Story Info

Disclaimer: If you recognize it (names, dialogue, etc) I do not own it. I do own my OC Abigail Goodwin and her backstory.

**I forgot to add this on chapter one, so I'm adding it here. It pertains to the whole story, including chapters one through fifteen, and since it will not change, it will only be on this chapter.**

.x.x.x.x.

Chapter Info

Title: Promise

Number: 16/36

Warnings: Angst, sickness

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! I would love to hear your reviews, thoughts, comments, and questions about this story!

Goldielover: I so badly want to say what's going to happen, but I really don't want to spoil it! But I promise that all will be revealed! I will just say that you are on the right track. :D Thanks so much for commenting and reading!

Don'tBelieveInFear: I'm glad you did! :D And I'm glad you like it! Thanks for reading and commenting!

AHealingRenaissance: Like I said above I don't want to give all away, but things will definitely come full circle for them. I appreciate your passion about the story. :D It's refreshing to see that. And that not everyone is "poor Carlisle" because he's in the wrong here with his stubbornness, lol. But thank you for reading and commenting!

twibe and Guest: Thank you so much! Thanks for reading and commenting!

-Abigail-

Sense of time and her surroundings were faded to nothing as she slept, moving in and out of her dreams until they slowly started to form a timeline. The dream as a battlefield nurse was first, the beach dream was second, and her red-eyed killer nightmare was third. She knew they were all from the same life, this other her, but it felt like a fantasy because they all seemed to be from different periods of history far enough apart there was no way she couldn't experienced them in one lifetime. While she never believed in reincarnation, part of her screamed that something very similar had happened. She had lived this other life—lives?—with Carlisle and now here she was once again in his presence. She didn't understand it and no new dreams came to her, at least nothing solid. Edward appeared first, becoming friend and family. Rosalie and then Emmett next. Baby boy, she couldn't help but think whenever she saw that childish grin light up his face. Alice and Jasper were last. This all happened between the beach and the nightmare, and yet it all faded out into darkness soon after.

She wished she could see more from before the beach, selfishly wanting just her and Carlisle back, but as soon as she wished it she felt all dreams and darkness and confusion fading as slowly waking consciousness lingered in her mind. Part of her didn't want to wake, but she knew she had to, and something was drawing her out of slumber.

First it was just a pull on her chest, like a small tug as if someone has grabbed her and pulled her. But then it became more harsh until she could barely breathe making her gasp in ragged breaths, her stomach clenching and releasing, her body shivering, and she was thrown back into the world violently.

"Hey hey, whoa. You're okay, Bunny. I've gotcha." The voice was familiar and she slowly cracked open her aching eyes to see her brother sitting next to her stroking her hair.

"Jake?" she croaked, wincing at the sound of her voice and he nodded with a smile.

"There she is. We thought you'd never come back." His voice was a little teasing, but his eyes were almost haunted. She frowned and tried to sit up, but her body ached too much.

"What happened?" She paused and looked around. "The Cullens'." She remembered it all then. The sham of a date, finding Jacob at her house, the dream, nearly collapsing... "I remember."

Jacob nodded and he gently pulled her closer, placing her against his broad chest and running his fingers through her hair. "You've been asleep for hours. It's about eleven."

Her eyes widened in alarm. "PM?!"

He nodded gravely. "You've slept almost twenty-four hours, Bunny." He paused. "You scared the shit out of me." He tried to sound cross, but his face was even more pained and she pressed her face to his chest.

"I'm sorry, Hulk. I don't know what happened..."

"Carlisle will help."

Her head snapped up, dizziness settling in, but she ignored it. "He's here? Can I see him? Where is he?"

Yeah, the other her was definitely alive and kicking, knocking out any rational thought. But she was too weak and too starved for him to try and control herself.

Jacob almost looked amused as he pulled out his phone and quickly dialed. "She's awake," he said into it. "I know he did, but he was wrong, she's awake now... Well, do you want me to prove it?"

