A few people have asked about Edward hunting Victoria. After their return to Forks, before the vote, Edward tells Bella he was hunting/tracking something but doesn't tell her what - but then talks about Victoria in a way that implies pretty strongly that she's who he was tracking. He even goes so far as to say he's going to take Jasper and Emmett and get rid of her for good, but Bella stops him.
P.s. sorry for the break - not too well at the moment, so updates will be more sporadic at times, but I'm going to try to stick to one a week at least. Carlisle's chapter will stay put while I decide what to do with it permanently, but it's now no longer a labelled chapter, it's just "Carlisle". Also, the urge to write: "Making her way downtown, walking fast" in the first sentence was real.
Chapter 13
The afternoon after she'd arrived in the city, Carys made her way through Seattle's downtown shopping district. She appeared to be ambling along with the crowds studying the window displays, but if she was asked about anything she'd seen, she wouldn't have been able to answer.
Apparently chosen at random, each stop allowed her a few moments to study the street behind her; every window contained a mirror, a surface polished to perfection, or sat at precisely the right angle against the last of the waning sun to provide a reflective surface if she were to focus in a particular way.
Much as when she had started working at Forks Hospital two and a half years before, she had the strangest suspicion she was being watched.
By whom, from what vantage point, and for which purpose, Carys couldn't tell, but she couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling akin to someone passing back and forth over her grave. If not for the very real need to buy herself a change or two of clothes, she would have returned to her hotel room half an hour before.
Ducking into the next shop she came across, she sought to quickly solve her issue.
The interior: painted a light unassuming grey, was bright, airy, spacious, and screamed expense by filling a large space with as little as possible. If not for the occasional piece of clothing, illuminated by artfully angled spotlights, it could have been mistaken for an upmarket furniture store specialising in a capsule line of circular banquette sofas.
It was also almost completely deserted save for the staff.
Essentially not somewhere she could easily hide, appeared to be far more expensive than she could entertain, and after a cursory glance, was not quite the place to grab a couple of tops and a pair of jeans.
She was about to turn on her heel and find somewhere that could better suit her needs when she noticed several rails had been hidden to the back, behind barely-there gauze curtains. The shop was evidently one of those that blended couture with more accessible lines; this one simply hid the majority of their clothes in the back as if they were mildly embarrassed at having to offer them at all.
It was the type of shop she might find herself in with various Cullens.
If she'd been shopping with Alice, those rails would likely have been removed in case she took offence to "off the rack". Rose was less fussy; so long as she could be assured of additional tailoring, she would give things a chance. Esme could be prevailed upon to go so far as to step into Nordstrom once in a while, so long as her purse remained closed. Carys no longer shopped with Carlisle after discovering how many stores had his measurements on file; she was more content to steal his shirts and jumpers when she had no idea how much they cost.
Carys reassessed her initial observation of the shop.
The rails, so far from the front window, could serve to give her good cover until she shook the uneasy feeling away at least.
She smiled at the beautifully dressed assistants stationed by the more expensive offerings and crossed to the back of the shop as casually and unhurriedly as she could manage. Losing herself amongst the clothes, she kept an eye out for anyone entering in case they brought the peculiar feeling with them.
They didn't.
In fact, after assuring each of the three shop assistants in turn that she was happy to peruse on her own for the time being, she realised no one had so much as hesitated at the window. That fact remained unchanged for the twenty or so minutes she then spent pretending she would be happy to part with a month's rent for a single skirt.
She was absentmindedly rubbing the last of the unease from her midriff and genuinely admiring a dark green jumper that cost an eye-watering amount when her phone began to ring.
Fishing it from her pocket, she checked the name that flashed up on the small screen.
Sarah.
"Bonjour, ça va?" she asked, holding the phone to her ear as she glanced about and sidestepped out of view of the large front window once again.
"Ca va bien, et toi?"
"Hmm, Comme ci, comme ça," Carys said, wandering over to another rail. "What's up?"
"Nothing too bad," Sarah sang, sounding a little distracted. "Just wondering what you're up to 'cause we're down one for games night."
