bella to work with me on Friday. She had asked me more that once to come to work with me. Esme walked into the study again and I motioned for her to sit on my lap. I kissed her neck gently and rubbed circles on her back with my thumb.
"What was that about?" Esme asked curiously.
"The hospitals bringing in a 'bring your kids to work day' on Friday and they wanted to know if I was interested in taking Bella with me," I said.
"That's a good idea, she'll enjoy that," Esme agreed sincerely.
"Yeah, I know," I said and kissed her neck again. I kissed all the way up her jaw line and eventually she got sick of my mucking around and she kissed me on the lips.
This kiss, like so many others, lasted several minutes, but we weren't mauling each others mouths like Rose and Emmett seemed to do. I treated my wife like a porcelain doll. Fragile, unique and one of a kind.
"Emmy, Stop!" Bella's high pitched squeal interrupted us. "Emmy no, stop tickling!" Bella squealed and giggled again. I rolled my eyes and Esme stood up and went to end a situation that would most likely end badly. "Emmy! Please! Stop," Bella squealed.
I watched out of the doorway of my study, directly opposite Bella's room down the hallway. Before Esme could reach the door Bella's squeals and giggles turned to cries. It took all my effort not to walk over and comfort her, but Esme was there and I knew she could handle the situation.
Sure enough, the situation ended badly. Emmett had tickled Bella to the point where she had an accident. This had happened only twice before and without Jasper' gift, I could feel Bella's embarrassment.
"Emmett, you are to clean the mess in here and hand-wash Bella's clothes and hang them in the laundry to dry. You will then iron them and fold them and put them away neatly," Esme said. "Oh and I want you to apologize to Bella as well," Esme added.
"What! Why?" Emmett whined.
"Bella asked you three times to stop tickling her and you didn't. This is your punishment for ignoring her wishes," Esme said.
I could hear everyone laughing at Emmett as he cleaned and by the time he had finished hand-washing Bella's clothes, Bella had been bathed, changed and had been colouring for half an hour.
By this time I had given up reading and moved into the main family room and was currently sitting on the floor against the armchair with Bella in my lap drawing.
"Bella," Emmett said when he entered the room.
"Bella looked at him and crossed her arms like she had seen Esme do when she was disappointed with one of the kids. On Bella, it was one of the cutest things I had ever seen and it took all my self control not to laugh.
"Yes Emmy?" She said.
"Bella, I'm sorry I tickled you and didn't stop when you said so," Emmett said.
"That's okay," Bella said. She thought pensively for a few seconds before she added, "But you have to give me a hug and give me a ride on you shoulders and you have to play with me until bed time."
"Alright," Emmett agreed immediately and ran towards us and picked Bella up and hugged her gently. He then lifted her up and onto his shoulders and ran around the whole house with her. Soon she got bored and demanded that he played candyland with her.
"Bella," Emmett began to whine, "Can't I teach you to play a fun game. Oh, like poker," he said enthusiastically.
"Emmett McCarty Cullen, I refuse to let you teach my four year old daughter how to gamble," I said. His face fell in disappointment.
"Oh I know, I know, I know," Bella squealed. "Can we play with Lucky?" she asked Emmett.
"It's better than Candyland," he agreed and began to walk outside.
"Wait, Bella, you can't go outside, you just had a bath and it's nearly dinner and bedtime," Esme said from behind me on the armchair.
It was now Bella's turn to visibly deflate and her face fell in an almost identical way to Emmett's.
"But, can we bring her inside then?" she asked hopefully. She put on the bambi eyes and almost pouty lips, the hardest face to resist in the world.
"You can take her into the basement, and only the basement.
"Yay," Bella said.
"But you have to promise to come and have dinner and go to bed when I say so, alright?" Esme agreed.
"Yes mamma."
Bella ran outside, followed closely by Emmett and three minutes later, we heard them go down to the basement through the back door. I turned the TV on and flipped to the news channel. The news was on quietly and Bella's high pitched giggle and Emmett's booming laugh could be heard from downstairs, with the occasional bark from Lucky.
Two days later
Tomorrow I would be taking Bella to the hospital with me and so I took another day off today, and Esme and I decided to take Bella down to the markets in Port Angeles for a fun day out and to get some more food for Bella.
By 10:30, Bella was packed and Edward was left in charge of the house. Jasper put Bella to sleep and we strapped her into the car seat and eventually headed off.
Bella's car seat was installed in Emmett's jeep so I had to leave my Mercedes at home. I loved driving fast, as did the rest of my family, but I refused to go more than 10 miles p/h over the limit. By the time we got to Port Angeles Bella was sick of the car and itching to get out. Esme got her out of the car and we walked hand in hand, Bella in the middle, towards one of the stalls. We spent three hours visiting all the stalls until there was only a handful left.
