AN: Again it took me longer to post this chapter. This time because i have broken my finger. Hurts as hell and the restricted movement doesn't help either.
So the next POV on that awful day.
Chapter Three
Just Put Your Emotios aside.
Carlisle's POV
I had a 12 hour graveyard shift in the ER. I sighed – this promised to be a long night, as every other night during full moon. I expected this night to be a bedlam. It seemed to me that people in Forks and nearby region waited for full moon to do every crazy or stupid thing imaginable, like practice alchemy, try homemade explosives or just simply ignore every traffic rule known.
But nothing could mess with my mood tonight. This morning I found out wonderful news.
*-*-*-*-*
I walked in the kitchen, still half asleep. Bella was sitting at the island, drinking coffee. It was great to have Edward and Bella back. Bella had finished college not just two weeks ago, and had now moved back to Forks.
They had decided that they wanted to be close to friends and family.
"Morning, Carlisle." She greeted me with a somewhat glum expression.
"Morning, honey." I said kissing her cheek. "Did someone kill your cat this morning?"
"Huh?" She shot me a confused glance.
"Well, to say you look unhappy would be a huge understatement." I chuckled.
"Oh. You know that I could actually blame you for that?"
"How so?" I asked truly confused.
"Alice is taking me to a day at a Spa, and since she is your daughter that you raised," She said glaring at me mockingly and poking a finger in my chest, "I am holding you personally responsible for my awful mood."
"I don't see how Alice being Alice is my fault. You know she is like that not because of me or Esme, we have never encouraged any of her obsessions." I said chuckling.
"You should have at least prohibited her drinking 'Red Bull' or any other drinks with high caffeine dosages, as a doctor of course. Speaking of which, aren't you supposed to be at work?" She looked at me warily.
"Henry owed me, and I asked him to take my day and thankfully he did, so I have graveyard only. I couldn't endure full 24 hours in the ER, during full moon, after the crazy week I already had. It's been awful. I still have heaps of unfinished paperwork waiting on my desk. Sometimes I wish I could just blow that institution up."
She tried not to laugh. "Thought you liked working in a hospital."
"I do. But sometimes it gets too much. I love working with patients, but the amounts of paperwork we have to fill... It's ridiculous. "
She laughed. "Let's compare the amounts of paperwork when I start working, ok? I would love to see how you would read through, correct and mark about 75 500 word essays in 2 days." She said still laughing, and patted my shoulder. "Be happy with what you have, Carlisle. Trust me we all could do so much worse." Bella got up from the chair and staggered.
"Are you ok?" I looked at her worried, while steadying her.
"Yeah, just a head rush." I let her go. She went to the living room and collapsed. I ran to her.
"Bella?" I checked her pulse and breathing. They were steady – she'd just fainted. The doctor in me asked, What had caused her to faint?
I scooped her up and laid her on the living room sofa.
She came around in a few minutes.
"What…. How did….?" She sat up.
"Lay down for a minute. You fainted." I answered her unspoken question.
"Yeah, I got that." She lied back on the sofa and put her arm over her eyes.
"How are you feeling?"
"To tell you the truth, I've been feeling a little weird for the past few weeks actually, and this was not the first time I fainted." She said nervously.
Dr. Cullen mode now came out full force. "Tell me what do you mean by weird?"
"I just need to rest. I've just overworked my poor ass off. I was studying for the exams so hard, I practically didn't have time for anything else. And even though the exams are over I'm still in that frenzied rhythm. I have feeling that this is how my brain says it's frying. Sleep deprivation doesn't help also. But as for your question…I'm really tired, some days I have a pretty bad headache. And I have these mood swings, that actually been giving Edward a whiplash. And, as you already saw, I fainted."
It could be just overworking or some minor illness, if she hadn't mentioned the mood swings. The symptoms also fit the ones of pregnancy. I tried to start easy, so I didn't go straight to asking when her last period was. "Do you feel any nausea, queasiness or heart burn?"
She considered that for a second. "Yeah, I do have a heart burn. Why?" She looked at me, waiting for an explanation.
"Bella, when was your last period?"
She snorted. "You think I'm… I'm pregnant?" She looked at me in disbelief, but I could see the wheels turning in her head as she counted. She gasped. "No! I can't be! We were always being safe!"
I gave her a small smile. "You should know that none of the contraceptions are 100% safe. So, when was your last period?"
She moved her fingers, counting. "Roughly about seven and a half weeks ago…" she looked shocked. Well, she should.
"Was it the same as always?"
"No not really. It was much lighter than usually. I thought it's because I've been neglecting my health. Stupid exams! GOD, how could have I missed this?!"
"Okay. So what would you say if we took a trip to the hospital and confirmed my suspicions?" I smiled.
