Ophelia sat in her wheelchair, chained indefinitely until she reached her destination: Dr. Carlisle Cullen's home. All the arrangements had been heartily approved by her parents, who were quick to accept offers where a buck or two was saved on their part. The only one who truly protested was Macbeth, but the heads of the Westcott clan simply ignored his pleas to let him take care of his baby sister.
The ambulance bumped roughly down the wooded road towards the Cullen house. Ophelia would have gone right through the ceiling had she not been tied down, but that didn't mean the wheelchair as a whole was restricted from movement. Carlisle was sitting in the passenger seat, watching Ophelia with amused eyes from the rearview mirror. Ophelia would get the feeling he was watching her, and turn around in whatever position to scowl at him. Carlisle would only smile and avert his amber eyes elsewhere for a few seconds, and then carefully observe his take-home patient until she caught him again.
The drive seemed to take forever to Ophelia, and it only made her wonder how anyone could exist this deep into the forest. It seemed the journey had all but whisked her away from the human world, and shoved her into one of peace and relaxation. Unfortunately, the bulky armored car made the trip that much more…not relaxing.
Carlisle turned over his shoulder at one point when he noticed they would pull up to the house at any minute. He grinned when he saw a pale white hand gripping a shelf tightly to prevent any sudden movement. "Are we all right back there?" he asked with a small smirk.
"Just peachy," Ophelia grumbled.
Carlisle laughed. "I see you're having trouble keeping still."
"How observant of you. Tell me, are you this aware of your patients when you trap them in situations that are amusing only to you? Because it seems like you're getting a kick out of me rolling around like a bowling ball back here!"
"True, but it's not your rolling around. It's your facial expressions. They are quite amusing to me."
"Glad I could be of service to you," Ophelia said sarcastically, bowing in her wheelchair.
Just then the ambulance hit a large pothole and ran over it quite fast. Ophelia's wheelchair lifted off the ground a few inches, causing her to scream, "Oh my God, I'm going to die!"
"Sorry miss, just a minute more," the driver called back to her apologetically.
"Don't worry about her, Bill. She's just a little cranky today without her medicine," Carlisle said.
Ophelia laughed hysterically. "Ha! I don't need medicine! Not now, at least. Wait until after I crush myself because of this ambulance to give me any painkillers!"
As if timed perfectly, the ambulance rolled to a stop. Ophelia tried to wheel herself over to a window that was stationed towards the front of the vehicle, then noticed that the brakes were in place. And they could only be unlocked from the handles.
"Damn it! Dr. Cullen, get me out of this death trap!" Ophelia yelled.
Carlisle, waiting outside of the doors in the back, laughed quietly to himself. During this most interesting road trip, he'd brought out a side of Ophelia that wasn't as sweet and innocent as he'd first thought. Apparently, she could be quite temperamental. Carlisle was overjoyed at having found this out about his charge, and was getting impatient to introduce her to the rest of the family. He knew she would get along wonderfully with Bella, and from what he overheard with certain conversations between her brother and herself, with the werewolves as well.
"Dr. Cullen! I swear to God, if you don't get me out of here right now, I'll…"
Carlisle swung the doors open right on cue, and was greeted with a frenzied Ophelia. Her brown hair had become tangled with sweat and was sticking up at different ends. Her eyes were a dark blue, a stormy hurricane waiting to unleash its wrath on an unsuspecting victim. But, Carlisle saw a small sparkle, which told him she wasn't as mad as her voice made her appear.
Ophelia huffed and shook her head. "Well, that's better! Some fresh air!"
Carlisle unloaded his patient to the ground with caution and unlocked the security brakes. Ophelia lurched forward, but Carlisle kept a steady grip on the wheelchair. He turned her to face his home and whispered, "Welcome to my home."
Ophelia's eyes widened with awe and gasped. The house was more beautiful than anything anyone could ever picture. A clean, pure white, with glass windows lining the first and second floor walls, the picturesque mansion in the grassy spring clearing made for a gorgeous dream. Ophelia blinked a few times to make sure she hadn't fallen asleep.
"Wow," she breathed.
Carlisle felt an area in his chest swell with pride, right were his heart would have been if he was alive. A cough from behind distracted him.
