Thank you to chellekathrynnn for your review. The last chapter was set the day after Edward nearly attacked Bella and left for Alaska, so Carlisle's first priority would be to his son at that point. I think Edward was thinking more about his family when he left than being selfish, and though Carlisle needed Carys' comfort and support, he knew he needed to give Edward the same.
I know I've made us all wait a while for this, but... I hope everyone likes it.
Chapter 2
Carys met Sarah as she turned onto the hallway housing her and Carlisle's offices. It'd been a busy weekend at the hospital, and Sarah seemed rushed off her feet. She was more thankful for a packed lunch than Carys could remember, at the very least.
Sarah waved Carys into her office and shut the door quickly behind them. Snatching the paper bag from Carys' hands, she rounded her desk and dropped to her seat with a heavy sigh of relief.
"My god. How on earth some of these hikers think it's a good idea to go climbing on a day like this, I'll never know," she complained, leaning back as she kicked her legs up onto the side of her desk and started to dig around in the bag. "Chicken and bacon? That woman knows me too well!" She'd barely unwrapped the end of her sandwich before she took a huge bite and sank back, her eyes closing in apparent bliss.
Carys watched Sarah with a faint smile and sat far less abruptly in one of the patient chairs opposite.
When Monica had asked her to take Sarah's lunch to her, she'd been more than happy to help, and her reasons weren't completely selfless.
She knew she shouldn't really be discussing her friendship with Carlisle with Sarah, she'd definitely never done so in the other direction, but after a week of mulling over his strange reaction she felt exhausted. As it was, she still had about ten completely ridiculous theories for what was going on with him.
Still... As she watched Sarah take another large bite, Carys wondered again if her friend couldn't at least give her an answer to one of her questions. She was a doctor, after all.
"Sarah..." Carys started hesitantly, placing a hand lightly on the desk between them.
"Hmm?" Sarah responded. She was in the middle of chewing but seemed to give Carys more of her attention.
"Erm... So..." Carys paused again, not sure how to word it without giving anything in particular away. "I bumped into Dr Cullen the other day, and... He seemed... Well, I fell," she lied, "and he grabbed my hand to pull me up-"
"Mmm!" Sarah sat up and dropped her feet to the floor, holding a hand over her mouth. "He's colder than you'd think, isn't he?"
Carys sat straighter in her chair and pulled her hand back, eyes widening. "You've noticed?"
Sarah waved a dismissive hand through the air as she sat back again. "'Course I have, his whole job is touching people. Don't worry about it-" she finally swallowed "-there's some fancy doctor he sees up in Seattle."
"He sees someone for it?" Carys parrotted. She wanted more information, but she knew if she was too pushy about it Sarah would know something was up.
Sarah looked at her over the edge of her sandwich as she took another bite and nodded, continuing to talk around her food as she covered her mouth. "He has issue with anaemia and vitamin D deficiency. I thought everyone knew? That's why he's so pale and gets time off whenever it's sun-wait." She dropped her lunch onto the desk and swallowed hard as she pushed herself forward. "You didn't ask him about it did you?" She winced when Carys nodded and shook her head. "Ah, Care... No... He gets all defensive and awkward whenever someone brings it up. I get the impression it's something he's had for a while."
Oh... Carys thought, mentally kicking herself, no wonder he was so weird about it last week. Fuck.
"I... So if someone... Did bring it up...?"
"Yeah... You might wanna go say sorry or something. T'be honest, I'm surprised you didn't notice earlier, you're kinda friends with him aren't you?"
Carys watched as Sarah downed her drink, stuffed the last of her food into her mouth, and stood. She joined her and opened the door, stepping through before responding.
"Kind of?" She wasn't sure why she was downplaying her friendship with him. It wasn't as if they didn't spend enough time together, but save for that disastrous coffee she guessed they could be classed as work friends. "I guess we've never really touched is all."
"Well..." Sarah conceded as she wrapped her stethoscope around the back of her neck and fixed Carys with a less than believing stare, "I guess that makes sense..." She shrugged when Carys continued to meet her gaze head-on. "Listen, I've got to get back, but yeah - I'd say apologise and he'll be alright. He's a nice guy, but it's not always fun with everyone knowing your business. People prying about your health-"
"But I wasn't," Carys worried aloud, biting her lip as she grimaced.
Sarah gave her sympathetic pat on the shoulder and then backed away towards the end of the hallway. "Might not be the way he saw it," she explained just before she disappeared around the corner.
Carys slumped against the wall, thinking over their conversation and Carlisle's slight distance for the millionth time that week. If he thought she was prying about that, how must he have felt about her asking so many questions about Edward when all he'd wanted was someone to vent to?
Still, there was something else, she was sure.
Something... Something strange about his hand between hers...
If only she could put her finger on it.
