Chapter 1
Philadelphia Memorial Hospital
"Charlotte - you're the Chief of Staff. He will see you ASAP," Callie says with a twinge of exasperation to her voice. Charlotte gives her a side eye as they exit Callie's office, heading towards the elevator.
"I understand that, but I don't want to take away time from a patient," Charlotte says with shake of her head. They get to the elevator and Callie presses the down button. "Dr. Cullen confirmed he is free to see you," she says. Callie's eyes move back to Charlotte who nods.
They go down to the 17th floor in silence and get off, walking towards the orthopedics department. As they get closer to the treatment rooms a tall man steps out into the hallway and gives them a smile. Charlotte takes a deep breath.
"Dr. Cullen!" Callie says with a smile and wave. His kind eyes look at Callie and then to Charlotte. He gives a large smile as they walk up to him.
"Dr. Cullen, this is Dr. Charlotte Jackson, Chief of Staff. Char - this is Dr. Carlisle Cullen, my hand, wrist, arm guy. One of the best in the country," Callie says.
"That is very kind of you, Dr. Torres. Dr. Jackson, it's a pleasure," he says directing his attention to Charlotte.
"Please call me Charlotte. I'm only Dr. Jackson when you're in trouble," Charlotte says with a nervous chuckle. Callie laughs loudly and Dr. Cullen gives her a large smile.
"Charlotte it is. Carlisle is fine for me as well," he says.
"I'll leave you to it, Carlisle. Take great care of her," Callie says with a wink and then she walks away. Carlisle turns to Charlotte and smiles again.
"Let's go chat in a treatment room and see what's going on, Charlotte" he says. Her name rolling off his tongue like butter. Charlotte stares into his eyes, which she now sees are a golden color. She's hypnotized for a brief second looking at them and then she's brought back to reality.
"Yeah that sounds great," she says blinking. Carlisle gestures towards an open door about 50 feet away. He puts a hand on the small of her back, guiding her towards the room. He gently pushes her into the room first, and then he enters behind her, closing the door.
"Have a seat on the exam table for me," he says kindly, patting the crinkly paper. He offers his hand for her to take as she gets up on the table, which she takes. She smiles at him, and he holds her hand for an extra brief second.
"Can I have your hospital ID badge to scan?" He requests. Charlotte unclips it from the hem of her blouse and hands it to Carlisle. He thanks her and then slides it on the key card reader attached to the laptop. He pulls up her medical file, seeing the wrist MRI from six months ago. He quickly flips through the images, focusing on the images of the cyst. He "hmmm's" and then closes the file.
He sits on the rolling stool and comes to in front of her. He's dressed in dark navy blue scrubs and fancy sneakers. She's dressed in a ruffled white blouse, black dress pants, and black heels.
"Callie only told me you needed to see me about your right wrist. Tell me what's going on," he says kindly. Charlotte gulps.
"I've had a bump on my wrist for probably about a year. I saw Dr. Williams for it and he
was a "wait and see" guy. Well I'm done waiting," Charlotte says.
"Dr. Williams was not my favorite," Charlotte says with hint of snark to her voice and Carlisle chuckled.
"He was not mine either," Carlisle confided with a chuckle. Charlotte relaxed a bit. She stared at him and blushed. He stands.
"May I examine your wrist," he asked gently. She blinks at him. She lifts her hand up, and he takes her hand his in large hands. They were freezing cold.
"Of course," Charlotte says and he uncurls her fingers. He breathes out when he sees the lump on her wrist. His eyes slide back up to hers. "He wanted to wait on this?" He asks. Charlotte nods. He shakes his head.
"Relax," he breathes out. Charlotte relaxes her hand and he starts to examine her hand. He asks if certain areas hurt or are tender. Charlotte responds yes or no accordingly.
"Relax," he says, his eyes flicking up to Charlotte's eyes. He continues to palpate various parts of her hand and wrist. He then palpates the lump and Charlotte draws in a deep breath.
"I know - I'm sorry," he says with a sympathetic tone. Eyes flicking from hers down to her wrist. He palpates the lump for several more seconds, and then stops, looking up at her.
"So it's probably a ganglion cyst, and we can do a few things. We can aspirate today and see if we can alleviate some pressure and pain you are experiencing. Unfortunately the cysts reoccur in about 50% of cases after aspiration. We can aspirate a few times to see if that works, and then we can discuss surgery. Do you still see patients, Charlotte?" He asks.
"I still see trauma patients, yes. A few times a month," she says. He nods.
"You working through that pain is impressive," he says. She nods and thanks him.
"Let's do the aspiration and see what happens," Charlotte says. Carlisle nods and pats her hand. He goes over to the cabinet to gather his supplies for the procedure. He places them on a metal tray and rolls it over to the exam table.
"Lay back for me," he says taking her hand and gently guiding her back. He slides out the other side of the table so her legs are out straight and comes back to her side. His puts his hand on hers and gives it a squeeze.
He pulls out a table and places her right hand on it, palm side up. He then rolls over the metal tray with everything needed for the procedure. He rolls over on his stool and snaps on some gloves. He starts opening the various supplies, placing them strategically on the tray.
"Disinfecting your wrist first," he says. Her eyes watch him. He does this for about 30 seconds.
"This spray is really cold and will numb the area so you won't feel the needle go in. Once it's in, you'll feel it though," he looks deep into her eyes, searching for what seems is her soul.
"Alright let's do this," Charlotte says, voice shaking a bit. She's nervous, anxious, and a bit scared. He senses this and smiles at her gently.
"You should look away," he says as he sprays her wrist with the cold spray. She nods and looks towards the ceiling. He sprays for several more seconds and then grabs the needle and syringe and inserts it into wrist. Her hand did not move but she is tensing from the pain. Her face is showing the pain. He says nothing as he tries to aspirate the cyst on her wrist.
She grits her teeth as she feels the needle moving around inside of her wrist. She clenches her other hand that is resting on her belly. His eyes notice this.
"Just a few more moments, you're doing great," he says quietly. She says nothing, just tries to breathe.
Several seconds later he removes the needle, laying it down on the tray, and places a piece of gauze on the cyst. He holds gentle pressure and then wraps her wrist with an elastic bandage. He notices her breathing is returning to normal, and he notices that her perfume smells really good.
"Please keep it wrapped up for three days. You can remove the wrap to shower, but then put it back on. I'll work with your assistant to get an appointment for next week on your schedule," he says, his voice kind. She nods, lifting her hand up to look at her wrapped wrist.
"Thank you for taking care of me today," Charlotte says. His eyes search hers, and he smiles. "You're welcome, Charlotte."
"Do you have any questions?" Carlisle asks kindly as he helps Charlotte sit up. Her eyes meet his, and they stare at each other for a few moments. She bites her lip and looks down and shakes her head. "I think I'm good, thank you," Charlotte says. He smiles at her again, and this time the smile melts her heart just a little bit. It seems like he wants to chat more with her or ask her more questions, but he's keeping it professional. He helps her off of the exam table and hands her back her ID badge.
"I'm guessing you'll need that," he says with a smile, and Charlotte laughs.
"Maybe just a little," she says with a wink. He walks her to the door of the exam room, and opens it for her.
With a final smile and goodbye, they go their separate ways in the hospital. Carlisle looks back at Charlotte as she walks away, and he realizes that he's now smitten with a human. A fragile, imperfect human.