Chapter Two| Deer in Headlights

I soon came to remember how things moved like molasses when it came to Forks, along with the days.

My first week was spent with me merely lounging around the funeral home, studying little things I hadn't seen at first and hanging out with Daisy when the funeral director wasn't busy. I knew I needed to start working on autopsies and helping out families when it came to making sure the bodies would be respected, but how could I do that when nothing was going on? How could I do this when there were no bodies to treat with respect? Well dead ones, anyway.

Saturday came and deciding I had to get out of the house, I made my way downstairs and sighed in annoyance at how the stairs groaned from my presence. I still made my way down, noting how the conversation going on between Awena and Penelope was tightening, as if they were creating even more of a tangled mess instead of the opposite.

They were talking about something which ended up having opposite opinions for them, and as I went past the doors of the parlor room, noted the office door cracked open, I could hear my name being spoken. I didn't stop, didn't come swooping into the office with the door slamming open dramatically and demanded to know what Awena's problem was, I wasn't some preteen. This wasn't some soap opera either. Obviously Awena had some problem with me, and it might possibly have to do with how I hadn't come and visited the Blacks ever since Charlie had passed away.

"Hey, guys, I'm going to have a quick drive down to the beach on the Reservation. Do you want me to stop at the Thriftway and grab some things on the way back?" I probed, which in return made the office door open, revealing Penelope standing there and shaking her head, assuring me everything was fine.

I didn't need to grab anything; the fridge was stocked and as far as they knew Daisy didn't need anything.

"Alright, I guess I'll see you in a few hours then."

Plucking my car keys from the decorative bowl, I went out the front door and shut it behind me, the resounding click making the two girls know they could open the office door now. They didn't have to worry about the said person eavesdropping on them anymore, not that I really was eavesdropping to begin with.

All I heard was my name.

There was mist that was clinging to the town as I traveled outside of town and towards La Push.

I sighed in annoyance, at how there was another reason why I wasn't too keen with being in a town like this for long. I knew sometimes there would be dust storms that would happen in Phoenix but there wasn't anything that would result in something like this, and besides I would often stay indoors whenever there would be dust storms.

I was only a few miles away from the Reservation when a deer came out from the left side of the forest, running with an impressive speed. It was running for its life, and I was certain that there was something or someone who was chasing after it. Perhaps it was a hunter who was coming to kill the deer despite the fact it wasn't deer season. Or maybe it was another animal who had decided it would chase after the deer and kill it.

The deer hit my car and rolled over the hood and over the roof of the car.

There was shattered glass, and my car went off the side of the road and almost hit a tree.

It managed to stop in time, but I gasped in shock and felt the adrenaline rush through me, enough that I began to have a panic attack. I didn't even notice there was a car that was coming down the road, or how they were soon calling for an ambulance.

Instead, I had black splotches appear in my eyesight and I passed out, slumping backwards as blood dripped down the side of my temple and there were multiple cuts that had been slashed open from the shattered glass hitting me. I didn't even feel the impact of my head hitting the head rest of the leather car seat.

I was waking up in the ambulance but hadn't opened my eyes truly, instead I could hear the sounds of the EMTs talking to each other.

They were filling each other in when it came to my condition, and I was thankful there wasn't too much damage when it came to the car wreck. I would end up needing stitches I could hear from them, and I would have some bruises. I didn't hear much anymore, or how there would be a scar against the temple of my head from the deep gash.

Slowly but surely, I did wake up once more, but groaned at the fluorescent lighting from the ceiling of the emergency room. I closed my eyes again and imagined if Charlie were still alive, he would have run here as fast as he could. He would be thankful there would be no permanent gnarly damage on me and how I had survived the intense car wreck I had with the stupid deer.

I wanted to curl up under the uncomfortable blanket given to me and pull it over my head.

I had expected to be here to help the doctors when it came to bodies, not for me to first get here because I had gotten injured. This was not how I wanted to greet the doctors here. I was supposed to help them through work and not meet them as a patient.

I only focused on the surroundings around me when the sound of footsteps came in my direction. Steady and patient, letting me know the doctor wasn't rushing over so they could study me and poke at me. I didn't really pay attention to them until I heard my name being called, by the most ethereal voice I had ever heard.

"Miss Swan?"

Goosebumps erupted upon my pale skin and my heart began to race. I had never had this reaction towards any male voice in the past.

Previous ex-boyfriends never made me feel anything remotely like this.