That night as she crawled into bed and lay against the pillows, Carys thought over the Google search she'd made of Carlisle's illnesses whilst eating her dinner.
An hour later, she rolled over and turned out her light. Maybe she was imagining things, and it was the cold that made her think his hand felt so different? Was Sarah right, that it was so easily explained away?
As she fell into a restless slumber, one thought plagued her: was she making connections where there weren't any again?
By lunchtime on Monday, Carys had become determined to apologise to Carlisle for how she'd acted the week before. She knew he'd been cryptic and she was still unsure as to both Edward's reaction to failing a class and Carlisle's letting him disappear, but she'd woken up that morning with a pit in her stomach and the knowledge that she wanted her relationship with Carlisle back to normal more than she wanted answers to those questions.
When she found him absent from the staffroom, rather than leave things until they potentially talked on the phone that day, she decided to seek him out.
She checked on the ward and was informed he was in his office.
Carys paced back and forth for a few minutes at the end of the hallway, crossing and uncrossing her arms as she debated with herself again about what she was going to say.
In the end, she was saved when she turned on her heel and jumped in shock, her hand coming to cover her heart.
Carlisle, standing by the now open door to his office, was watching her with an expression that seemed to be equal parts confusion and amusement.
"Carys? Am I allowed to ask what you're doing?" He asked as he lifted an eyebrow, smiling as his amusement won out.
"I was coming to see you," Carys replied faintly, then repeated herself as she raised her voice to a level he could hear and walked towards him. "I wanted to apologise again for last week."
Carlisle frowned then, leaning against the door jamb. "Why on earth would you apologise, Carys?"
"Well," she began, looking up at him with questioning eyes. "I kept pushing about Edward, and about how cold you were, and I-" Carys worried her lip between her teeth for a moment, and it wasn't lost on her that Carlisle's gaze seemed to be captured by the movement. She released her lip and continued quickly, squaring her shoulders and lifting her head. "-I know things have been odd between us since, and I just want us to go back to the way we were."
Her pronouncement seemed to surprise Carlisle, and he stepped forward suddenly with a look of faint alarm on his face.
"Darling," he started, smiling as Carys' lips twisted and she blushed a little at the term of endearment, "you've not said or done anything wrong. I should be the one apologising for how I've acted over the past week."
"No, you've been focusing on Edward!" Carys shook her head as she stopped him.
His smile deepened as he took another small step towards her. "You say that and yet it's still upset you and I'm sorry for it."
"How is he?" Carys asked, her voice pitching lower as she briefly checked the hallway.
"He came home last night," Carlisle told her, his face transforming as a relieved smile lifted his enhanced his handsome features. "I hoped he wouldn't be gone for long, but I'm glad he's returned so quickly."
"That's brilliant!" Carys replied happily, placing a hand on his arm. "And he's feeling better?"
"As happy as he could be," he assured her, glancing at her hand, "I think Alice and I may be happier if I'm honest with you."
"And can he change classes?"
"I don't think so." Carlisle averted his gaze a little as he spoke. "He's determined to pass and that's enough for now." He looked back at her and smiled again. "I have high hopes for his happiness in the future."
Carys decided it was not the time to unpack that particular sentence, so smiled along and dropped her arm to her side, adding a sigh of relief a moment later.
"Well, I'm glad he's back and feeling better at the very least."
"So am I, it's all I could hope for and more. He gave me quite a fright." Carlisle paused as he tilted his head to the side. "I was going to ask you something before he left, but I didn't feel I could with one of my children... Well, with one of my children-"
"Being so upset? Having run away? Scaring you half to death?" Carys offered with a pointed look, and she smiled as Carlisle chuckled a little and nodded his agreement. "You're a father. Your priority is to your kids, Carlisle! In fact, I'm amazed you handled it as well as you did. I think Findlay and my mum would have gone out of their minds!"
"Yes, well. I give my children... Space when they need it." Carlisle tipped his head from side to side and scrunched his nose as he held up his forefinger and thumb to emphasise a little.
Carys grinned. "I'd say a week-long trip to Alaska is a lot more than a bit of space!"
"That's true," Carlisle agreed.
"So... What was it you wanted to ask?" Carys queried, circling back. "I should warn you that if it's something to do with Edward and tutoring, I don't think I'd be very good!"
"I'm not sure if I've ruined things now," he explained quietly, ignoring the joke and capturing Carys' gaze.
She was hardly surprised to learn that his golden eyes still had the power to dazzle her mind and make her heart skip a beat when he looked at her like that.
"Whatever it is... I'm sure you wouldn't have..." The one part of her brain that held on to thought cursed her voice for sounding so breathless.
Carlisle's lips turned up and he blinked slowly. She counted one, two, three slow blinks before he stepped back against the door jamb again and gave her a few moments to gather her wits together.
"Carys. I know you want things to go back to the way they were, but I'm not sure I can do that anymore."
