Chapter 23: Gossip

We lived a relatively quiet existence in Forks, Washington for about two years. I worked at the hospital a lot, sometimes multiple shifts. The kids all got straight A's, as they should. They have photographic memories and had all been through high school a few times.

At first, our family was a major topic of gossip. A young couple, still in their twenties, with five teenagers would be idle gossip anywhere. But in Forks, it was almost a town scandal, much to our amusement. Forks didn't see much change, so anything new was talked about for weeks after. Edward closely monitored the students' thoughts.

"Mainly, they like to fantasize about us," he said. "Rosalie is a particular among the male population."

Rosalie smiled, obviously satisfied with her impression on Fork's male student body. Rosalie was often jealous if someone took the spot light off of her.

"But none of them will say anything because they're scared of Emmett." Emmett grinned, wrapping an arm around Rosalie's shoulders.

"They should be," he replied with a sharp nod.

"The girls are split between Emmett and me," Edward said, matter-of-factly. "Me because I'm single, and Emmett because he looks like a bad-boy." Edward chuckled.

"Well, I guess you're just going to have to get a girlfriend little bro," Emmett said. We all laughed. Emmett was always pestering Edward about his love life, or lack thereof.

Edward rolled his eyes and turned towards me. "During the brief visit to the hospital, I found that just about every female working there has sighed about the new, young Dr. Cullen. Of course, they were all disappointed when they found out you and Esme were happily married."

I grinned, hugging Esme tighter to me where we sat on the couch in the living room. Everyday I was thankful that Esme wasn't the jealous type. Every new hospital I started in, the women nurses and secretaries ogled over my looks for the first two weeks or so. I did my best to discourage them, making it known quickly that I was married and had adopted "children".

"They think it's scandalous that Rosalie and Emmett and Alice and Jasper are 'together'," Edward went on. "Since were all technically brother and sister, by adoption anyway. Some of the more open-minded ones think it's alright because only Rosalie and Jasper are said to be blood-related."

"They'll get over it," Emmett said. He planted a kiss on Rosalie's mouth as if in defiance. They went a bit overboard, as usual.

"You mind?" Alice asked sarcastically, grimacing.

"Not at all!" Emmett replied. He picked Rosalie bodily up and took her upstairs at vampire speed. The rest of us were left sitting downstairs awkwardly. I felt sorry for Jasper, who could probably sense their emotions from where he sat with Alice in his lap in the large armchair.

As time wore on though, the Cullen family sunk back into the background of Forks. We didn't do anything to draw attention to ourselves and didn't really participate in any social activities, so people began to just ignore us. We became like just another rain cloud in the sky or another green tree. The gossip moved on.

Esme was disappointed that Edward hadn't found the girl from Alice's visions at school. She asked Alice about her visions often, trying to predict when Edward might meet the new girl. But even Alice was not able to determine a time, since there were still at least two major decisions to be made.

Then, one day in January of 2005, Alice's visions became decidedly clearer. She rushed out of school in the middle of the day, shielding her thoughts from Edward, and came to find me at the hospital. I was in surgery when she arrived, but as soon as the three hour procedure was completed, she assaulted me as I was coming out of the surgery room.

"She's here! Or coming for sure," Alice told me. It took me a moment to understand what she was talking about.

"You mean, like what you saw in Denali?" I asked.

"Yes Carlisle!" she replied impatiently. "Everything suddenly cleared up. It's so sure now! She's either here already, or on her way, or about to leave wherever she's coming from."

Alice practically bounced down the corridors of the hospital after me as I went to check on my patients. An orderly gave me a questioning look. When I shrugged, she looked sympathetic.

"And Edward almost found out," Alice was saying. "I was on the way to the cafeteria with Jasper. If I was in there, he totally would have seen and then all the fun would have been ruined."

I stopped at the foot of a bed, checking a patient's chart. Alice chattered on as I tried to decide whether or not this patient could be released. The patient, a middle-age woman in for knee surgery, looked at Alice and then to me. I could almost hear her mental question. Who on earth is that girl?

"Alice," I said, cutting her off. I felt bad for doing so but I was afraid she would let something slip in her chatter. "We'll discuss this at home."

"But Edward's at home," she replied.

"I'm working," I reminded her, nodding to the patient. The woman smiled at Alice when my adopted daughter looked her way, as if noticing our audience for the first time.

"Oh, err…sorry ma'am," she apologized.

"It's alright dear," the woman told her. "Are you Dr. Cullen's daughter?"

"Adopted," Alice smiled radiantly. "I'm Alice Cullen." She walked around to the side of the woman's bed and extended a hand. The woman shook Alice's hand, returning her smile, but not able to copy the brilliance of Alice's.