An hour, a vial of blood and cup of urine later, the confirmation of Bella's pregnancy came from the lab, and I decided to do an ultrasound right away.
So now Bella was laying on a brown vinyl mattress cot. I sat next to her, in front of an ultrasonoghaphy machine. I told her to pull up her blouse a little and open her jeans. She winced a little, when I squirted a small portion of the cold gel on her lower stomach.
I began to move the transducer over her stomach, trying to find the best angle. The image I saw finally made the events of last hour sunk in my mind. She definitely was pregnant. And by judging of what I saw, in 7 and half months I would to be a grandfather for the fourth time.
I turned the screen so that Bella could see it.
"See this?" I asked her, circling my finger around one specific area of the screen. "That's his or hers head. And that's" I moved my finger "the rest of the body."
"Carlisle?" Her voice was barely above a whisper. "Can you tell how old is he?"
"I'd say around ten weeks." I said to her. And then added to myself, "Which makes me want to try something."
I took a different transducer, pushed a few buttons and moved it around her stomach again, searching.
The small room got filled with quiet thrumming sound. I looked at Bella, grinning.
"What is that?" She asked, confused.
"That's his or hers heartbeat, Bella." Her face changed – it was full of awe, now, and her eyes began to fill with tears. "Oh, Carlisle!"
I gave her a Kleenex. She wiped her eyes and continued to look at the screen in complete amazement.
*-*-*-*-*
Bella had decided to tell Edward tonight. I felt so happy for them.
After I drove Bella back home and left her in the mercy of Alice, I decided that after a nice nap I would go to the hospital a bit earlier to catch up on some paperwork.
When I had signed the last paper that was in my 'got to finish tonight' stack, I looked at the clock. It showed 7:52. My shift began after an hour, or later – if I was lucky and the night began easy, but even if it did I knew that at some point it would eventually turn into a nightmare.
The night did begin quite easy – I had to stitch up few teenagers, who had gotten into a fight. There was also an aching stomach, which turned out to be appendicitis. Nothing out of the ordinary happened and I just hoped that for once it just stayed that way.
The time I had nothing to do in the ER, I spent in my office, checking through online jewelry stores, looking for something nice for Esme. I hadn't got her anything nice for a while. Okay, that's a lie and you know it. It was a lie, but she's been in LA for 3 days already, and I miss her so much that I just want to spoil her like… Like I always do. I smiled to myself at that. No matter how long we've been together or what we've been through, I still felt like I fell for her again and again every time she came back from her work trips.
Somewhere around 11:15pm my pager beeped. I looked at the screen – 'Trauma minor, ETA 5 min'. I saved the page where I found a very nice necklace, but before I even got up to head downstairs, a nurse rushed into my office without knocking, and slamming the door so hard that the doorknob was bound to leave a mark in the wall.
"Dr. Cullen!"
I shot her an angry look, before I noticed panic in her eyes. "What's wrong?"
"T-t-there's been an, an, an accident. Two ca-cars. One hit other. The EMT's are coming. You have to go. It's pretty bad. Go. Go down." She was speaking so fast and stammering that I could barely understand what she was saying. "The first victim… It's… It's…"
"Laura clam down. Why are you so panicked? Was someone of you family in that car?" I knew that Laura had a little kid. If something had happened to him…
"No." She shook her head frantically. "Edward was in one of the cars."
A gasp escaped my lips. Edward? He was supposed to be with Bella tonight. I hope she wasn't with him. That he'd gone to a store, and she'd stayed home, safe and sound.
"We've already prepared both of trauma rooms. EMT's are going to be here with Edward in a couple of minutes." That must have been the 'trauma minor'. So Edward wasn't hurt too bad. But what about Bella?
"Laura, tell me everything you know!" I demanded as we went for the stairs.
"So around eleven at 101 and Sol Duc Way, a car tried to cross the main road, but hit your sons' car in the right side. Driver of the other car was dead on arrival, but two people in your sons' car…"
I sank into my own thoughts. Two! So Bella was in the car. Wait! Did she say 'in the right side'? The passengers' seat! Oh, god, this was bad.
"Dr. Cullen?" I turned to her. "They still haven't got the girl out of the wrack."
I realized that I had to brace myself for the worst. But I prayed for my fears not to come true…
I had just gone into the ER, when Edward was brought in.
It was always harder to treat a familiar person – emotions messed up with rational thinking, but I would not allow it.
I recognized Ivan immediately as I went outside to meet the paramedics. He began to report.
"Car crash victim, male, 24 years old, name…" He turned around. "Oh! Hello, Carlisle."
"Evening, Ivan. Take him to trauma room two." They went inside, and I followed.
"So," Ivan continued, as we walked to trauma room. "GSC 4-4-5. He has head trauma, broken arm and possible neck injury. He was unconscious when we arrived, but regained consciousness fairly quick, so the head trauma shouldn't be anything too serious."