She frowned as he held out his phone. "Hello?" she asked timidly.

"Abigail!" Alice's voice broke over the speaker and Abigail couldn't go but smile. She had wished it was Carlisle, but she had to admit it was nice to hear Alice's voice, especially after her dreams. "We're on our way back. We needed to run out for some food."

"Take your time. Couldn't go anywhere if I wanted to." She tried to make it a joke, but it fell flat as Jacob glared and she heard Alice tutting her disapproval. Apparently it was too soon to joke at her own expense.

"Two minutes," Alice said before she hung up. Abigail bit her lip as she handed the phone back to Jacob.

"I wish you wouldn't be so careless with your own health," Jacob muttered as he put the phone on the bedside table. "I don't know how this happened," Something in his tone said he wasn't entirely truthful, but she ignored it, "but if you ever try and leave me like that again, I'll be so pissed."

"I wasn't trying to," she murmured, her fingers playing with the duvet, glad he was there to distract her so she wouldn't focus on the fact she could see Carlisle soon. It almost felt like she could feel him getting closer, her blood singing and rushing through her, heartbeat stopping and then hammering out a tune behind her ribs. "It must've been food poisoning."

"This morning you said it was because you touched a guy," he said, chagrined.

She winced. "I didn't touch him. Not really. I sat next to him at dinner and then I felt sick."

"Did he smell that bad?"

She rolled her eyes and glanced up in annoyance at his grinning face. "So you can make jokes and I can't?"

"I didn't almost die last night."

"I didn't almost die." She paused, frowning. "Did I?" His silence was enough and so she stayed quiet until she heard the front door open and hurried footsteps on the stairs.

It's him, she thought, heartbeat almost going as fast as a hummingbird's, sitting up more carefully with Jacob's help so she could lean against the headboard.

There was a soft knock and Jacob mumbled, "Come in," before the door was pushed open. Her breath caught as she saw him, body bathed and haloed but the hallway light, and she realized yet again how beautiful he was. She actually felt dizzy just from that and nearly grabbed for Jacob as he stood, but decided she didn't want to.

I want Carlisle to hold me, she thought, throwing all caution to the wind as she allowed her other self to take over, at least for right then.

"I'll leave ya to it, Doc," Jacob said. He leaned down and kissed Abigail's temple. "Take care of my sister, would ya?"

"You know I will, Jacob," Carlisle said quietly. Abigail's heart thumped again and she realized Carlisle had never taken his eyes off her.

"I'm right downstairs if you need me, kid," he said before moving from the room. Normally she would've given him all kinds of hell for calling her "kid," but she let it go because she couldn't focus anything but the man in the doorway.

As soon as Jacob was gone, Carlisle stepped in and shut the door behind him. He was dressed in what he normally wore: black slacks with a white button down shirt, a cardigan, and a scarf. His hair styled back into perfection, his eyes bright and golden. He was the embodiment of perfection, completely male and completely beautiful.

And all mine, she thought possessively.

He moved towards her, and it was then she realized he held a bag that she knew he carried his medical equipment in. She gulped as he sat on the edge of the bed Jacob had just vacated and let out a breath as he looked at her, eyes oh so tender and looking at her as if she was worthy to be beheld by such splendidness.

"You gave us all quite the scare," he said softly, speaking for the first time and causing her head to spin yet again.

Softly she bit her lip, catching the way his eyes darted down quickly with the movement and back up, so fast that if she hadn't been looking right into his gaze, she wouldn't have caught it.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, glad the hoarseness was gone from her voice. "I don't... I don't know what happened."

He nodded and opened his bag to rummage around and bring out a stethoscope. He put the ends in his ears and pressed the end of it to her chest, his other hand lifting to her shoulder to keep her still, and she blushed a bright red as she knew he could hear the wild thump of her heart and the raggedness of her breath. But he didn't say anything, and for that she was eternally grateful.

"Could you walk me through the night?" he murmured as he moved to the other side if her chest. "Perhaps we can figure it out." He pulled back and reached around to listen at her back, and she realized she still had on her own cardigan and wondered how he could hear through that, but didn't question it.

