Carlisle's POV
"I'm in need of a cup of coffee," Maya, my assistant nurse, says as we walk down the hall. "Would you like a coffee too, Dr. Cullen?"
"No thank you." I say politely. "But if you need me, I'll be in my office."
"Okay." She smiles.
She and I walk to the end of the hall and part ways. I'm headed to my office while she's going to the break room.
It's a little after one AM and my night on the ER floor has been strenuous, with a revolving door of children. There was a point where a male nurse that was assisting me, ended up making a joke about feeling as though he was in an old TV show called The Twilight Zone. Because our night didn't seem normal but instead very strange. At least, not to him.
After he kept talking about literally being stuck in The Twilight Zone, I was more than aware he needed a break. I advised him to take one after we finished up with our patient.
I, too, am in need of a break before I continue the rest of my shift. Which is exactly why I'm headed to my office.
Physically I am fine, energetic and ready to carry on with my shift. No need for a rest or a little bit of shut eye to be re-energized. Though mentally, I am drained.
It's been a very long night on the ER floor, very busy. Since I clocked in yesterday evening there seems to never be a dull moment as I was needed everywhere at once, or so it seems. My Friday night has been a lot of chaos. Saturday morning seems to be not too diffident.
My first patient I treated was a teenage boy, who slammed his hand in a metal gate. He was in a great deal of pain and his pinky was nearly severed off. But it was nothing I couldn't take care of. I stitched him up, saving his pinky.
Next was a ten-year-old girl who swallowed four metal jacks. She claimed she did it on a dare at a sleepover to show that she was one of the cool kids and not scared of anything. She immediately regretted her decision and told her mother, who rushed her to the hospital. X-rays were taken, and one of those metal toys was lodged in her ribs. So off to surgery we went.
After the girl with the jacks was taken care of, there was a five-year-old boy. Why did he have Legos and an extremely small toy dinosaur jammed up his nose? I'm not sure. It shall remain a mystery. For the child was nonverbal, therefore unable to provide the information I so desired. The poor little boy fussed, screamed, and cried a lot while I extracted the plastic toys from his nostrils, while his mother held him on her lap.
My third and fourth patients of the night were babies. The first, a newborn with colic, and the second, a toddler whose arm was dislocated. Both were very good patients and the easiest of my night.
Though nothing was out of the ordinary with the reasons for any of their visits, I begin to wonder why all my patients happen to be children as I walk down the corridor, heading to my office. In all my years of being a doctor that's never happened to me. Usually, I have a mix of young and old patients I see in the hospital, but today they have only been young. And I wonder if there will be more children I'll need to care for today.
With each child I took care of, I was reminded of my own. Especially with the last one, a young teenage boy by the name of Anthony, my youngest son's middle name. The boy, a thirteen-year-old, was displaying signs of meningitis. At once he was prepped and ready for a spinal tap.
Each time – and there were three – the large needle entered his spine, he screamed and cried while I apologized. Four male nurses had to hold him down so he would not thrash about. His screams that are forever etched inside my brain, did not affect my coworkers the same way it did me.
In a way, the loud cries of the boy's agony mirrored the agonizing sound of someone going through their transformation.
I'm not sure why, but even though the procedure has been completed, his cries still stay with me. Taking me back to a time to a time when my children were entering their second lives. It's not a pretty sound or sight, one that's truly unforgettable for an immortal. But it was necessary for three of my children. Without the change, they would not have had a chance. Emmett, Rosalie, and Edward would have all perished.
With those thoughts come more.
I'm now pondering over how and why Bella will need to be changed. Alice has "seen" it but has no answers behind the decision of why that happens. Though I have no idea what would make me break my rule of turning a healthy child into a vampire.
I have always decided against that.
Entering my small office for a much-needed break, I do my best to not dwell on the unknown. Shutting the door behind me, the phone on my desk rings.
I cross the room, circle my desk, and pick up the receiver.
"Hello this is Dr. Cullen speaking," I speak into the phone in a clear tone as I sit in my chair.
"Oh good! Carlisle, you answered." Esme gasps, sounding relieved, though full of anxiety.
Her words automatically take me back to three days ago, when she called me in a panic. She had been stressed out from our youngest son entering vampire puberty and was out of sorts of what to do. She didn't know how to speak to him about the matter without it being awkward and needed my help.
These words she just spoke led to a strange game of phone charades between her and I that afternoon. Though that was then, and this is now. But I do wonder, what has her all frazzled today?
"Esme, dear, what's wrong?" I ask, attempting to bypass another game of phone charades.
"You need to come home," she says in a rush.
It's not like her to suggest such a thing right off the bat. But with the night I had, I began to entertain the idea. How nice going home early sounds. Though as quickly as the thought enters my mind, I terminate it.
