Esme smiled kindly at her sons as they helped her unload the groceries into the fridge, patting Jasper on the back when he excused himself and disappeared into his bedroom. Though she was used to Jasper being the quietest one in the family, there was something about the way his eyes looked saddened that made Esme sigh—thinking that he must have had a difficult time being around so many humans at once.
"Oh my, you three sure did buy enough to feed a whole school!" Esme breathed, impressed by all the items she pulled out of the paper bags.
Carlisle chuckled as he walked up behind his wife and hugged her tight, "Alice did get a little overzealous this time around. But it was an eventful day, I must say."
Turning in his embrace, Esme raised a brow in question, "What do you mean?"
"We met the Swan's daughter today. Rather, Jasper did," Carlisle hurried to explain their interaction with the little girl when Esme's smile fell, "she must have taken a liking to him because she even held his hand. She wasn't afraid of him..."
"Oh...well, that's wonderful. Isn't it?"
"Yes," Carlisle nods, but the image of Renee treating her daughter harshly was anything but pleasant, "she's a delightful child."
As he told Esme about Bella Swan's sweet personality and Renee's harsh behavior, he already felt a growing attachment to the little girl as he would come to find that he'd see a lot more of Bella in the following weeks. Not only that, but his family was already interested in the little human that showed no fear towards the Cullens. Even Rosalie was inclined to listen in on her father's conversation, still alarmed that Jasper would ever allow a child so close to him and maintain control over his natural instincts to attack a human.
Alice, however, had been the only one to appear as calm as ever, as if she knew something no one else did and wasn't ready to divulge any information, not even to Edward, who questioned her guarded thoughts that annoyed him more than usual when she started reciting Shakespearean plays religiously.
You'll know when it's time; that had been all she shared with Edward before running off like she normally did to spend time with her husband and continuing the topic of little Bella with him, knowing she was still on Jasper's mind.
Carlisle wasn't one to hold a grudge against anyone. No matter what they did or did not do. However, as soon as he was called into the emergency room one day for a consult and saw a little Bella Swan laying on one of the beds with tears running down her cheeks, he considered giving her parents a piece of his mind.
Renee sat on a chair beside the bed, typing away on her small silver cellphone as she huffed impatiently, completely oblivious to the child that had her arm in a sling.
"Hello, Bella," Carlisle smiled warmly at the child as he grabbed the rolling chair and pulled it towards the bed. Bella's eyes, though filled to the brim with tears, lit up once more as soon as she saw the kind doctor she'd met in the grocery store a few weeks ago.
"Hi!" She smiled even though she must have been in a great deal of pain.
Renee perked up when she heard the handsome doctor and snapped her phone shut, "Hello, Dr. Cullen," she rolled her eyes in Bella's direction incredulously, "looks like Bella can't stay away from the hospital. She must really love it here."
Indeed, this had been the second time this month that the child had been taken to the hospital. The first had been when Bella had a fever of a hundred and three degrees and was apparently sick for two days before Renee decided to take her to the ER. And now that she was back...
"It appears you may have a broken arm, little Bella. How did that happen, huh?" Carlisle coaxed gently after assessing the damage and administering a small sedative to help with the pain before scheduling an X-Ray appointment as soon as possible.
"I fell from the swing," She sniffed, wiping her face with her other hand that also had a few scratches on it. Carlisle gently took it in his and worked on cleaning the small wounds, his eyes shifting to Renee, who shifted in her seat nervously as she glanced at her cellphone again. "I was going too high."
"Did you let go before you stopped?" Bella nodded, but her head turned to look over towards her mother.
Renee cleared her throat and stood up, awkwardly patting Bella on her back, "Y-you know how kids are. They can't stay in one place. I took my eyes off her for one second and..." The smallest hint of alcohol hit Carlisle's senses when Renee got closer. The cellphone rang loud, startling Renee for a second before she let out a sigh of relief, "It's Charlie. I'm going to take this. I'll be right back, Bells."
Choosing to ignore the woman completely to avoid chastising her, Carlisle finished applying bandaids on Bella's hand before placing it back down on her lap. Meanwhile, Bella never stopped staring at the doctor in front of her.
"Are you in pain anywhere else, sweetheart?"
Bella shook her head, "I'm fine. Thank you."
