Seraph

71

The Cullen family would visit the hospital on occasion. They donated their time to the children's ward. After spending time in Serafina's town, they realized children were very innocent. They didn't have the instinctive fear of themselves that normal humans tried to ignore. They saw nothing wrong with the Cullens. They were just a beautiful group of people. And who doesn't like beautiful people? The Cullens couldn't use their abilities to play with them like in Texas, but they could still play with them like normal humans. They all had different areas where they liked to donate their time.

Esme and Rosalie loved to donate their time to the volunteer baby cuddler program. They initially didn't feel they could benefit the babies much due to their lack of warmth, but they were pleasantly surprised when they found they could feed, rock, swing, and swaddle the babies. Since their turn into vampires, they were gifted with enchanting voices. So, although they weren't trained or had any actual talent for singing before, they could sing well enough now to at least soothe babies with their voices. They used that skill to assist with their cuddler duties.

Serafina and Alice would spend their time with the children in daycare. They babysat the children so their parents could spend more time with their sick or injured siblings. They would also join the other groups on occasion to assist.

They knew Jasper wanted to help, too, but being in a hospital was always tricky due to the blood. Thanks to their father, they knew their sense of smell was enhanced enough to smell illness. This was something Carlisle used to assist with his medical practice. He had fine-tuned it to help with diagnosing when needed. For the others, they just knew something was wrong. They found that if Jasper assisted children with more severe illnesses, it was enough to overpower any scent of blood. Also, the emotions around them were enough to allow his compassion to win out. But Emmett and Edward usually stayed with him anyway, just in case. They felt it was more rewarding to help these particular children regardless, so they never complained.

People's perception of them was relatively positive when word spread of how the Cullens spent every other Sunday. However, considering they still never really spent time with any of the townsfolk, they were still a big mystery they all wanted to try their hand at solving. They wanted to ask Dr. Cullen or Mrs. Cullen for group outings, but the intimidation factor was off the charts. At least, that's what they chalked up that bit of fear they typically got when too close to them. They didn't know it was their body's natural instinct to flee the predator in their midst. They could only ever muster compliments when near them before hightailing it back to their friends. They eventually tried to glean whatever information they could from their children about their Cullen classmates. But they never got anything of substance. They only got their children's thoughts on them, not many facts.

The only Cullen they had juicy information on was the newest member of the Cullen family, the beautiful and tall brunette. She had a run-in with Chief Swan on her first day of school. Since then, she had regularly been seen wandering the town during school hours. Typically, before lunch. Not every day, but enough for everyone to believe she was the only imperfect Cullen.

At the grocery store, when they attempted to bad mouth this imperfect Cullen within their gossip circles, their whispers about how she seemed to be a bad egg could be heard but were immediately put to an end by Chief Swan himself, "She's not too bad. She is a little headstrong, but she has a good heart. She volunteers with her family and visits the old folks home once or twice weekly to visit Mr. Barker and Mr. Payne. Yeah, she shouldn't be cutting classes at that time, but at least she's doing something constructive instead of destructive. Plus, you all know Mr. Barker and Mr. Payne have no relatives to visit them, and they usually scare off everyone who tries to volunteer to spend time with them. She can tolerate the two and them her, which is already a miracle. Serafina and her family aside, even Dr. Carlisle has been a God send to the hospital. You should stop gossiping about their family and be grateful they decided to try their hand at small-town living." He scolded them before he finished purchasing his frozen microwaved dinners and left. They apologized to his face, but even his defense was soon spread across town once he left.