Chapter 2: How Did We Get Here?
Forty five minutes later, the Cullen home came in sight and they could see their family waiting for their arrival. Not surprised, they knew Alice must have "seen" what was going on and had prepared everyone for their new brother's arrival. Esme quickly reached her husband side and gently touched the man's scratched and bleeding face.
"Who is he? she asked with sympathy.
"We're not sure." He replied as he carried him into the house and laid him on an examination table in his office. Turning to face his family, he continued. "he was found in the wreckage of a lab in los angeles. And he wouldn't have survived if Jacob had not given me permission to start the change." Carlisle could see the different range of emotions on each of their faces, since he had not personally created a new vampire in over 70 years. Like Esme, Edward and Rose, this woman was literally Carlisle's new child and the responsibility of controlling a new vampire in this age of camera phones and Utube was staggering. Once he woke they would need to provide constant supervision to keep him away from the people he knew as a human, not only for his safety, but for theirs as well.
"You should all wait down stairs, while I work on his injuries." He said as he walked to his medical cabinet and began pulling out alcohol, a suturing kit and bandages. "Edward has already called in a tip to the police with the lab's location so that the remaining survivors can be rescued. You will need to watch the news, to see if we can get more information about who he is and where he's from."
They all nodded and began to file down the stairs until the only one remaining was Edward's wife, Bella. Since she was able to resist the smell of human blood, she moved forward and began to wash the blood off of the man's face and body, while Carlisle injected a high dose of morphine and began work on cleaning the blood off his face and ears then injecting him with the antidote for the virus. Through the cuts and bruises, Bella could see that he was a very handsome man with short brown hair.
"Carlisle, I can hear his heart struggling, will he survive this change? She asked.
"I think so, Bella." Carlisle said, as he continued to clean his wounds. "He must have a strong will to survive, otherwise he would have been dead hours ago."
"How old do you think he is?" Bella asked as she gently brushed the smoke and soot from his hair.
"Hmm, I would guess he's early to mid fifties." He replied.
They quietly continued to work until Bella could no longer hold back the question that was bothering her the most.
"Being changed into a vampire isn't something most people think about as they go about their lives. I mean really…most people think supernatural beings are fiction. How do you think he is going to handle it?"
Carlisle stopped working to consider Bella's question and looked up to respond. "I'm not sure, every person is different, it all depends what type of person they were as a human. Some newborns relish the change and enjoy becoming predators; others despise what they have been turned into and become so destructive that they have to be destroyed. And then there are people, like Rose, who originally hate themselves but eventually come to terms with their new lives and become happy again."
Resuming his work he continues. "You were lucky, Bella. This is the life that you wanted from the moment you fell in love with Edward; you never hesitated or doubted your decision, even though you knew we would eventually have to leave Forks and move on. But for this man, this decision was made for him against his will. His human life has been violently ripped away; his family and friends believe he died in that lab because of the virus and he won't understand why he can no longer go home."
Bella nodded in understanding and grabbed the scissors to cut off the man's ripped clothes. "We'll need to be his family now." This stopped as she realized what type of clothes she was cutting. "Carlisle, he's wearing a fire fighter uniform. Do you think he's a fire fighter?"
"I noticed what he was wearing when I pulled him from the lab. It's almost 7 AM, the rest of the survivors should be rescued soon and then we should be able to get some sort of information about who he is." Bella nodded again and continued removing the bloody clothes from his body.