"Love," I call her by her pet name. "My shift is almost over. I'll be home in six hours."
"Can you please come home early?" Esme wonders, almost begging.
There's something in her voice that has me on edge. In the pit of my stomach, I feel something isn't right. But what?
"Why?" I ask, full of concern. "What's going on?"
Her answering sob lets me know something is definitely wrong. I give her a minute before I ask again.
"I've had quite the night and I could use your help right now." She says in between sobs. "I tried calling you earlier but… but…"
She doesn't finish her sentence as she begins to cry. My unbeating heart breaks to hear her in despair.
"I was with patients all night long." My tone is very apologetic. "But I'm here now. Can you please tell me what's going on? Why are you crying?"
She takes a deep breath and sniffles. "Since last night when I went to pick up Edward, things have gone from bad to worse."
Pressing the phone to my ear, every muscle in my body locks in place. Did something happen between Edward and Bella while they were on their date?
"Has Edward and the little girl been harmed?" I blurt out.
"I don't know." She says with a shaky breath.
"What do you mean you don't know?" I wonder, feeling very puzzled.
"Things have been a mess since last night." She begins to explain, sounding a bit discombobulated. "I've been dealing with an angry, worried father, a missing kid, two very persistent people trying to make flan, two other people wanting to role play using a full body Ninja Turtle suit, a can of green frosting, and your father's cross."
The words she spoke were fast and mumbled together. A human would not be able to hear each individual word, though I did. However, that does not mean I understood any of it.
"Esme, dear, I'm not following." I admit, rubbing my forehead. Everything she said was a lot to take in and none of it makes any sense to me.
Not wanting to waste another minute, I ask what exactly she's talking about. Once again, she repeats the same confusing thing she did before. I sigh, not about to pretend I know what she's getting at when I don't.
A moment of silence passes between us as Doctor Snow is paged on the loudspeaker. As much as I enjoy caring for the sick and wounded, I'm grateful I'm not needed on the ER floor at this very moment. Because it's clear my wife needs me, even though I haven't the slightest clue about what's going on at home.
"Love, can you please tell me what's going on?" I ask, hoping she will elaborate. "I'm not understanding any of this."
"Edward is missing," Her words are fast and full of fear.
"Edward is missing?" I repeat the words she just said.
"Yes!" She half shouts. "Missing with Bella. His very human girlfriend. I can't get in contact with either one of them, no one can. Both of their phones go straight to voicemail."
"Well, this complicates things." I say as my world stands still. Why didn't she start our phone conversation with that bit of information? I will never know.
"It really does. I have the kids out looking for them right now. Alice and Emmett are following a trail into the forest, while Jasper and Rosalie are searching around the area where Edward and Bella were last." She explains. "No one knows what happened or where to look since Alice was busy cooking flan with Jasper–"
"I wish I didn't have to ask why two of our children were cooking," I sigh, interrupting her. "But I must know, why were they making a dessert?"
This is definitely not the most important thing to ask, I realize. But it will certainly provide more insight to why Alice didn't see when Edward and Bella decided to take off.
"Because she was upset, I grounded her from shopping for two weeks. I did that after she threw out all of Edward's clothes in order to get him to dress like a modern boy. It wasn't something he agreed to and was very upset about it. So, I punished her." Esme quickly explains. "Alice was being quite dramatic about her punishment. When I came back from dropping off Edward, she decided to take up a new hobby which was making flan. Or trying to. She and Jasper really made a mess."
"Of all the things to focus her time and energy on, it had to be me making flan." I shake my head.
In my eighty-four years of parenting, I have learned that adolescent children do the strangest things. I often try not to question what their thought process was. Because I have learned – especially with my sons – that there was never a thought process behind it. They generally act on impulse. My daughters are often no better, there's times where I can tell they do odd things without thinking about the outcome.
I'm sure with Alice deciding to cook flan, she didn't have any real thought process behind the action. Just something to do to take her mind off things.
"It was more in the category of sweet, scrambled eggs and a small fire." Esme clarifies. "But since Alice was intently concentrating on her task while ordering Jasper around. She wasn't paying attention to any of her visions. She missed so much."
"Unfortunately, Alice can't catch everything." I remind her. "How long has Edward and Bella been missing?"
"I'm not exactly sure. I went to pick him up a little after nine twenty. I was supposed to pick him up at nine but had trouble leaving on time because Emmett and Rosalie were being inappropriate and roleplaying with your father's cross…" She sounds very embarrassed as her voice trails off.
"With the ninja turtle costume and a can of frosting, I'm assuming." I finish the sentence for her with the information she provided earlier.
"Yes. I had to disinfect the cross and everything in the hallway before I left." She says with disgust clear in her tone. "But when I went to pick Edward up, he wasn't where he should have been. Neither was Bella." She pauses.