She really didn't want to go through the night. That would be admitting she went out with another man, and if she didn't feel guilty before, it nearly choked her then. She had been confident when she wasn't near him, but having him listen to her talk about it, she knew she would be a wreck when she was done.

As it was, she couldn't look at him, but she did speak, going through the details of the night as she stared at her twisting fingers. Luckily she didn't have to explain away anything like a kiss, but it was enough to admit Abraham helping her from the car where he held her hand, and sitting next to him in the restaurant with her side pressed against him. She left out as well the parts where it was thoughts of him, realizing that he was never far from her mind, and the fact she was on a date, that had her sick. Because she still didn't know what to think of it herself, and telling Jacob was bad enough, but admitting it to the man of her obsession was a bit more than she could handle.

Once she was done, he was silent and it was a bit disconcerting. She had no clue if it was him deliberating something or if it was bad, so she peaked up at him. It's bad, she thought with surprise as she saw his eyes squeezed shut, lips pealed back away form his teeth, fingers literally crushing the metal of the stethoscope he held, body rigid.

"Did... Did I say something wrong?" she asked quietly, innocently. The sound of her voice drew him from his thoughts and when he opened his eyes, she didn't know if she more startled by the barely contained fury she saw in the depths, or the fact that they were pure black. They must have dilated from his emotions, she thought rationally. Even with the color change and the rage, she didn't shrink back or feel one ounce of fear. Instead she felt the guilt again, and had an overwhelming urge to comfort him. Her arms twitched, wanting to reach for him, pull him close, tell him that it would never happen again as she was his.

Except she wasn't.

She never would be.

Because he wasn't hers.

He didn't want her.

She would never have him.

And she would never be his.

It was like a bucket of cold water got poured over her and she flinched, looking away from him and back down to her hands—missing the way his gaze changed form fury to agony the second she grimaced—her cheeks flushing as she struggled not to cry.

"No," he finally said, no hint of the fury she saw in his eyes reflected in his voice. She almost risked a glance up, but she couldn't. She couldn't look into his eyes again and know he would never actually be hers. Her, the real her and not this other her, was crawling back to the surface and as much as she wanted to push her away, she had to give up the fantasy sooner or later. Dreams were just that, and beautiful successful doctors didn't give girls like her a second glance.

"You didn't say anything wrong." He continued, oblivious to her tide of emotions. Her heart continued to pound, but this time it was from it breaking even more. She didn't hear him take a deep breath. "I just really dislike hearing about you dating other men."

Well, that certainly got her attention, and her moist eyes snapped back up to his. She was a bit surprised to see the ochre at the edges of the black as if fighting it, similar to the way his emotions warred on his face. It shocked her, more than she could say, especially paired with the way he seemed to show fury, agony, and something else she couldn't place all at once. It made her dizzy, her body full of longing to crawl into his arms, and she barely held back.

"I—" She paused and slowly shook her head. "I don't understand. Why...why do you care? I mean—" That sounded incredibly rude. She winced and looked away again. "I mean, I'm just your coworker, your kids' friend. I don't see..." She trailed off.

He didn't speak for a couple moments. "You're much more than that, Abigail." The sound of her name on his lips had her shivering and she heard a ragged sigh come from him. "Do you know how utterly exquisite you are?"

The words, the words from her dream, dropped on her like an anvil and she gasped, looking up sharply and not missing the way his eyes filled with that same emotion before that she couldn't place. Her gaze flickered over him, confused and full of so much longing that she began to tremble.

"How—" she mumbled uselessly because the next moment, he moved. His fingers reached up and landed on her cheek, the coolness of his touch fading slowly into welcoming warmth and her eyelids fluttering. Her hand came up to rest over his, and she looked up at him through sparkling emerald eyes as waves and waves of emotion hit her. Love was the strongest one, love and longing and desperation and guilt and loneliness and... She didn't even know at that point, but his touch was so utterly familiar, and as soon as his fingers grazed her, any churning in her stomach or dizziness in her head fled from her body.