"Oh, Carlisle, look, there's a garden stall" Esme exclaimed excitedly.
I smiled at her eagerness and we walked towards it. Bella was entertained by the piece of orange a man had given her from one of the stalls and she munched happily on that, spiling the juice everywhere. Esme walked around observing everything while I followed her. Bella was looking at the flower display and I let her stay there, happy.
"Mamma!" Bella said excitement in her voice. "Mamma, look!" she said. Esme and I walked to where she was. Bella had found the fruits section and was looking at it happily.
"Mamma, why didn't we have these in our garden?" she asked. Since we were vampires and didn't eat, we didn't see the need to have fruit trees in our garden. "Mamma, can we get some?" Bella asked. "Please," she added after I looked at her.
Esme was happy to be out in the garden and was excited to have something more to plant. We ended up buying strawberries, tomatoes and an apple tree that was sure to die, given the weather conditions of Forks. As well as the fruits, Esme bout some herbs she could use when she cooked Bella's food.
We left the markets at 3:00 and with Bella, worn out from the day; fell asleep in my arms as I carried her up to her room when we arrived home. I went back downstairs and help Esme put the food away and I moved the herbs and fruit from the jeep to the garage floor.
"Are you going to plant these now?" I asked Esme.
"No. Bella seemed excited about them, so I'll wait until she's awake and we can do it together," she said.
Half an hour later, I was in the living room with Esme next to me when I heard the voices of the others and noticed that Alice's voice was extremely high pitched and this could mean only one thing.
"Argument about clothes," Esme and I said at the same time and we walked upstairs to Alice's bedroom where the noise was coming from.
"No. Over my completely-dead-in-a-grave body is she wearing that thing!" Alice said.
"Why not? It's her favourite thing to wear, and she's going somewhere unfamiliar. She needs to feel comfortable," Surprisingly it was Edward who was challenging Alice. This was almost unheard of. No one ever went up against Alice, especially with clothes. The only other time I could remember was in '82 when she attempted to make Edward and Emmett wear skin tight fluoro jeans.
"That thing is ugly, and it doesn't go with the outfit I picked out for her!" Alice almost yelled.
"Alice, you bought it for her. Why would you buy something that you hated?" Edward argued back.
"Because I was going to have it accidentally shrink or rip or get lost but I never got around to getting rid of it," Alice shot back. Until now, everyone had been watching the argument, slightly amused. The noise had woken Bella up and she was now sitting on the bed in between Emmett and Rosalie.
"You was going to make my hoodie get broke Alice?" Bella asked disappointed.
"I– I– " Alice said.
Edward looked at her smugly.
"No, Bella, I could never do that," Alice lied through her teeth to placate Bella.
"Anyway, she's not wearing it," Alice turned back to Edward.
"Why don't we try to figure this out quietly and calmly," Esme suggested. "Alice, what do you want Bella to wear?"
Alice showed us the outfit she wanted Bella to wear tomorrow. It was a cute outfit, but not one that Bella would be comfortable in.
"Edward, what do you want Bella to wear?" Esme asked
"I want her to wear something comfortable, and something that she would like to wear," Edward said.
"Why don't you ask Bella want she wants to wear?" Emmett suggested.
Alice turned to Bella and said,
"Bella, what do you want to wear tomorrow?" Edward asked.
"Why do I have to choose now? Why can't I choose tomorrow morning like all the time?" Bella asked us.
"Well, we were trying to keep it a surprise, but I suppose I'll have to tell you now," I said.
"Bella, tomorrow, I'm going to take you to my work, at the hospital, and you can see what it's like there, just like you've always wanted to," I said.
"I get to come with you the hopsital?" Bella asked, excitement lighting her eyes.
"Yes, you do," I said.
"Yay, thanks daddy," she squealed and launched herself at me from the bed. If I was a human, I probably wouldn't have had the time to move my arms and catch her.
"Your welcome sweetie," I said and kissed her on the cheek.
At 4:30 the next morning, Alice was dressing a sleeping Bella into her proposed outfit for today and then Esme fed her some cereal while she was still half asleep. Rosalie packed her bag, and after everyone had given Bella a kiss and said goodbye, I was strapping her into the car seat. Soon we were cruising down the long driveway heading towards the hospital.
"Daddy," Bella said, her voice still thick with sleep, "Is we going to the hopsital today?" she asked.
"Yes sweetie, that where we are going right now," I told her.
"Good, I really want to go," she said.
"I know."