"Well, that's not like him." I inhale, sitting on the edge of my seat. "Edward's usually very responsible and is usually where he says he's going to be."
"I know. Charlie said the same thing about Bella. That's why I'm worried." She says, sounding hysterical. "Plus, I caught Edward's scent and the smell of Bella's blood, in an alley close to the mini golf course."
"Blood?" I say, sounding shocked.
"Yes." She answers. "There was a small amount on the ground. Carlisle, something happened to them, but I don't know what."
I don't respond. I don't know what to say. A thousand different thoughts run through my mind.
In the background my wife's cell phone chimes, telling her she has a text.
"Rosalie just texted me," Esme breathes the words. "She says she and Jasper ran into three nomads not far from there. I have a feeling they were the homeless people Charlie kept telling me about when he and I were looking for the children."
Taking this bit of information in, I gulp.
"I do hope the nomads have not played a role in Edward's and Bella's disappearance." Trying to keep my voice leveled, I rub my forehead.
"I really hope not." She begins to sob. "I don't know where they are, and Charlie will be back before dawn. He's planning on getting the authorities involved if they do not come home soon. Carlisle, I'm a nervous wreck. I'm here at home waiting in case Edward calls or shows up. But I just don't know…"
She lets out a sharp breath and begins to sob uncontrollably.
I let out a deep sigh. This definitely changes the course of my morning. There's no question in my mind about me leaving work early now. This is definitely a family emergency.
"I'll be home shortly." I promise. "We'll find them."
"I hope so," She sobs. "I miss my baby boy."
"I know." I exhale.
With that we end our call and I hurry up, preparing to head home early. With a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach I leave my office and clock out, explaining to my boss I have a family emergency and need to go home immediately. I waste no time explaining that my youngest son is missing and has been for a few hours. He understands the urgency and lets me leave.
There's no time for talking to anyone else as I rush out of the hospital and into my car. The worst case-scenarios race through my mind about what happened to these two innocent kids, one human and one not. Everything that comes to my mind about why they have disappeared is not good.
Trying to make an effort to remain hopeful, I put my key in the ignition. Holding onto a glimmer of hope is key in this situation. Especially since my wife is falling apart. One of us must remain strong.
At the same time the engine purrs, my phone alerts me of an incoming text. I take it out of my pants pocket, flip in open and click on the message as five more come in. I don't need to look at the name and number to know Alice is the one texting me, she enjoys sending back-to-back messages with no time to reply.
Feeling very nervous I open up the messages.
Dad, I don't think foul play is involved with Edward and my new sister running away. They will be fine and happy forever. They will reunite with us soon. I've "seen" it.
I'm not sure where Edward and Bella are. Maybe Acapulco or Cancun. Definitely somewhere on a beach with coconuts.
Oh wait! No beach. He's tricking me!
Now he's at a store shopping for…. bras? Ugh. He's doing it wrong.
He's picking up items for Bella. She's a vampire now. :)
Or I mean, she will be. I just "saw" it. Edward is with her at an unknown location. It's not clear, but I think he bit her by mistake because I keep seeing him apologize to her.
Taking all this in, I blink. This is definitely not what I was expecting.
Since Bella is becoming a vampire there's things my family and I must do to prepare. Charlie needs closure for his daughter he will never see again. It's heartbreaking that he won't be a part of Bella's second life but in the long run, it will be better for both of them to move on.
Every vampire, no matter how young, has to cut ties with their living relatives. That's the way it goes, unfortunately. I had to, so did Esme as well as our children. It's not easy. But it's better for Charlie and Bella to get closure sooner than later.
Quickly I type out a thank you reply to Alice, along with a group text to her and the rest of my children to get home immediately. We need a family meeting.
Not about to wait around for a reply from anyone, there isn't any time for that. I close my phone and drop it in my cup holder. Thinking about everything that must be done, and our impending move, I put my car in reverse. An anxious feeling envelope me as I think of my son and his girlfriend who are somewhere all alone.
I swing the car around, stepping on the accelerator.
Barely out of the parking lot, my earlier thought about the reason I might turn Bella into a vampire comes back to me. I now have an understanding that it's not my choice to transform a healthy kid, it was Edward's impulsiveness that did it. Despite them being young, it was his and Bella's decision all along. Never mine.
The details of what led Bella becoming immortal are non-existing at the moment. Though one thing is clear, I have to find him, and Bella before Charlie does.
He's in law enforcement and I have a feeling as long as he believes she's alive and missing he won't hesitate to do anything and his power to find her. Of course, I don't blame him for that. I would do the same for my children and stop at nothing to find them. Though that really complicates things when the missing person is a newborn vampire.
Before morning light comes and search teams are set in place to find the missing kids. The illusion of an accident resulting in two fatalities has to be set in motion. He must believe she's no longer living. There's no other way around this.
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