"Oh, Bill. I almost forgot. Thank you very much for driving us down here. I'll talk to you on Monday about some compensation," Carlisle dismissed his co-worker.
"Yeah, whatever," Bill grunted, and drove off.
Carlisle turned back to Ophelia, who was still staring at his house with a dreamy expression. Her eyes had melted into a soft blue with green inflections, quietly soaking in the spectacular picture in front of her. Her face had gained a childlike quality to it, as if a small child was ogling at all of his presents on Christmas morning. Carlisle marveled at how one human being could seem so innocent, and yet so mature and experienced in life's trials at the same time. A small ray of sunlight shone on her face, and Carlisle almost gasped. It was as if there was no sign of injury or harm to her features; it was almost like she had morphed into a vampire in five minutes, for she surely looked like one in that moment.
Ophelia seemed to snap out of her spacey mood and looked at him, a smile playing on her lips. "So, am I allowed to come in, or what?"
"Of course, of course," Carlisle blurted hurriedly, "I'll wheel you in."
He chastised himself mentally for becoming so hasty and flustered. Surely, had he been human, he would be tomato red right now. Never before had he felt so completely eager to please someone as much as now; Carlisle knew that it was evident to Ophelia as well, for she had giggled at his enthusiasm. Ophelia, on the other hand, was confused and a bit frazzled herself, even though the good doctor couldn't see it. She had noticed it in his eyes, that he would do everything he could to gratify her while she was under his care, and it scared her. No one had ever paid such attention to her, and she was worried it might refer to some underlying motive of Dr. Cullen's. One thing Ophelia's mother had always told her was, "Never forget the one thing a man is always after."
Ophelia's thoughtful expression caught Carlisle off guard as he speedily wheeled her into the foyer of the Cullen mansion. Her face had become entirely devoid of excitement the same second he had perceived her thinking of something. Carlisle, being a vampire with over three hundred years of experience, already knew why.
The crippled patient almost shrieked with surprise when she was approached by a group of eight people, whom she assumed to be Dr. Cullen's family. The first thing she noticed was that they were all devastatingly attractive, obviously a family trait. The other thing was that with exception of their pale skin and amber eyes, except for the littlest one, who had brown eyes, they all had absolutely nothing else in common. Ophelia thought how strange it was that one family could look so…unrelated to each other.
Her body had immediately tensed when she was rolled into the house. She noticed a tall blonde boy, who was perched next to a small, skinny girl in the corner of the room, had also tensed up. Then, she suddenly felt serene, like a soothing wave had washed over her, cleansing her of all nervousness. She felt as tranquil as if she had been lying under a starry sky with no company or interruption, with just calm composure as her companion. The blonde's shoulders lowered a little bit as he smiled softly to himself.
"Ophelia," Carlisle said to her once she had spun to a halt, "I would like you to meet my family." He prayed with all his might that everyone would be normal and act like they were happy to have Ophelia; he then rephrased his prayer that Edward and Rosalie would accept her fully.
"Umm…hello, everyone," Ophelia said shyly.
Carlisle almost guffawed at her. She had gone from furious, to childlike, to reserved, all in the matter of ten minutes. He'd never personally seen so many different intervals of emotion occur in so short a time. Ophelia was continuing to surprise him with every passing second.
A woman of average height with wavy, auburn hair stepped forward with a smile. "I'm Esme Cullen, Carlisle's wife. It's so nice to meet you, Ophelia."
Ophelia hesitantly shook Esme's hand, but pulled back at the instant contact. Her hand had been ice cold, as if she'd stuck them in the freezer for the past hour. Esme looked confused at first, and then chuckled. "I apologize, Ophelia. I've just washed my hands with extremely cold water."
"It's fine," Ophelia said with a small smile.
The tiny girl next to the tense blonde came up to her and grasped her undamaged hand, with no regard for how chilly it felt to Ophelia. "I'm Alice, Carlisle's daughter. It's so great to meet you! We're going to be the best of friends!"
"C'mon Alice, you can't scare her off just yet!" a hugely-built boy laughed next to Esme. He held up a pale white hand and said, "Name's Emmett. Don't mess with me."