Carys paused, her hand on a silky black shirt she wasn't sure she wanted to look at the price of. "And I'm what? Chopped liver?"
Sarah's low chuckle won a smile. "It was supposed to be La Push v Forks but Charlie pulled out last minute so Mon's threatening another coup."
Carys' smile grew. The only reason she was left out of quarterly La Push vs. Forks games nights was because the teams had been selected long before she'd come to town; it had taken Sarah three years to get a regular spot after she'd lost hers by going away first to college, and then medical school. The only reason she got it back at all was that Charlie took pity on her hovering in the background after she and Monica had moved in together.
The "coup" Monica was threatening was most likely hopping back over to her ancestral team. There was no arguing technicality - that her ancestral team was more Port Angeles than La Push - on nights she felt like she was going to lose before the games began.
"Sorry," Carys said, not sounding it in the least. "If you'd asked a couple of days ago, would've jumped at the chance to kick Leah's smug fast running arse, but I'm in Seattle until Sunday so not free anymore."
"This wouldn't have anything to do with a certain doctor would it?" Sarah asked, dropping to a suggestive whisper. She groaned her disappointment when Carys whined gently.
"No, just a very extended, very needed, very relaxed weekend away with yours truly."
"Oh thank god. Tell me you're at least out of your room doing something fun then?"
"Define fun...?" Carys mused, fiddling with the sleeve of another shirt, pink this time. "If by fun, you mean feeling weirdly panicky until you go into a shop to get away from the crowds; turns out you're the only one there, and everything in the cheaper section's more than your rent, then yeah, havin' a whale of a time! But if, on the other hand, you mean sleeping in, watching films, ordering room service, and going on a shopping trip-"
"Where you end up in a shop alone with super expensive clothing?"
"Yep! Then yes, also enjoying myself a lot. All in all: would recommend Seattle." Carys narrowed her eyes at a neon blue jacket and replaced it. There was no way she could pull that one off. "Not just for its superior lake houses, either," she added, referencing one of Carlisle's all-time favourite films. She was mildly aware he might one day leave her for Keanu Reeves, but as she would do the same, she had long since decided to write it off.
"They haven't kicked you out yet?" Sarah joked over the clap of a clipboard. Knowing her, it had likely been dropped unceremoniously onto the reception desk.
"A Londoner; dressed for work; shopping in the middle of the day? I'm living my best ladies-that-lunch life here," Carys whispered back, darting a glance towards the front of the shop where the assistants, unaware of her comment, were ready to catch her eye. "I'm almost certain one of the assistants came over purely to hear the accent."
"Well, some of us have patients to go see and games nights to lose so I'm gonna have to go, but have fun... Actually, if you're already shopping? Don't suppose you're going anywhere near Macy's..., are you?"
Carys sighed for dramatic effect, though a small smile lifted her lips. "I'll pop by when I'm done here," she promised, checking the time on the large clock mounted in the middle of one of the shop's otherwise bare walls. She had time as long as she left immediately, she thought. If not, she had the rest of the weekend.
"Have I told you you're a star?" Sarah asked, her excitement causing her voice to rise a decibel or two.
"What'm I getting?"
"It's a dark blue kind of sweater thing with zips and this-well, it's got zips on the sleeves? And a floofy-kind-of-flippy bit at the bottom? Anyway, you'll know it when you see it; it screams me."
Huffing, Carys raised her eyebrows, and quipped a little sarcastically, "And if I don't suddenly start hearing the voices of random jumpers calling your name from the shelves, should I just-"
"I'll check the catalogue and text you," Sarah replied happily.
"Excellent choice," Carys said, chuckling as she pressed her phone between her shoulder and ear so she could pull a particularly lovely t-shirt from the rail in front of her. Black, a little boxy, very comfortable; it was exactly what she was looking for.
"Love you Care."
"Cupboard love," Carys observed dryly, before adding, "Love you too."
She grabbed her phone, returned it to her pocket, and fished the label from the t-shirt.
$500.
