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Chapter 8 - Forks, Seattle and Alaska, Christmas 2003

Carys thought her stomach muscles would never forgive her as she made the last of three trips into her little house to ferry presents and luggage out to her car. It reminded her that perhaps she should start being a bit more active, but knowing she'd put join a gym on her list of New Year's resolutions since she began university and had yet to actually do so, she didn't hold out much hope for herself.

Carys was more of a walker than a powerlifter, and that was fine by her.

As she finally locked the boot(-trunk, she needed to remember to call things by their American names) and walked around to settle into the driver's seat, she let out a relieved sigh which quickly turned into a small yawn. Thinking about the almost four-hour drive ahead of her to spend Christmas with her parents and step-grandparents in Seattle, she started the car and set off towards the diner for a much-needed coffee detour.

By the time she got there she was reminded that she lived in a small town and it was two days before Christmas because it seemed as if the entirety of Forks had descended in one form or another on the place as it was near the centre of town. Squeezing into a parking spot a street away from the small building, she half checked the time and walked quickly across to the diner, noting the line inside was at least six people deep.

Carys cursed in her head and huffed, turning as she wondered whether she could justify the extra fifteen minutes or so it would take to order her black coffee before she headed out on her journey.

Having spent two hours longer than she'd allotted that morning for packing and wrapping, she was already far enough behind schedule that it wasn't really as feasible as she'd like.

She was just thinking that she'd have to wait for coffee until she hit Port Angeles or found somewhere along the way, when the door opened and Dr Cullen began to step out, carrying two take-away trays with no less than seven cups of coffee slotted inside. Carys darted forward and grabbed the door, holding it open for him in case he spilt anything trying to shoulder it, and he grinned and tipped his head in thanks.

Carys blushed, smiling as the now more familiar rush rolled through from his gaze and though she was being a bit fanciful in thinking it, she thought it almost looked as if Dr Cullen was giving her a small bow.

"Thank you, a very English response to a door opening in front of you," Dr Cullen told her through his grin, stepping out of the way of two people who entered the diner and took Carys' potential spot in the queue. She was definitely going to have to wait until later for her coffee now.

"That it is," Carys chuckled, nodding her head in agreement. A moment later she added, "I was actually going to ask you about that... If it's not weird to ask...?"

Dr Cullen moved further out of the way of the entrance with a questioning expression and Carys took her hand from the door, letting it close with the clang of a bell.

"Your accent, it seems like it's more English some days than others, but I know from... People... That I'm supposedly the first English person for a while?"

"Oh, and you're worried I'm going to upstage you?" Carlisle laughed quietly down at her, and she marvelled at how even though there were only four or five inches between them, she felt so small compared to him at that moment. "That I might take your crown?"

Carys shook her head and felt her cheeks grow hotter as she waved her hands in front of her in denial. "No, not at all! I was just wondering if you lived there for a while or something?"

"A long time ago," Carlisle told her, his expression growing wistful for a moment before he grinned again. "I suppose it's just one of those things. I've lived in America for so long that my accent has been known to change, but I make an effort not to lose it completely."

"So... You're... English... Originally...?" Carys asked slowly, tipping her head to the side and narrowing her eyes in question. Carlisle laughed again and gave her a look as if to say that was for him to know and her to find out, which had Carys' nose crinkling as she glared at him jokingly.

"Fine, be all mysterious if you must!"

Another couple entered the diner behind Carlisle, and Carys breathed a low self-mocking cry. The doctor looked behind him and then turned an apologetic look on her. He seemed not to think about it as he raised one of the two sets of coffee he was holding towards her.

"Take one. The front pair you will find to be black with two sugars, the back pair, caramel lattes." It was as if he wasn't actually offering, simply informing her that she'd be taking one.

"No!" Carys told him clearly, not raising her voice but shaking her head as she held a hand out with her palm in his direction. "I can't take someone else's coffee, and I've seen you around the hospital enough now to know how much you like yours!"

Carlisle's only response was to wave the coffee around between them, the hot drinks steaming the air. She was tempted, really tempted.

"Don't tempt me." Carys told him, shaking her head resolutely, though her tone suggested she was only refusing because of social norms and could potentially be persuaded.

"Go on," Carlisle spoke in a low voice she imagined the snake in the Garden of Eden had used, "you know you want one..." Carys' hand twitched at her side.

"I can't," Carys turned her eyes away from the coffee and was captured by golden eyes which seemed to bore into her soul. "Really, I can't, it's rude. I can wait and you've obviously bought them for someone which would mean someone not getting their coffee, which would be horrible of me."

"I'm trying to limit Emmett's caffeine intake." Carlisle told her quickly, as if sensing she was only going to continue to refuse his gift, and smiled enticingly as she appeared to relent a little. "He already has an energy drink in the car, and so if you take a black coffee you would actually be helping me out a lot..."

Carys bit her lip and stared down at the coffee. Black with two sugars? That was her favourite way of taking it, and if she did, she'd be helping him... No, she coul-

"I am about to take the children up to Alaska so they can stay with family over the Christmas period whilst I work. Would you really wish to be the reason six of us start out on the journey and only five of us return?"

Carys let out a peal of laughter and held a hand across her mouth to cover the worst of it when a tall dark-haired moustached man leaving the diner turned in surprise to look at her. He continued on his way a few seconds later, and Carlisle held the coffee tray out to her again.

"You're sure it'll be okay?" Carys asked up to him, eyebrows raised in disbelief.

"Absolutely."

"Really?"