A blonde girl, easily the most beautiful one of the family, punched his shoulder and glared at him. Emmett just laughed and ruffled her perfectly arranged golden hair, which made her shriek and cry, "Emmett, you dunce! Now I have to comb it out all over again!"
Emmett roared with laughter as she ran out of the room. Ophelia heard a door slam shut from down the hallway and giggled to herself. She probably wasn't the most humble one of the family.
"You're correct, she is very vain," another boy said as he stepped out of line. He was the most handsome boy she'd ever seen, a hundred times more stunning than any of the perfect men she'd ever dreamed of. His beauty was almost enough to distract her from his statement. Had she said that the girl was absorbed with herself out loud? Ophelia could have sworn she hadn't said a word of the kind.
"I'm Edward Cullen," the bronze-haired boy introduced himself, "and this is my wife Bella, and my daughter Renesmee. We call her Nessie for short."
A pale brown-haired girl with a heart-shaped face waved from next to Edward with her free hand; the other arm was supporting the most remarkable little child Ophelia had ever witnessed. The petite girl, Renesmee, smiled widely, showing off a set of perfectly white teeth. She reached out an arm and clenched her hand into a fist, then kept repeating the action. Ophelia almost cried out with joy; the absolute, most wonderful girl in the world wanted to see her.
Carlisle watched his granddaughter and perceived her actions quickly. He shook his head slightly at Bella, telling her not to let Renesmee touch Ophelia just yet. Bella nodded discreetly and shushed her daughter, who had begun to chant, "I want to see her! I want to see her!"
"You can play with Ophelia later, okay? It's time to take a nap now," Bella told Renesmee as she carried her out of the room.
Edward stood there for a second, and then bowed slightly, saying, "Excuse me."
That left Esme, Emmett, Alice, and the last person Ophelia had yet to meet, not counting the beauty-obsessed girl. Ophelia turned the wheelchair to face the boy in the corner and said, "And you are?"
"Jasper Cullen. Pleased to meet you," the boy answered formally, nodding his head. He made no advance towards her.
Carlisle couldn't have been more pleased with himself. This moment triumphed all of the others of his eternal life; his family had formally accepted his singer into their home with no discontent for either side. At that moment, he knew he'd made the right choice in bringing Ophelia to his home.
"Well, I believe that is everyone," Carlisle stated.
"Hey, what about us?" a deep voice called from what Ophelia guessed to be the kitchen. "Didn't forget us, did you doc?"
Then, three very tall, and very tan, people walked into the room, two boys and one girl. They all had black hair and very fine-featured faces with high cheekbones. The girl wore a mean expression directed at her, making Ophelia cringe in her wheelchair. The other two boys were smiling widely as they loped over to where Carlisle had stationed his patient. Ophelia saw one of the boys' faces go blank with wide brown eyes.
"Ophelia, this is Jacob Black, and Leah and Seth Clearwater. They are…family friends," Carlisle struggled to find a term that described the werewolves' bond to the vampire clan.
"Oh, I know them already! Their parents are good friends with my parents," Ophelia smiled, glad she'd found some comforting factor in her move to the Cullen house.
The tallest one of the three's eyes enlarged, as if a light bulb had suddenly gone off in his head. "Wait, you're Ophelia Westcott? Mac's sister?"
"Yep, that's me. You're Jake, right? My sisters talk about you all the time at home, and you too, Seth," Ophelia turned to the other boy, who was ogling at her. His stare made her feel slightly uncomfortable, so she wheeled back to face Jake.
"Oh, you mean Beatrice and Bianca, right? Yeah, they're…err...nice," Jake said with a strained smile.
Ophelia laughed at his attempt to be polite. "No need to be nice about it. I know how they can seem like type-A stalkers."
Jake's face relaxed. Ophelia laughed, making Carlisle smile.
Meanwhile, Seth Clearwater was in a quandary. The second he'd laid eyes on Ophelia Westcott, his mind had gone completely blank. He couldn't remember who he was, or where he was, only that in the dead center of the room, covered in bandages and plaster, was a girl. A girl he'd heard of before from one of the many conversations he'd had with her overly eager sisters. A girl who, before that moment, had meant absolutely nothing to him. Now, she meant absolutely everything.