"It's a pleasure," the woman told Alice. I noticed the involuntary shiver that humans usually made when they touched our cold skin. Alice let go and skipped towards the door.

"I'll talk to you after your shift Carlisle," she called as she left, not bothering to wait for my response.

I sighed, shaking my head as I turned back to the patient.

"She must be quite a handful," the woman remarked.

"Alice is certainly one-of-a-kind," I replied, thinking about just how different Alice was from a regular teenager, and not being able to help the chuckle that escaped my throat. "So Mrs. Johnson…"

When I returned home, I was met with the news that Forks was about to receive yet another new inhabitant.

"The news is out that Chief Swan's daughter is coming to live with him," Edward told the family at home. "Moving from Phoenix. The Chief says her name is Isabella."

Esme couldn't hide her hopefulness. Edward gave her a quizzical look, but didn't understand enough about its context to be suspicious.

"I thought Charlie Swan wasn't married," Emmett said.

"He's divorced," Edward corrected. "This is the daughter from that marriage. She hasn't visited Forks in three years, which would explain why we don't know her."

Edward looked over at Alice. "Why are you translating Pride and Prejudice into Mandarin?" he asked.

Alice only smiled at him and, I assumed, continued her translation. This was how she kept Edward out of her head. She occupied it with some difficult, mental task. Often times it was completely meaningless. But it was enough to keep her from thinking about the visions she didn't want Edward to know about.

We left the news of Isabella's arrival at that. She was just another new student to us, the daughter of the Chief of Police. When she came, Edward would listen to her thoughts as she was told the "dirty laundry", as Emmett put it, on the Cullens, and then tell us if she was any more perceptive then her father. If she wasn't, then we'd have no need to fear.

After Edward, Emmett, and Jasper went out (to Seattle I think), Alice met with Esme and I to give us the details about changes to her vision.

"It's so clear now!" she whispered. Rosalie was still in the house and the less people who knew about it, the less chance there was of Edward finding out before we wanted him to. "Well, at least, anything about her. For some reason, the vision of her in the meadow has her becoming hazier. I don't understand it, but something will happen so that it makes sense." She chattered about telling time through her visions, and how the fogginess of the different people affected everything. My mind was still on my day at the hospital. We'd lost a man who had had pancreatic cancer. I found out just after Alice had left.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the hardest to treat. I'd already tried to surgically treat it with a pancreaticduodenectomy, and then adjuvant chemotherapy with gemcitabine, but he'd had a relapse. I could honestly say I'd tried everything, but I still felt responsible for his death.

"Do you think it's time to tell Edward now?" Esme asked. She was hopeful. Especially after hearing that a new girl was coming into town.

"I'll have to think about it," Alice replied, thoughtfully. "Maybe after he meets this girl." She'd turned and ran off, up the stairs at vampire speed and out of sight.

"What's wrong Carlisle," Esme asked. Concern played across her eyes. I'd forgotten that she was as perceptive about me as I was about her.

"We lost Mr. Miller today," I told her.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. She knew how I handled patient deaths. She'd comforted me through many of them. She also knew it was best to let me work through it on my own.

"I'll be upstairs," I said. I left her downstairs and retreated to my study, intent on reading through every medical book on cancer I had in my library. But for some reason, thoughts of Alice's vision kept coming to the forefront of my mind. In one section I read the words on the pages in front of me.

The most common technique of the pancreaticduodenectomy consists of the en bloc removal of the distal segment of the stomach…

But I was focused on what Alice had told me. 'It's so sure now! She's either here already, or on her way, or about to leave wherever she's coming from.' The gossip around town said it might be the last of the three options. We don't know if Isabella Swan is the girl in Alice's visions, but if she is, then Edward's life might be in for a sudden change.

'They're only rumors,' I told myself. 'Only rumors Carlisle. Rumors are not a good source of information.' I forced myself to focus on the reading again.

Some authors advocate the removal of the whole pancreas, in a total pancreatectomy, instead of just the head. However, clinical trials have failed to demonstrate significant survival benefits, mostly because patients who submit to this operation tend to develop a particularly severe form of diabetes, diabetes mellitus…

Thank you so much for reading. How do you like a bit of that medical talk huh? Yay learning! Anyway, again I'm sorry for the deception but for sure, the next Chapter will be about Twilight/Midnight Sun. I've already been reading up on the chapters i'll be referrencing. From now on, it's going to be so much more of Stephenie Meyer then WishinOnMyStar. So just review and tell your friends, like it tell you to do at the end of most of the chapters!

-Wish