Carys tried not to let her face show just how much her insides screamed at the price and replaced the item as quickly as she could. Looking about, she shoved her hands in her pockets in case she was tempted to touch anything else, and simply scanned the clothes around her. She'd been through them all already, but as usual, she felt too awkward to leave the shop until she'd somehow proven she had given it all a chance.
Catching sight of the clock again in her periphery, she marvelled at how familiar it looked.
Suddenly, as if it was waiting for her to call it forth, a memory surfaced of being pulled through in a rush one day when Alice had seen herself arguing with Jasper. They'd visited ten shops, in each of which Alice had bought new wardrobes for herself, Edward, and Esme, then eventually seen herself making up with her husband and returned to her usual happy-go-lucky self with the flick of a switch.
When the argument came to fruition that night, it had been even stranger to witness.
Instead of a verbal disagreement, the couple had stared into each other's eyes for around five minutes, apologised to Carys for having to witness such a terrible spat, and then holed themselves up in their bedroom for two days. It had been the first time Carys had been privy to how Alice's visions and Jasper's ability to sense and influence emotions and feelings worked between them; Carlisle had returned home to find her curled up on the sofa, genuinely wondering if the pair weren't figments of her imagination.
Carys' grin, which had grown as she'd recalled the couple, fell.
She thanked one of the shop assistants on her way out and made her way to Macy's as quickly as she could.
To her mild surprise and overall respect, despite the vagueness of Sarah's description, Carys found the "kind of sweater thing" almost immediately. It was as described: dark blue with zips on the arms, and screamed Sarah; the flouncy/flippy bit at the bottom turned out to be a rather elaborate asymmetrical ruffled hem.
By the time Carys returned to the hotel a few hours later with her bags, which, following the news breaking that she was both in Seattle and proximity of Macy's, included a dress, tights, and a pair of jeans for Monica; two shirts and some socks for Charlie; two sweaters and a nice shirt for Karen Newton; a new alarm clock and pens for Leah; and a cardigan for Freya at reception (all of which she was assured she would be paid back for the instant she returned), she had put the uneasy feeling down to her overall state of mind.
If anything, it made her even happier to be spending a few days away.
On the second night of her impromptu trip to Seattle, Carys woke to her phone ringing above the credits on a film she'd fallen asleep to. Rolling over, she was about to cancel the call and fall back asleep when she registered the name and thrust the phone to her ear instead.
"Lovely!" she called, wriggling up to half sit against the headboard, bringing her covers with her.
"My darling," Carlisle responded enthusiastically.
Unlike Carys, his voice was bright, wide awake as ever, and far less rough. After more than three weeks without the musical sound, her heart wrenched slightly to hear him.
"That's all you've got for me?" she complained softly. "Where's the good stuff?"
Carlisle sniggered, and Carys thought she heard something fall in the background.
"My apologies. Darling, Love, Beautiful, Sweeting, Sweetheart."
"Ooh, you flirt," Carys said, grinning as she briefly wrapped her arms around herself and gave into laughter of her own. Sobering quickly, she asked, "How long have we got?"
"About half an hour, I expect." He sounded reluctant to tell her. "Garrett and I are heading out again soon."
"Wait?" Carys asked, sitting up, her brows knitted. She threw the covers away and scrabbled about for the remote. "You're with Garrett? When did you meet up with him?"
"We ran into each other about a week ago, he's going to help me-"
"Oh thank goodness," Carys cried, letting out a huge sigh of relief.
"I'm not sure it'll help find him any sooner, unfortunately."
"No, no, that's not what I meant! I meant thank goodness you've got him with you! I didn't want to say anything before because you're like a grown man and then a couple hundred years on top," she rambled, finally locating the remote to turn off the television, "but I was kind of worried about you, and now at least I know you're not alone and stuff, and so yeah..."
There was silence on the other end of the phone for a few seconds, before Carlisle asked, "You were worried about me being alone?" Nothing in his even tone gave the slightest hint as to what he thought of the matter.