Most of them were nice guys, but occasionally I had a toxic boyfriend.

One who would have a broken nose for having the audacity to even think he could hold any true power over me. I was glad I had done this in the past, after all Charlie had made sure he would teach me self-defense since I was old enough to learn it.

I had to fight the urge to have my mouth open or to drool onto the pillow underneath me.

The man in front of me was more like a god, as he came up to me.

He had golden hair that was combed neatly on his head, gentle features that were symmetrical, and eyes which matched the same color of his hair. He wore green medical scrubs with a white doctorate coat over his muscular figure. His lanyard swayed some as he came up to me, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his scrubs. His golden irises widened when they landed on my meek brown ones, enough an electric connection surged between us.

I wondered if this was how Persephone and Hades felt when their eyes landed on each other. If they would do anything to have this connection grow and blossom into something unbreakable, something that would only grow with time.

A moment later he gave me a crooked smile, almost as if he was pleased with the reaction he had gotten from me. I gave him an annoyed look, almost rolling my eyes at how there was this slight smugness upon him. If it were on anyone else it would be cocky, but it was almost kind of cute from him, because he didn't have this arrogance to match it.

"B-Bella, you can call me Bella."

The blond-haired doctor was at the end of my bed and had picked up the clipboard so he could read the information written for him from the nurse when he brought his head up from it.

He had a kind of shy, happy look upon his perfect features.

He hadn't expected for me to automatically tell him he could call me by my nickname. I surprised myself too, usually I would just accept my surname being used when it came to doctors as I would have appointments but this kind of openness that radiated from the doctor allowed me to know he wouldn't show any opinion towards me telling him this in an annoyed manner. He wouldn't tell me this was unprofessional.

"Then you may call me Carlisle. Of course I'm Dr. Cullen, but as I said before, you may call me Carlisle. I'm your assigned doctor. I heard that you had a car accident earlier, a deer had hit your car?" Carlisle probed towards me, while he grabbed a rolling stool near him to sit on. He rolled the stool next to the bed and I nodded my head, lips pressed together.

"Something must have spooked it. It was either a hunter who was hunting during the off season or another animal. All I know is my car is probably being totaled. I just arrived earlier this week so this isn't how I've expected my first week here to go," I mumbled, folding my arms against my chest but flinching some as I noted how there were bandages that were wrapped around my arms, reminding me how the EMTs had said I would need stitches.

There was this odd look upon Carlisle's features when I had said this, his lips pressed together. I craned my head to the side, perplexed at how he had this look. Almost as if I had told him that someone, he knew had done something stupid and he wasn't pleased with what he had heard. He blinked a few times, bringing himself back into the current moment.

"Apologies, Bella. I must admit though that your name sounds familiar. Do you happen to be the new pathologist in town?" Carlisle probed; curiosity ever present in his voice.

He waited for me to tell him whether or not I was, I would either say I was immediately, or he would find out at a later date whenever I would be called in to help with bodies.

"I am. I just got licensed two years ago and needed some experience outside of Phoenix. The position was opened here, and I decided to come and stay here. I probably won't stay here longer than a year. I'm not someone who is really into small towns. I'm more of a city girl," I remarked, my mind going back towards Phoenix.

Perhaps things wouldn't be so bad here, if I would be able to work with someone like Carlisle.

"I recently got my license not too long ago. I'm originally from London but my children and I were staying in Alaska two years ago."

"You have children?"

Oh.

Maybe this meant he was taken.

A quick look at his left hand I didn't see a wedding ring on him, but this was absurd of me to even be doing this for a man I only met minutes ago. I didn't need to have some unhealthy crush on the man, but if he kept being this nice and polite I knew it would happen before long. It wasn't fair. He was too beautiful, but he had children…and I never really saw myself as a mother, maybe it was because the option was not something I would naturally go through.

"Five of them if you can believe me. We all have the same eye condition."

I almost arched my eyebrow at what he had said. I was in the medical field too, and I had never heard of some kind of eye condition where it made you have golden eyes. There was the rarity of having purple eyes and then there were the pink-red eyes you would have if you were albino. There was also the condition where you had two colored eyes–heterochromia. Other than that, I couldn't say I had heard of any eye condition that could make you have golden eyes.

"Three of them are seniors, and two of them are juniors. My sister and her husband died not too long ago so I adopted their twins. I had already adopted their two younger siblings and then I had another teenager I had learnt had the same eye condition, so I adopted him, in order for him to know that it's okay to have it."