They brought Edward in the trauma room, and I grabbed Ivan's arm and tug him a bit away from it.
"How's the girl?" I asked full of concern.
"Not so good. She got most of the impact. But I don't know much - other team worked on her. Sorry. When we left, the still hadn't managed to get her out of the car."
"Yeah, ok. Thanks." I went inside the room, feeling frustrated – I still had no useful information about Bella. I went to Edward, who was now on the gurney, and decided to start with his neck.
I looked at the monitors that showed his heart rate and oxygen levels and began the examination. "Well, your oxygen level is fine, heart rate normal. Does your neck hurt?"
He tried to shake his head. "No, I'm fine, apart from the back of my head and arm. You have to take care of Bella."
"As soon as she's here, I will. Were waiting for the other unit to come, everything is prepared. But, until then, let me examine you." My expression must have given something away, because, as I took the neck-brace off, he asked,
"It's bad, isn't it?"
"I really don't know much."
"Carlisle, you know something. How bad is it? Please, tell me."
I had to think about what to say for a moment. What could I tell him? I didn't know much myself. And then it came to me, did he know about the baby? Horror took over me once again, what if something had happened to the baby? I knew from experience that after major traffic accidents miscarriage rate was high, especially in the first trimester, but I couldn't help myself, but hope for a miracle. For Edward and Bella's sake.
If Edward knew about the baby, he definitely would have asked me if it would be fine. But the shock and head trauma could also be the reason. I decided that that subject would have to be discussed later, when things would be clearer.
"Tell me if it hurts anywhere. And don't try to downplay anything." I slowly turned his head from side to side.
I was still wondering if it was a good idea to tell him what I knew of Bella's condition, or leave him in the dark until she got here. Should I tell him the little I knew and speak my worries aloud? I decided that better not to.
"Slowly put your chin to your chest."
He looked at me pleading. "Carlisle…"
"Right now it's not looking so good." I answered before he even began his question. "But I haven't examined her, so I can't tell you what to expect."
I asked him to sit up, and he winced and clutched his side. I checked his side and he definitely had some broken ribs also.
I checked his pupil reflexes and eye coordination. His eyes twitched a bit as they followed my finger to the sides. When I checked his equilibrium, I had to catch him, so he wouldn't hit the floor. He definitely had a concussion.
"So, your eyes are a little twitchy and you have problems with your equilibrium. Do you remember what happened? Any blackouts?"
"No, I remember everything, except for the while I was unconscious."
I continued my examination with the usual questions for patients with head trauma.
Then I took his hand, cautiously opened the brace and sighed. I didn't need x-rays to see that both bones of his forearm were broken, right above the palm.
"I'll have to fix this. Reposition the bones. You'll need an operation. But first let's take X-rays." I had to see the actual position of the bones and see if there were bone shatters, before I did anything.
I told a nurse to take him to radiology for X-rays, and give him "Lasix", to prevent extra fluid and pressure forming in his skull, and some pain medication as well.
I went outside the ER, trying to calm myself a little. I had to clear my head before I called Alice.
I crossed the road and sat on the pavement. I hoped that the fresh air would help and took deep deliberate breaths. When I finally felt a bit calmer and could go through a sentence without too many um's, and uh's. I dialed Alice.
Surprisingly she picked up on the first ring and nearly yelled into the phone.
"Dad, what's wrong? I feel something's very wrong, so tell me right NOW!"
That took me of guard. "Um, yeah. Uh, Edward and Bella were in a car crash." I heard a silent 'Oh god' at the other end. "Can you come to the hospital?" At that moment my pager went off again – 'Trauma major, ETA 5 min.'
"Can you tell me how bad are they?" she asked her voice cracking.
"Edward's practically fine, but I don't know much about Bella's condition, she's not here yet."
"Dad, it's bad. I can feel it." She was panicked. Ever since Alice was little She had a feel of tings, and she'd been never been wrong before, I could just hope that there's always a first time.
"Alice, honey? I need you to calm down. Can you come? I don't want to leave Edward alone."
" Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. I'll be there in 15."
"Be careful, Alice" We don't need another accident today.
I heard the sirens, already. "Oh, I don't want to put this on you, but could you tell Rosalie? Just don't get her too upset." Being 6 months pregnant that she was, this kind of stress could cause complications.
"Yeah, I know. Just please don't let anything happen to Bella."
I knew I couldn't say that, so I promised to do everything I could.
I hung up just as the EMT' s rounded the corner.
AN: Like it? Hate it? Suggestions? Ideas? Criticism? Anything? Please Review. :)
I'll try to update soon, but the broken finger won't help to do it. After typing this chapter i feel like my arm is going to fall off.