The rest of the car trip was in silence, Bella was still waking up and I was mulling over yesterday afternoon
I had been in my study watching my wife and my daughter through the window planting in the garden. I remember thinking that Esme would be overjoyed that Bella loved being in the garden and sharing a passion of hers. When they eventually came back inside, after Bella had almost drowned the strawberries, Bella was flushed pink with excitement, and quite grubby from playing with the dirt. I knew that if she could Esme would be almost crying with happiness.
I pulled into my designated car space and gently lifted Bella out of the car while simultaneously throwing her backpack over my shoulder. Bella was on my hip, her head resting gently on my shoulder, but by the time we were inside the building, the bright lights made it impossible for her to close her eyes and drift off to sleep. As we walked past, I noticed the head of every nurse turn to stare at Bella. She noticed and blushed hiding her face in my shoulder. I reached my office and I grabbed my white coat from the coat stand in the corner Esme had bought me, my stethoscope from the desk and everything else I needed. I placed Bella on the ground so I could put on my coat. I turned to leave but before I could Bella stopped me.
"Leo daddy," she said. Leo was her stuffed lion, her second favourite teddy who she took everywhere, when it was impractical to take her teddy white, like today. I opened the backpack and saw Leo placed on top. I handed him to Bella and while she clutched him in one hand, she held mine in the other and I lead her to the handover room. When we entered, I noticed that I was among the last to arrive. I did see that the majority of the other doctors had their children with them, but all were much older than my Bella.
"Ah yes, now that Dr Cullen is here we can start," said Dr. Hannigan. "First I would like to thankyou all for participating in today's event and for the sake of us all, I hope it goes well."
After this introduction, we were given our patients for the day and told any critical information that we needed to know. We were all filing out of the room when Bella said,
"Daddy, I want to wear a white coat like you is."
I smiled; I couldn't describe the feeling that was coursing through my body after Bella said she wanted to be like me. I guess I felt honoured.
"I'll see what I can do," I told her. I went to the nurse's station and asked Nadine, an older nurse, but perfectly nice, to see if she could find a spare coat for Bella.
"Bella, go with Nadine and she'll find a coat for you. Bella obeyed and they walked over to a supply cupboard. I went through the notes I was given on my patients and memorised them, while still keeping an eye on Bella. I saw Nadine rummage around before pulling out the smallest spare coat she could find. She placed it on Bella and saw that it still dragged along the floor, but Bella didn't seem to mind, Nadine also grabbed an old stethoscope and slung it around Bella's neck.
"There we go, now you look just like your daddy," Nadine said kindly to Bella. Bella beamed and began to skip over to me, before stopping and running back to Nadine.
"Thankyou Nadine," she said sweetly.
"You're welcome dear," Nadine replied. Bella smiled before making her way back over to me.
I had noticed that over the course of living with us, Bella had seemed to pick up a habit from each of us. Bella was now exhibiting the behaviour she had picked up from Alice; she was jittery and bouncing with excitement.
"What is we going to do daddy?" she asked excitedly.
"First we'll go and say hello to everyone that daddy will be looking after today," I told her.
"Can I say hello too?" she asked.
"Of course you can," I assured her. The first patient we went to say hello to was a young man, Kyle, who had been admitted during the night with a broken arm that had needed surgery, two hours later, Kyle was in pain and on 12 hour monitoring before he could go home.
"Hello Kyle, my name is Dr. Cullen and I will be your doctor today," I told him, smiling in a non-threatening way.
"Hello Kyle, my name is Dr. Bella and I will be your doctor today," Bella copied me. I smiled, while Kyle looked confused.
"Kyle, I would like to introduce you to my daughter, Bella, today is bring your children to work day," I explained.
"Oh, okay," he said. "Hello Dr Bella, how are you today?" he said, playing along.
Bella and Kyle chatted away while I read checked Kyle's vitals.
"Alright Kyle, in about five hours your arm should be ready for casting, until then, try and get some sleep," I suggested.
Bella waved goodbye and we moved on to the next patient.
My sixth and final patient was a little girl Bella's age that was suffering from Cystic Fibrosis, and was getting worse and worse by the day. This young girl, Katie Baxendale, was brought in two days ago, and had been deteriorating since then. I began talking to Katie's mother, who was staying with her daughter. I noticed that Bella and Katie were shyly conversing also. Mrs Baxendale on her daughters health and informed her that she was indeed deteriorating. I answered all the questions and I was soon paged to respond to an incoming ambulance full of car crash victims.
"Bella, come quickly," I said. I had to get her to the nurse's station quickly; I didn't want her witnessing the aftermath of irresponsible driving so soon in her life. I was only planning on showing her that when she was going for her license.
"But daddy, I want to stay here with Katie," she said.
"Yeah, and I want Bella to stay too," Katie said.