"What?" Carys asked, her stomach dropping. Maybe she hadn't gathered her wits as she'd thought she had. Or he'd seen too much in her expression? "But I thought you said-"
"Darling," he cut across her worried complaint before she could continue, "if it's not too late... That is, if there's a chance you might still-I'm sorry, I've not really done this, bear with me." He let out a deep breath. "Carys, would you like to go to dinner with me one evening this week?"
She knew she should say something, but Carys wasn't entirely sure her brain was working properly as she twisted her hands together. Had Carlisle just asked her on a date? Was she imagining it? Had he looked in her eyes for too long and she'd fallen straight into her imagination?
It sounded like-
"Yes, I'm asking you on a date," Carlisle clarified when she continued to stare at him in silence. She thought it was rather nice of him to stand there whilst she grappled with reality.
"Ah," Carys' voice sounded faint to her own ears when she finally spoke. She ran her index finger down her cheek and tapped her jaw before pointing at him and raising her voice to a more normal level. "Thursday?"
Carlisle's answering grin verged on glorious. "Thursday would be perfect."
Carys gestured lightly between them and then pointed over her shoulder. "I'm going to go now, but not for celebratory reasons. Just because I-yeah..." She pressed her lips together, but nothing could hide the happiness which continued to light her face and eyes.
"And I'm going to step back into my office," Carlisle informed, her nodding slowly and continuing to grin at her reaction.
"Oh, of course," Carys confirmed with another grin, turning swiftly and heading off in the direction of the admin office. A few steps away, she stopped and looked back over her shoulder at him. "See you on Thursday then."
"Darling," Carlisle rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, "we work together."
"Oh, yeah," Carys laughed. "I meant more because we'll see each other, you know?"
"Yes, of course. Well, I'll see you on Thursday." Carlisle looked as relieved as she felt, which only compounded her excitement.
Carys wasn't sure how she'd made it through the day without letting on to Sandra that something had happened. Or, at the least, that she was incredibly happy about something.
As she dropped down onto her sofa that evening, she couldn't contain herself. She knew there was no way she was going to make it through the next few days without a distraction, and so she pulled her phone from her pocket.
After her conversation with Sarah the day before, she knew exactly who she wanted to talk to about the day's events, even though at that time it would probably mean leaving a voicemail and waiting for a call back later.
To her surprise, the call only rang twice before it was picked up.
"Hello?"
"Hey, how's your shift?" Carys asked, grinning at the sound of her best friend's voice on the line.
"It's fine. I've just finished some paperwork, nothing exciting... Is everything okay?"
"Yeah." She nodded even though there was no one to see her. "I was just wondering if you're about for a call tonight?"
"Of course. Anything particular you wanted to talk about?"
"Well... You know Dr Cullen?" Carys suddenly wished she'd called using her house phone because she could have twirled the cord. Instead, she twisted her hand in her top.
"I'm somewhat familiar with his work," came the slightly distracted reply.
Carys thought she could hear voices, but all background noise cut out a moment later.
"Well, he asked me out today!" Carys pulled her knees up above her chest, and just about resisted the urge to kick her legs about.
"What did you say?" The doctor's voice sounded more than a little amused at this turn of events.
"I said yes, of course! But... Well, we set it up for Thursday. And now all I'm thinking about is how I wish I'd asked him if he was free tonight instead."
"Why don't you?"
"Well because it's already 5.30 and he's on shift - he doesn't get off until 8."
Carys rolled to the side and fiddled with the remote lying on her coffee table as she listened for the response.
"Ahhh!"
"So, of course, I don't want to bother him and see if he's free because he'll probably be tired."
"Of course not. I understand why you'd be unsure."
"But I also can't sit still because all I can think about is how we're going out and I'm running myself in circles."
"Well, how about I come to pick you up when I'm done here and we can drive up to Port Angeles for dinner. That way you can tell me all about him and what he said when he asked you?"
"That sounds amazing," Carys sighed happily, "thank you."
"See you then."
"See you!"
Carys laid tossing and turning on her sofa as she played out her earlier interaction with Carlisle for roughly an hour before she set off to the kitchen to make herself a calming cup of tea.
By the time she'd finished that, gone upstairs for a shower, and pottered around her bedroom for a while drying her hair and looking at outfits for her date, it was time to get ready for dinner.
She took time over her makeup, though she didn't wear much, and getting dressed. She supposed she just needed something to do.
When the doorbell rang at around 8.15, she checked her outfit in the mirror, grabbed her bag, and hopped down the stairs. Taking a quick calming breath, she opened her front door and grinned happily.
"You look good," she announced.
"So do you." Carlisle grinned as he looked her up and down, producing a small bouquet of flowers from behind his back a moment later. "I hope you like steak. I didn't have much time to make a reservation."
A/N: I hope you're all as happy as I am?