"I can't say I'd do the same. I'm not someone who has really thought about being a mom," I honestly responded, my voice not rude but just plain and simple. I wasn't getting onto him for adopting both his twin niece and nephew but also the three other teenagers. I just wasn't someone who could find myself doing the same thing.

For a split second, if I hadn't been noticing his every movement, I wouldn't have seen the slight disappointment that came from his golden irises. There was this sadness that consumed him, as if he had heard the worst thing in the world. He had wanted to hear me tell him I had always imagined myself becoming a mother in the future, whether through natural means or through adoption/fostering. I couldn't just tell him this, to lie to him, in order for that disappointment to disappear. I wasn't that type of person to do that to people.

The sudden beeping from his phone made Carlisle flinch, sighing heavily, as he plucked his phone out of his doctorate coat. He glanced down at who was calling him, only for him to have this almost knowing look upon his features. Almost as if he had expected for this person to be calling him at this exact moment, to tell him the results of something he was wondering about.

"Apologies, Bella. I have an important phone call I must answer. You are free to leave. If you have any questions please call the clinic, it won't take too long for them to get me if you ask for me," Carlisle assured me, before he gave one last longing look at me. He spun on his heels and walked away, with that type of swagness to him that would look tacky on someone else.

Pulling out my phone, I sighed and called Jacob's number, knowing he would come and help me get back to the funeral home. I didn't want to call Daisy or the rest of the staff members, even if it ended up only being two other women. I could trust Jacob and he wouldn't demand to know anything I wouldn't tell him; it had always been one of the things I could always trust Jacob for being faithful towards. He was like his late mother in that regard.

Getting up from the hospital cot I went through the E.R. doors and down the corridor to the lobby of the clinic in order for me to automatically be greeted with Jacob instead of him having to traverse through the clinic to get to me. Despite the fact the clinic was quite small, it still would be annoying to have to make your way through it.

I was only sitting in one of the provided chairs in the lobby when the front sliding doors of the clinic opened on their own to admit the newest person. Jacob was in front of me, and he had his eyes scanning over everything around him, with this type of curiosity which let me remember the Reservation didn't come here unless they absolutely had to. They had their own clinic but for this place, it was uncharted territory for Jacob.

"Hey, Jake."

Jacob with his long luxurious hair that would make any woman weep in jealousy stood in front of me with relief flooding through his rustic red features. Half of his hair was piled up in a bun and there was a natural beaded hair band that kept the bun in place. He had on a motorcycle t-shirt and denim pants like last time, along with some hiking boots that once belonged to his dad before Billy had gotten diagnosed with Diabetes. He came rushing over to me and crouched down in front of me, putting his hands down and putting onto my pallid ones.

"Hey Pocahontas, want to explain why your hair is fancier than normal?" I couldn't help but tease, wanting to reach my hand out and run it through his hair in a sister-like manner but it was sacred. I wouldn't push past the proper boundaries put in place, especially when I was not feeling anything romantic towards him.

"I was on a date. He said I had to put more effort into my hair than the usual mess I usually put it through," Jacob responded as he blushed some, his fingers going up and touching the hair band that twined it upon his head.

"He?"

I hadn't known, but then again how was it something I was supposed to know?

I hadn't been close to him since we were children.

I hadn't begged to stay here during the summer until after I graduated high school. I had allowed Renee to push down her toxic way of thinking upon me and I soon had her thoughts as my own. I made sure I would be away from this town and Jacob since I was in my final year of middle school, and forced Charlie to meet with me and Renee in California for two weeks instead of the month-long visit I would have with him here.

"Do you remember Embry?"

"Embry Call? It was him and Quil, right? They were always so protective of you. Wouldn't let me get anywhere close to you unless they were okay with the whole thing," I answered, my mind going towards the awkward boys from childhood past before I focused on my childhood best friend and godbrother. We weren't children anymore; I was thirty-three and Jacob was thirty-one.

"Yeah, he's the one that I went on the date with. Billy doesn't know about it; he thinks I'm going on dates with girls. He most likely expects you to put a fuss to it and tell me you've loved me since the moment you realized what love was," Jacob admitted, rolling his eyes at what he had said. I could tell there was fear in there though, the tinge bit, at the thought of Billy finding out his son was not straight and instead preferred to be with guys.

"Tell me more when we get into your car. The last thing we need is these noisy women hearing anymore about this," I commented, before I got up and flinched some.