She whimpered softly, her eyes shutting, and she heard a ragged sigh from Carlisle. Soon she was drawn out from the blankets, her limbs pushing and kicking desperately because he was drawing her nearer to him. Her heart pounded so that's all she could hear, her nerves and excitement so thick she could taste it as a ball in her throat.

He tugged her away from the confines finally and onto his lap where she opened her eyes again, staring up into pure butterscotch once more as he looked down at her in a way she had never seen anybody look at her before. She felt adored, loved, safe...she felt home.

"Carlisle," she murmured and he let out a soft, longing groan and pulled her chin up to him.

The first touch of their lips was like heaven. The cliche fireworks were nothing compared to the cool, gentle press of Carlisle's lips against her own. She whimpered again, letting go of her fear and confusion and restraint as she let herself melt against him, her hands reaching up to his shoulders and sliding around him, her chest up against his.

One of his hands stayed on her cheek while the other crept down around her waist and he pulled her impossibly closer. Her bottom half was at an awkward angle which made it hard to get closer, but she wasn't brave enough to move and straddle his legs. Plus she was far too invested in the kiss to do much besides focus on the touch of his hands, the movements of his mouth expert and oh so familiar over hers, the way he hesitantly explored her lips with his tongue and she opened to let him in.

It lasted far shorter than what she wanted, but so much more passionately than she had ever experienced before. It was he who broke away first and she tried to follow his lips with her own with a soft whimper, and she felt his silent laughter as he gently kept her in place while he pulled his head back.

Her eyes slowly flickered open to find his staring at her adoringly. His thumb had taken to stroking the apple of her cheek and she gently bit her lip again. She must've been crazy when she thought his eyes changed to black for a split second before he tugged her lip back out gently with his thumb.

"I suppose you see now why I cannot stand the thought of you dating another man." His eyes grew anguished. "I can't bear it, my sweet Abigail."

Her breath caught and stuttered out. "I'm sorry," she whispered as the guilt poked her in the arm and then jumped in to strangle her. Tears pressed her eyes and before she could stop herself, her arms were tight around his shoulders and she was nuzzling the skin of his neck, feeling the salt water drip rivulets down her face and onto his cardigan. "I-I thought..." She couldn't finish, her voice choked off.

His arms were just as tight as hers, lips pressing softly along her collarbone. "What?" he wondered gently.

She shakily sighed, unwilling to lift her head from his neck. She was leaning almost all her weight in him, but he didn't even sway under the burden of it. He kept her up, safe in the circle of his arms, unwilling to let her fall.

"I thought you didn't care about me. I...I wanted to try and get over you. That was the only reason I agreed to go with them."

His moan then was soft and full of pain. "I'm so sorry I made you think that, sweetheart. I thought staying away was best." He sighed, seeming to fight with himself for a moment before letting out a hopeless sigh. "I've loved you from the moment my eyes first beheld you, my dear. There has never been anyone else for me but you."

Her lips parted in shock and she let out another sob against him. "I love you, too," she whimpered. She knew she thought it was too soon, but it felt like it had been decades since she first saw him and she craved him, needed more. "I'm sorry, Carlisle, I'm so sorry..."

"Shh shh, my love," he whispered thickly. "No more tears. You have nothing to apologize for, my sweet Abigail. I should apologize for keeping us apart." He seemed for a moment like he wanted to say more there, but he didn't. "I just need you to promise me something from here on out."

She looked up, sniffing and lifting a hand to wipe at her tears, but he got there first and was so much more delicate than she would've been. She nodded eagerly, desperate to give him anything be wanted. "Anything, Carlisle. I'll promise you anything."

"Promise me you'll be mine for the rest of your life."

Her lips parted again and she let out another sob. Leaning in, she caught his lips as she nodded against him, arms tight around his neck. "I promise, I promise, I promise..."