la belle dame sans merci | carlisle cullen

32

The Forks Regional hospital was a far cry from the busier hospitals that Carlisle had worked at in his life. Even the busiest days there were on par with the slowest day in Sacramento. Still, it was a relatively busy day for Forks.

When the nurse told him he'd need to get to the ER cause Chief Swan's daughter was in, a deep pit sunk in his stomach. For a horrible moment, he thought the worst. Edward had slipped. The news that it was only a car accident relaxed him more than it should have, even before he was told it was nothing too serious.

It was his first time meeting Bella, sitting rigidly on a hospital bed with a frown on her lips. He couldn't help but find it humorous that an extraordinarily regular girl could cause Edward such turmoil. Her blood was extremely aromatic, Carlisle couldn't deny but it phased him no more than any other patient's would. Since he'd first inhaled the sweet incense of Minerva's blood, everything else was just copper.

"You might have a bit of a bruise but your x-rays show no sign of concussion." Carlisle informed with a reassuring smile, flipping the sheet on his chart over. As the boy at fault in the accident began to blabber an apology, Charlie zipped the curtain across with a scowl effectively silencing it.

"It would have been a lot worse if Edward hadn't knocked me out of the way." Bella said, big brown eyes set on his face. Carlisle did all he could not to react, to hold his expression constant.

"Edward? Your boy?" Charlie guessed, leaning slightly against the side of the bed.

"It was amazing," Bella continued, digging the hole ever deeper, "he was no where near me, he got there so fast." Carlisle couldn't believe it, the inside of his head turned to static for a moment.

It took him a moment to realize he should say something, too caught up in the ramifications of this to remember his place. "As long as you're safe." He said with a slight smile, "I don't think any prescription will be necessary but if you experience any unusual soreness, give us a call. It was nice to meet you Bella."

Walking away, his mind was moving a mile a minute. Edward had very nearly revealed himself in front of a parking lot full of students. A stupid and impulsive error. It was better than Bella's blood being shed and him losing his resolve but not by much. It could have gone one of two ways and Edward chose the better option. As he came down the hallway, finding not only Edward but Rosalie at the end, he knew not the whole family would share that outlook.

Rosalie was furious, eyebrows knitted and lips contorted into a horrible scowl. "Tell me what happened." Carlisle said quietly, giving his Rose a pointed look as Edward began.

"I didn't have time to think." Edward said, "The van was spinning out, it would have crushed her on impact. I couldn't just let her die."

"But you could risk letting the whole world know about us?" Rosalie hissed, fists clenched right at her sides. "You could have at least been more subtle about it!"

"Rose—" Carlisle warned softly. He couldn't deny it was nice to have the target off his back for the moment but ideally there would be no animosity in their household.

"You're not going to let him off with this," The blonde challenged before turning her infuriated eyes back to Edward, "I don't care what kind of sick fixation you've developed. This isn't just about you, it's about all of us." A flicker of movement in the corner of his eye made Carlisle put his hand up, halting the conversation as his eyes settled on Bella peeking around the corner.

"Let's continue this in my office." He suggests clearing his throat slightly as Bella steps out, dark eyes set on Edward who looked like he might just book it across the country again.

"Can I talk to you?" Bella asks, unknowingly fuelling the fire in Rosalie causing Carlisle to steer her down the hallway. Be tactful. He thought, knowing Edward would have no choice but to pick it up. Rosalie didn't say another word until the office door was sealed behind him, then it was hard to get a word in.

"Am I the only one in this family who hasn't lost their god damn mind?" She exclaimed, pacing as Carlisle moved to sit behind the desk, rubbing his temples. "If the Volturi had any idea how reckless we've been, they'd wipe us off the map! There were at least a hundred kids in that parking lot and that IDIOT charged across like it was an empty field." Carlisle opened his mouth to respond but Rose pressed on, "I've never met someone as selfish and inconsiderate as him." He was thankful Rosalie wasn't the mind reader because he was having particular opinions of how the pot addressed the kettle, "If I pulled a stunt like that, he'd never, ever forgive me for it. Neither would you!"

"Yes, I would." Carlisle disagreed strongly, brow creasing as the blonde wheeled to stare at him. "I've been where you are and I've been where Edward is. Don't mistake my understanding for forgiveness. He made a mistake and he's well aware of it. We need to focus on damage control and diverting Bella's attention."

"Cause that'll be easy." She huffed, sitting hard in the chair across from him, "I'm sure there's much more interesting than a boy with super human strength and speed in her life." He couldn't help but crack a small smile. "If he wasn't such an idiot, he wouldn't have so much trouble."

Carlisle rose his eyebrows, "Undoubtably true." He allowed, "but what do you mean?"

"He'd been talking to her right before he came outside, I could smell it on him." She said with disgust, "If he just stayed away, ditched biology, swapped physics with Alice—like she OFFERED— we wouldn't be in this mess." A frown settled on Carlisle's lips. He hadn't realized just how much of a problem his son had been creating for himself. Of course, Carlisle couldn't be one to talk on matters of creating problems for oneself. He was elated to see his own problem two or three times a week.

"Edward has never dealt with something like this before." Carlisle reminded carefully, trying and failing to be the peacekeeper when Rose rolled her eyes. "He made a mistake and he needs our help to fix it Rose. Being abrasive will only make him do it his own way and look where that's gotten us?"

Rosalie pushed herself up, "He'll do whatever he wants to do anyway." She certainly wasn't wrong, "I'm going home, they'll want an update."

"We'll discuss this as a family later." Carlisle said decidedly, "Keep your ears open at school for the chatter about the accident."

"It's all anyone in this miserable little town will be talking about." Rosalie grumbled as she yanked the door open, giving Edward a filthy look as she passed him.

"Well?" Carlisle asked expectantly after a moment of quiet when the bronze haired boy stepped in.

"She's not going to let it go." He muttered, leaning against the closed door. "Said so herself."

"What did you say?"

"That I hope she enjoys disappointment." Edward said before his frown deepened as the thought of that's not very inconspicuous passed through Carlisle's mind.

The blonde pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh, "Before that?"

"Oh," Edward moved forward, hesitantly searing himself in the chair. His knee bounced at about a mile a minute, "I tried to convince her I'd been right next to her and that she must have hit her head." Carlisle's hand slipped to cover his mouth as he listened, "She says I stopped the van and pushed it away.. and.." he pressed his face into his hands, "I said no one would believe her."

Carlisle groaned, tilting his head back to stare up at the ceiling, asking god for some divine intervention on this mess. "Could you have said something less mysterious? Anything?"

"She said she wasn't going to tell anyone." Edward said in a small voice.

"At least we have that going for us." Carlisle allowed with a sigh as the pager on his jacket beeped with demand for his attention, "I've got to get back to work. We'll talk about this later."