"I mean... Not a huge... Amount...?" Carys cringed as she spoke. "Just, you haven't been in touch for a while-"
"I'm sor-"
Carys rambled on over his interjection. "-and then I guess I've been kind of worried something happened, but I know nothing happened because I didn't feel it, but then I got to thinking maybe that just meant you were still alive. Which, you know, could mean you were hurt-"
"Carys-"
"But now I know you've got someone with you who's - you know how much I love you Carlisle, but let's face it, you've been on your own you know, and it's just been so long since you got the family. I just hate thinking about you out there without anyone with you..."
The ensuing silence was broken by Carlisle just as Carys was about to apologise for any offence she might have caused.
"You know whether I had everyone with me or not, I'd wish I was with you, don't you?"
"I know."
"I should be the one worrying about you," Carlisle said, his voice filled with concern. "I am worried about you. You shouldn't be-" he broke off on an exhale. "I want to tell you I'll be back soon, but even if I catch up to Edward in Santiago, it'll be more than a week before-"
"Don't," Carys said, cutting in sadly. "You said all this last time we spoke. And the time before."
"And the time before that."
"Yep."
"I know I'm disappointing you but I-"
"Need to find your son, Carlisle. You're not disappointing me, not really. I'm disappointed we don't get to be together for a while still, but not in you... Though it is a little infuriating to be with a ruddy saint. You should know that."
"I'm hardly a saint," Carlisle said quickly, though his heart didn't appear to be in the almost automatic protest.
"When you've saved over a hundred thousand lives, I reckon it means: you're wrong. But I'm really not disappointed," she added softly over the sweet sound of his amusement. "I know it'll take a while, I'm just..." Sad, lonely, tired, missing you, actually yes, disappointed, Carys added to herself, swiping at her eyes. She didn't want to think of that or bring down the mood when she was finally speaking to him. Fixing a bright brittle smile to her face to lift her tone, she joked instead, "Adding a day to our honeymoon for every week you're gone. Keep this up, and you're basically looking at two months away."
"I am?" Carlisle sounded hopeful now, almost excited at the prospect.
"Well, there's that week you owe me," she told him, leaning into her amusement when she heard a faint choking sound, "and a honeymoon's usually what? A week to two weeks? Let's say two weeks because we both know how much you're worth, and I'm not letting us scrimp on that. So. Three weeks. Plus, of course, a bonus week-"
"Oh?" Carlisle asked lightly.
"For the whole us both being lonely and missing each other part."
"Oh, of course. You should add two for that - one for me, one for you. Only fair."
"Crap! And another week for the fact I still don't have a ring and the closer we get to June, the less time we have to plan the wedding - so we might genuinely need to postpone the thing back to when we figured in the first place. So that's-"
"Six weeks."
"And you've been away for how long?"
"Around ten weeks," Carlisle said. The yearning in his voice made Carys' heart leap to lodge itself somewhere in the vicinity of her throat.
"So that's almost eight for the honeymoon," she said, trying not to let the sadness creep back in. "Keep going like this, and I see a sabbatical in your future."
"I'm not sure even I could convince the hospital to let you take that much time off without having one yourself," Carlisle teased.
Carys slipped down the pillows and adjusted the covers over her shoulder. If she lay on her side, closed her eyes, and left her phone balanced on the side of her face, she could almost imagine he was there.
"I'm halfway to quitting already," she reminded him. "A three-month-"
"It's three months now!?"
"Four if you keep interrupting me."
"Sorry. Go on about our three-month honeymoon."
"Thank you. Now. A four-month honeymoon travelling the world sounds good, but six months? Now, that sounds like a terrific trip."
Carlisle murmured something she didn't catch, and then grumbled, "You're messing with me, but I don't think you quite understand how good that sounds."
"Me?" Carys scoffed. "Messing with you? No, Mister." She shook her head, forgetting he couldn't see her. "You may remember suggesting a year travelling around the world - seeing the sights, eating the food, having me finish both plates so you don't have to eat hot dirt again-" She paused long enough to note two peals of laughter from the other side of the phone, the second of which she imagined came from Garrett, and promptly nixed a couple of additions. "-anyhow. Yes, I'm kind of joking, but you do owe me uninterrupted us time when you get back."
