So this one is a bit shorter, sorry about that. And sorry about the horrible delay in getting this posted. I was struggling with two ways I wanted to take this story, and I think I finally decided. I hope it was worth the wait.
Two weeks. That's how long it's been. This has been the longest two weeks I've ever spent in my whole existence. I'd put in my notice at the hospital, and while most were upset to see me leave, they didn't really go out of their way to show it. It's not that I really gave them much of a chance. My mood hadn't improved any at all, and had actually managed to get worse, leading more and more people to steer clear of me. I just didn't crave the human interaction I once had; it no longer held meaning for me. Nothing held any meaning for me, not even the medicine I had been so passionate about for three hundred years. I just wanted it all to end. I didn't know any more if God would be on the other end, and I found myself not really caring. If he were there, how could all of this have happened? I led a good existence, denying my inner beast for so long, and the repayment I get is complete misery and despair. I had placed all my faith in him, now I want to do nothing but blame him. Sighing, I grabbed my prescription pad from my desk drawer and shoved it in the pocket of my lab coat and headed towards the emergency room to start what would be another miserable day.
No sooner I walked through the double doors, a smell hit me unlike any other. I stopped in my tracks, trying to place where it was coming from. It smelled like pure heaven, and my mouth began to fill with venom. I'd never been tempted by a human's blood before, so this was a new sensation to me. While in Volterra I'd heard talks of "singers"; humans whose blood called to us vampires and drew us in like moths to a flame. For the first time ever, I was unsure of what to do with myself. Should I run from this sweet, tempting fragrance or should I seek it out and see if I could control myself? I knew what would happen if my instincts got the best of me: it would end with a dead human and a death sentence for me. Since I had already decided to end my existence, I decided to push on and see where this incredibly enticing smell was coming from. I had made it as far as the nurse's station when the smell became so powerful it nearly drove me to my knees. Thankfully, one of the nurses stopped me from going any farther. As much as I didn't care to die, I still didn't want to do it with the death of a human on my conscience.
"Dr. Cullen, there is a young lady in exam room two with a nasty cut on her arm. She said she was working outside trimming her hedges when the cutter slipped and got her arm. Looks like it will need cleaning and stitches, but there doesn't appear to be any tendon or ligament damage."
I found myself slowly tuning out the nurse as the smell wafting from the exam room continued its assault on my olfactory senses. I merely nodded my head, grabbed the chart from the nurse, and headed towards the exam room, completely aware of what potentially laid in waiting for me. Would I be able to stop myself? If this woman truly was my singer, would I be able to resist. Images of a hospital in shambles after losing my control flashed through my mind, and I shuddered slightly. That much destruction and carnage shouldn't be worth one human's blood, so I steeled myself and entered the room. While I was able to contain my instincts as a vampire, the ones I had as a man went wild. Sitting before me, in a tacky hospital gown with a bloody bandage wrapped around one arm, was an angel.
"I'm Dr. Cullen." That's all I could manage. I was afraid something else might slip, and she already sensed that there was something different in me. I saw her tense as soon as I walked in the room. Normal reaction for most humans; their ancient instincts tell them I'm a predator but they don't know why they feel that way. She started to scoot back on the exam table, trying to place more distance between us as I approached her, but she stopped after realizing she would fall off the edge of the table. Her eyes were locked on mine as I removed the makeshift bandage from her arm and examined the laceration on her arm. The sweet smell of her blood caused my mouth to water, and I had to fight with myself not to put her arm to my mouth and drink in her delicious nectar. It was then that I finally remembered that the beautiful woman sitting before me still hadn't spoken a word. I could sense the fear in the air, and tried to think of something that could diffuse some of the tension. I was busy fumbling with the suturing supplies, laying them out on the prep table, when the door opened to reveal a nurse. For the first time in quite a long time, I was startled and managed to fumble the supplies, which clattered noisily to the floor. Swearing gently under my breath, I knelt down to collect the fallen equipment when the nurse, whose name was Angie and someone I had frequently worked with, joined me with a smirk on her face.
"You alright, Dr. Cullen?" Her tone held a hint of laughter, and I knew it was because she had never seen me flustered before. For some strange reason, I felt if I were still human I would be blushing furiously as Bella used to do.
"Yes, Angie. I'm fine. I was just startled when you came in is all." She didn't seem to quite buy my reply, but instead grabbing the now tainted materials from my hands and dumped them in the biohazard pail. She quickly retrieved another kit, and instead of handing it to me began unloading the supplies herself. I shot her an incredulous look and was about to say something about being capable of taking care of this on my own when the woman whose scent had distracted me in the first place finally spoke up.
"You know, doc. I'm the one who should be nervous here. I really hate needles."
At her comment the tension in the room was almost immediately diffused and I set to work on stitching up her arm, recalling the time in my study I had done nearly the same thing for Bella. Trying to use that memory as a distraction, I continued to work on the woman before me, who had once again fallen silent. Suddenly, she launched into a tale of how she ended up in my charge, starting as far back as her arrival in Forks. I found out she had been previously married, but her husband had been killed in a car accident. Poor, fragile humans. She came to Forks as a result of closing her eyes and picking a place randomly on the map, and buying a small house on the outside of town, surprisingly not far from my own. She worked in the local floral shop, which could have accounted for the smell but somehow I doubted that. Apparently she had been working in her own garden when some shears slipped and sliced her arm open. By the time she reached that point in her story, I had finished the sutures and was bandaging her arm and giving her instructions for care. I wished her luck, and was turning to leave the room when she spoke again, and I was certain that if my heart was beating it would have stopped at her sudden words.
"Look, I know we just met and all, but I don't know many people in town. Do you think we could maybe have coffee or something after your shift?"