Jacob rested his hand onto the back of my shoulders, where I noted there was this warmth that was unnatural that radiated from him. I wanted to ask him if he was running a fever but decided if he still was this way the next time I would see him I would confront him about it. Until then it was best to let him fret over me, instead of me fretting over him.

Once I was in the antique car front passenger seat, Jacob shut the door for me, and I buckled myself in. The heat was on, and the car was in nice shape. I smiled as I reached my hand out and ran my fingers against the designer leather dashboard, and the strong scent of Native American Indian cigars that were reverberating throughout the air. The same exact brand most likely as the brand Billy used, and Jacob had used them too. Maybe even Embry was smoking the cigars too, or maybe he was like me and thought the smell kind of made your nose itchy.

Jacob hopped into the front driver's seat and shut the door behind him, locking the chair before he buckled himself in. He fiddled the radio for a moment, finding a station both of us would agree on and checked behind him to see if anyone was in the way of him backing out of the parking lot. He turned back around and pulled out of the parking lot, before heading in the direction of the funeral home after I had given him directions.

"It's a new thing, dating men. I haven't always had the best luck in the world when it comes to dating. Some of the girls on the Reservation wanted to date me because I'm the great-grandson of the best chief, Elphiem. Others wouldn't want to date me because of that reason either. I had always been interested in dating guys, but never really would have been the one to ask one out. Embry came up to me one day with some flowers and his best tanned hunting skins. He had gotten tired of waiting and we're not getting any younger, so he was the one who asked me out," Jacob confessed, his eyes flickering over to me in patience. There was this kind of weariness nonetheless, as if he were expecting me to turn out to be against this whole union.

Instead I smiled, trying to imagine someone doing the same thing with me.

I wasn't into women, but I knew the woman would have had my heart if she had asked me out and I was into women. She would have gone against all the normalities of the world and decided she would say screw it before she would want to be with me. I wanted this kind of determination, this kind of commitment with someone one day. For now this wouldn't be the case, I would still be the pretty girl that cut open dead bodies and pulled out organs.

We pulled onto the street where the funeral home was, which meant it was nearing time for our short reunion to end. I noticed there was someone sitting in one of the rockers that were on the front porch and as we came closer I wasn't surprised to see it was Daisy who was waiting for me. She was knitting, her bright green plastic needles were a neon sign for us. She had gotten herself comfortable and was most likely making a piece of garment so she could give it to her extended family members. She would say she was wanting to knit for a while anyway, and now I had given her the perfect excuse to do so.

Getting out of the car once Jacob had parked, I went to move around the car when the front door of the funeral home opened too loudly and harshly. Awena appeared, her eyes flickering towards me and then she let her eyes land on Jacob.

They widened when they looked at Jacob, and how he had put more effort into his hair than he normally did. She turned and looked at me, studying me for a moment and noting how there wasn't anything remarkable about me. Well other than my arms were cut up and I looked like I had gone through some shit. I was just glad I hadn't gotten any deer blood on me.

I hadn't expected for Awena to start spewing in her native tongue, which made even Daisy pause her knitting, furling her eyebrows. Jacob widened his eyes, as they went from me to Awena, before they went back to her. He reached his hands up and put them in a pacifistic manner. He motioned for me to go up to the house as Awena went down the stairs, her shoes thunking against each step. She arrived at him right when I had gotten to the top of the steps, thankfully.

I had only heard Jacob speak in his native tongue when shit went down, because Sarah said it was rude to speak in another language our guests couldn't understand. Billy had said he had gotten tired of Sarah conforming to the white people's way when it came to matters such as this. They were most likely on the verge of a divorce before she had gotten into that car wreck that killed her. Billy was a controlling man, and reminded everyone he was in control. Jacob was like his mother, and it was even more obvious with how he was dealing with Awena.

"Go inside, baby girl. Your young friend can handle this. It's just a misunderstanding. Awena forgets how I know Quilete too," Daisy stated, amusement lighting upon her face, before she reached one of her hands up and ushered me to head into the house.

Giving one last look at Awena and Jacob, I went into the house.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I want to go ahead and say Imprinting doesn't exist in this story. I don't like the whole Imprinting thing and I've always shipped Jacob with Embry. Thought it would be cute.

as always: Twilight doesn't belong to me.

-what did you think about Bella's and Carlisle's first meeting?

-it'semmynotemma