"Would you take a two-week advance when I return, and six months when we move out of Forks?" Carlisle offered, adding before she could, "For the second time?"
Carys grinned. "I've missed you," she whispered.
"I've missed you too."
"Don't leave it so long next time, or I'll think you're avoiding me... You know, there's a rumour going 'round you've pulled a Richard on me?"
"A-Pardon?" Carlisle's voice hardened slightly. "A Richard?"
"Yes. It's a new term for dropping everything and everyone to move to Florida. You get extra points for having left me for another woman," Carys told him, tugging one of the colder pillows to her chest.
Carlisle lost all trace of annoyance. "Hmm. What do you think they'd call coming back to town, sweeping you off your feet, and getting married immediately?"
"Foolishness, probably."
They talked, spending most of their time avoiding any subject that couldn't be used to humorous effect, for exactly half an hour if the display on the television was right.
Afterwards, when she was finally able to calm her racing heart, Carys fell back asleep with the same ease she had become accustomed to when Carlisle was with her.
Carys woke early in the afternoon the next day, following the first full and dreamless night's sleep in longer than she cared to remember. Nothing could wipe the grin from her face, nor would she have wanted it to.
For a while, she lay replaying their conversation in her mind before her stomach began to wonder if her throat had been cut. She reached for the hotel phone on the nightstand, called down for what she and the lovely woman on the other end of the phone agreed could be termed a "late brunch", and then flicked through the channels on the TV until she found something easy to watch.
After getting up and donning a fluffy white gown to accept the delivery, she then spent the next fifteen minutes responding to texts from the morning and night before while she sipped coffee and munched on warm croissants.
Replying to her mother, she agreed that Sunday would be a good time to talk about the house; to Sarah, she assured her she had been to Macy's and asked her to spread the word; to Charlie, she pled innocence to being the cause of Bella's foul mood - that, she decided, was mostly Bella's own doing, and something she could feel guilty about when she got home; to Esme, she agreed the weather was turning; and to Findlay, she promised to check the pictures he sent of Shauna when she was home, and assured him she wasn't angry about the sale, merely disappointed because she loved the house so much.
When she was done, Carys spent an hour relaxing in her room's clawfoot tub while she made a list of things to do that weekend. It included shamelessly dropping the Cullen name to get herself almost impossible last-minute dinner reservations at three of the city's best restaurants.
That last won her the first text from Rosalie in months, which came just as she opened her menu and baulked at the prices accompanying each dish.
It's paid for. Merry belated Christmas. Go nuts. Rx
And the second:
Ignore the x.
And the third:
Seriously. It was an accident. Ignore it.
And the fourth:
Emmett says hi.
Carys abandoned her menu in favour of replying:
Hi Mett, and thanks Rosalie - knowing how much you love me made my month xx
After that, she settled back in her chair, made her selections, and then silenced her phone when Rosalie's numerous replies disturbed the couple next to her.
A/N: Anyone else need a good few thou in the bank, free food, and an extended weekend away? I sure wouldn't mind it!
Thank you to: Ghostwriter71, marylopez0812, onewaverlywizard, Guest (Garrett's my favourite too! And I've missed Carlisle, it was nice to get into his head for a bit), DragonRider225, CarlaPA, BMBMDooDoo- Doo- Doo- Doo (A regular coup d'etat! And the answer is at the top of this chapter!), souverian, Anita Simons, Adela (I'm going to keep it in but not as one of the chapters, as a standalone aside), chellekathrynnn, Love. Fiction. 2020, Bimbumel2, Ella (he is! He's the best! Such a good best friend for Carlisle!), Guest (I fear I was a little mean to everyone with that one, but I'll say it would rip my heart out and I'm too addicted to the happy moments of this story), Guest (I can't wait either! I want to pick them up and smoosh them back together now but we're going to have to wait a bit sadly), Courtney-Tamara, mariananininha, and TriumiviraVolturi for your reviews!