"Bella, you can't, Katie needs to rest and I have to go some where quickly, you have to come and wait at the nurse's station with Nadine," I told her.
Bella slumped and reluctantly began to follow me.
"Dr. Cullen, I wouldn't mind keeping an eye on her for you, I'm sure Katie would love the company of someone her own age," Mrs Baxendale offered.
"I would hate to burden you ma'am,' I said.
"Oh, it's alright, Bella will be no burden," she assured me.
I could here that the sirens of the ambulance were incredibly close.
"Thankyou, Mrs Baxendale, I really do appreciate this," I said.
"It's my pleasure," she said. I smiled at her and walked off quickly towards the ambulance entry.
The whole time I was working on saving the lives of these crash victims, I was thinking of Bella, hoping that she was behaving herself. Before I could worry more, the heartbeat of the man I was working on, began to slow at an alarming rate.
"Come on, we're losing him," I said frantically, acting as any human would in this situation, panicky and stressed. I had known the second that I had laid eyes on this man, that he was never going to make it, and there was nothing we could do. The amount of blood loss, tissue, bone and muscle damage, the severity of his head injury, would have ensured a life as a vegetable, even if he ad survived.
Just then I heard his heart stutter and then stop. After three more attempts at reviving him we declare his TOD as 6:47 am. We had the respectful minute of silence, then there was another flurry of activity. Half the nurses went to help in the next operating room, while the rest stayed to clear this room, ready for the next time it needed to be used. I went on another round to check up on each of my patients. I stopped first at Katie, to get Bella and make sure she was alright.
I saw her sitting at the end of Katie's bed, both girls giggling while Mrs Baxendale was reading a newspaper.
"Hey daddy," Bella spotted me.
"Hey hunny, did you have fun while I was gone?" I asked her.
"Yeah, Katie and I had so much fun," she said happily. "Did you save any lives daddy?" she asked, just like I she did every time I came home from work.
There was no way that I could tell Bella or Katie or Mrs Baxendale that a man had just died under my hands. So I smiled and said,
"Sure did," just like every afternoon.
"Mrs Baxendale," I turned to her. "Thankyou so much for keeping an eye on Bella, I can't think of a way to make it up to you," I said.
"Oh nonsense, you're doing enough by being here and looking after my daughter," she said. I put on another fake smile and nodded. I didn't want to have to tell this lovely human that she would most likely lose her daughter with a few months or so.
"Thankyou," is said. "Bella, Katie really needs some rest, I'll bring you by later, after we go and check on daddy's other patients," I said.
"Can I visit Bethany again?" she asked.
"Of course, we'll go and see her now.
"Bethany was an elderly lady who had leukaemia and had been bought in by her neighbours yesterday after she had collapsed. I could imagine why Bella seemed to like Bethany, the kind old grandma who knitted and gives their grandchildren sweets. Which was exactly what she had been doing when Bella and I had first went to see her. She had been knitting a scarf and when Bella had said hello, she offered her a travel sweet from her handbag.
The rest of the day was fairly quite and Bella spent most of the time with Katie or Bethany, and when the end of my shift came around, I had a hard time convincing Bella to leave.
"Bella, please, it's time to go home, don't you want to see your mother and your brothers and sisters?" I asked her. Bella as clearly torn between the desire to see her family and the longing to stay and play with the only friend she had ever made since last year at least.
"Please, just a little while longer?" she begged. Then Katie started.
"Please Dr Cullen, please can Bella stay?" she begged.
"I'm afraid not Katie, Bella and I have to get home," I said gently, I hated the look of disappointment on her face.
"Can she come and visit tomorrow?" she then asked hopefully. Bella spun around to face me hop lit her face.
"Only if it's okay with Mrs Baxendale," I agreed.
"I would love to have Bella visit tomorrow," she agreed wholeheartedly.
It was settled. While Bella and Katie said goodbye, Bella promising to bring some toys for tomorrow, Mrs Baxendale pulled my aside slightly.
"Thankyou Dr. Cullen, for helping my little girl," she said gratefully. "And thankyou for allowing Bella to come tomorrow, I have seen a great improvement in my daughter over the course of today, she seems happier and healthier, and I am sure this is Bella's doing, my daughter has not had company of her own age group for such a long time, she really missed it I think," Mrs Baxendale confided.
"You're welcome, Bella seems to rally have taken a liking to you're daughter as well, I hate to have to split them up now, but I promise to have my wife bring her around tomorrow, around 9:00," I said. Mrs Baxendale nodded gratefully.
The trip home was a short one, and was filled with Bella's chatter about her day with her new best friend. I was sure that this wasn't going to be the last time we heard about Katie.
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