Looking over his shoulder, Carlisle sighed when he heard Renee arguing over the phone with her husband on the other side of the door, waving her hand around as she chastised him, "I don't care! Get over here rightnow!"
His focus shifted when he felt Bella's warm hand pat his hand, her eyes curious as she looks up at him, "You're cold? Do you want a blanket?"
If she noticed he'd flinched, Bella didn't let on as she grabbed an extra blanket a nurse had brought over earlier and draped it over Carlisle clumsily as she stood up on the bed and tried to maneuver it over his shoulders. Carlisle chuckled and helped the little girl, who was so concentrated on keeping Carlisle warm that she seemed to forget all about her broken arm in a sling.
"Thank you, Bella. Why don't you sit down and rest until you get taken in for your new cast? Tell me, what's your favorite color?"
"Blue! What's yours?" the two continued conversing for the next few minutes, seemingly oblivious to Renee practically yelling at her husband over the phone but more than happy to talk about the different colors that they could put on Bella's cast. Despite the situation, Carlisle realized he'd never truly smiled this much at work, and it was...nice. Though Bella was almost as pale as he was, her warm eyes and long brown hair reminded him of a young Esme. That stunned Carlisle out of his thoughts immediately.
Where did that come from?
Holding back a sigh, Carlisle chastised himself from growing so attached to a child after only having met her a few times. But, on the other hand, he did wonder what it would have been like if he and Esme had been able to conceive a child of their own. Maybe Bella had unknowingly awakened that parental side of him.
When the nurse got Bella into a wheelchair and took her up for an X-Ray, it was clear to the doctor that Bella's mother wasn't going to look for her anytime soon. For a four-year-old, Bella had definitely been trained on some level never to make a scene no matter how uncomfortable or frightened she was, Carlisle thought as he listened to the way her fast heartbeat contradicted the smile on her lips.
By the time they were done with all the necessary tests and placed Bella's arm in a light blue cast, Charlie Swan was sitting with his wife in the waiting room with anger radiating off his shoulders. Carlisle didn't have to be an empath like Jasper or a mind reader like Edward to know that Charlie wasn't at all happy to be here. It wasn't surprising when their attitudes changed as soon as he walked into the room, smiling politely at the doctor while he told them about Bella's condition. It almost saddened him to know that his time with Bella was coming to an end.
While the girl's parents went to fill out paperwork at the receptionist's desk, Carlisle placed his hand on Bella's shoulder and smiled warmly at her when she looked up with tired eyes, "You did great, sweetheart. But tell your parents if you don't feel well for any reason, alright?"
Bella nodded slowly, her gaze shifting to Charlie and Renee, who started walking back over, the air between the two adults tense and uncomfortable for anyone nearby. One could only imagine what this did to a child...
"Stay warm..." The little girl murmured to him just as Charlie picked her up and thanked Dr. Cullen for taking care of his daughter.
As Carlisle watched Bella wave goodbye from behind her father's back, he couldn't help but smile sadly in return when he heard Renee and Charlie begin the heated argument as soon as they walked out of the hospital. "Don't blame me! Blame her. She doesn't know how to hold onto a swing like a normal child," Carlisle gritted his teeth as he watched the family from the window in the hall, unintentionally eavesdropping on their conversation as they walked towards their cars in the parking lot. "you should take her if you think you can do a better job!"
"God damn it, Renee!" Charlie yelled as he finished buckling Bella into her car seat and slammed the door, startling the girl. He shoved a finger in his wife's face and seethed, "If you don't have the patience for our daughter, then you might as well leave because I'm not going to let you neglect and berate her for your bad habits. I'm sick of this!"
"What-" her humorless laughed was interrupted when he continued.
"You think I can't smell the whiskey on your breath? Get in the damn car."
Before the Swans drove out of the hospital's parking lot, Carlisle Cullen was already storming down the hall when he'd heard enough and shut the door to his office with a loud bang. Resting his head in his hands on his desk to calm the surprising amount of anger that had started to boil over inside him, Carlisle wasn't at all surprised when a text from Alice appeared on his cellphone.
You'll see her again soon.
Have patience x
But Carlisle didn't know what his daughter meant by seeing Bella again soon. Would she be sick again? Injured? He wouldn't have the answer, not until a year later when tragedy would strike the Swan family, and Bella's life would change forever.
Thanks for reading x
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Things are going to kick off in the next chapter for Bella and the Cullens, can't wait to share it with you!