"Miss Vale, I've offered you several times now, at some stage the laws of etiquette will come into effect and mean you will have to accept."

"Well, thank you. Very much," Carys told him, taking a cup from the holder and cradling it between her hands, revelling in the warmth against her cold hands.

"I wish you a Merry Christmas, Miss Vale," Carlisle said as he backed away and turned to head towards a large expensive-looking car, out of which possibly the largest teenager she'd ever set eyes upon stared with a smirk on his incredibly pale face.

"And a very Merry Christmas to you as well, Dr Cullen." Carys called, smiling to herself as she began to walk towards her car.


"-so we've become friends and I'm meeting her girlfriend Monica when I get back!" Carys finished, grinning excitedly up at her mum from the floor of her step-grandparents' lounge on Christmas Eve. "Some of the doctors can be a bit stand-offish with the rest of the staff in the hospital, but Sarah's awesome. She also doesn't really get into all the-ow!" She broke off, wincing as she held a hand up to the side of her head, massaging the pain away from where her mum had been a little overzealous with the brush.

"It's your fault for not deep-conditioning or brushing it enough," Amy told her with a roll of her eyes, which had Carys turning from her position with a glare, still rubbing at the painful spot. "What have I told you? If you deep-conditioned more, you wouldn't have this problem."

"I do deep-condition, I just live in the cold and wasn't expecting you to insist on brushing my hair out this morning!" Carys complained, maintaining her annoyance as the pain faded. "All I said was I liked your box braids, not that I wanted you to do my hair!"

"Fine, then I won't bother," Amy told her, kicking her daughter lightly until she scrambled away. "I just thought it would be a nice thing to do as I haven't seen you in months and you hardly email me is all."

"Mum!" Carys moaned, sinking down to lie on the floor.

"What's going on?" Findlay asked, running into the room with the urgency of someone who'd had to de-escalate many an argument between the pair.

"Mum attacked me with her brush." Carys appealed quietly to her step-father, turning her head. "And she's saying it's because I don't take care of my hair properly..."

Amy sent her a withering glare which was ruined by the laughter in her eyes. "Well you don't - you need to remember to-"

"I know, I know," Carys sighed, pulling herself up to her feet and heading to the stairs. "I need to find a good leave-in and it'll be fine. I just forgot to get stuff before I left Seattle."

"Where are you going to now?!" Findlay asked her, looking perplexed.

"To go sort this," she replied waving a hand at her hair, one side of which sat in curls to her waist, the other side longer and fluffier as it had been brushed out around her. "And yes mum, I'll condition it properly!"

"Wait!" Amy called out to her. When Carys turned back towards her, she added, "you didn't finish telling me about Sarah!"

Carys grinned and let her excitement over her friend show again.

"Well she's really cool and doesn't get into the town gossip too much, but she seems to know it all if that makes sense?" Amy nodded excitedly as Findlay looked far less perplexed than he might once have been at the sudden change in mood. "She was really nice when I made an absolute tit of myself in front of Dr Cullen as wel-"

"Wait, doctor...?" Findlay cut across her, his interest piqued.

"Dr Cullen. He's..." Carys tried and failed to hide her blush as she attempted to work out how to describe him. "He's really nice."

"Really nice, and? What is it about him that's turned you beet red? You're not dating someone already, are you?" Amy questioned.

"He's really nice, and really kind - and he gave me a coffee this morning because the line was too long, but he's way too old for me even if I was interested in him, which I'm not."

"What makes you think he's too old for you?" Amy asked her as Findlay's gaze flitted between them.

"Well... He's... Older, like I said..."

"How old?" Findlay asked before Amy could, eyes narrowing.

"Erm... Early thirties maybe? He's lovely, but I'm not going there, and I don't think he likes me either."

"That is too old, Carys, you're only 21!"

"I know!" Carys whined with embarrassment, "I'm not going there! I just told you that! He's not interested in me, and I'm not interested in him! He's just nice is all!"

Even as she ran upstairs, cringing from having told her parents about the one person she'd sworn to herself on the drive up that she absolutely wouldn't mention, she knew that even if it was true on Dr Cullen's side she was lying when she said she wasn't interested.

She was infinitely thankful when she came down an hour later with her hair wrapped up in a towel that they didn't seem to remember her having mentioned making a tit of herself in front of him.


Around 2200 miles away, Alice Cullen sat in a tree with her legs swinging below her as she spent the next hour watching Emmett, Jasper and Edward in the midst of a snowball fight, all the while describing what she could see of Carys' Christmas to Carlisle.

"You really should just talk to her more you know," she added after telling him how Carys didn't look quite as happy about her Christmas presents as she had when he'd given her his 'spare' coffee the day before.

"I will," Carlisle conceded carefully, watching the others with a brooding expression usually reserved by his first changed son. "I must simply find a way to do it without her noticing or forming too much of an attachment."

"But the whole point should be that she notices and you become attached!" Alice argued.

"No." Carlisle told his daughter with a solemn shake of his head. "That is not to say that I will not change my mind in the future, but now is not the time to risk the family in such a way."

"Well..." Alice began after a few minutes of silence. "If it helps, I think she likes running into you over coffee."

A/N: Is anyone else dying and slightly tearing up from the sweetness of Carlisle pretending he's human so he can bump into Carys and give her coffee as a Christmas present because that's all he can give her that year? Just me? Okay.

Also, hope this chapter is okay! I know I copped out by not giving us all the whole Christmas, but I didn't want the chapter to be too long. Let me know what you think!