la belle dame sans merci | carlisle cullen

Seventy-Eight

"Paging Doctor Cullen." A muffled voice said and he frowned, door to the flower shop still held slightly open behind him. Where— Thunk. "Ow."

"You thought you were funny." Carlisle laughed as Minerva peaked over the edge of the counter, rubbing the top of her head. "Now, you do need a doctor."

"Precognition." Minerva grumbled pulling herself up, one elbow leaning on the counter. He did wonder sometimes, if she did in fact have precognition, it was just her intuition. He used to wonder how she knew it was him coming through the door without her glancing until he realized the sound of his car gave him away. "Trying to put a shelf in." It seemed like every time he was in, she was undertaking some new construction project.

"Let's see." Carlisle said placing down a cup of coffee on the counter. His hands came quite naturally to the side of her face, warmth like a hearth under his frigid fingertips. God, she was beautiful. He'd give anything to just say it. Being subtle was much more difficult now of days. Adoration danced on the tip of his tongue, his fingertips itched for the opportunity just to brush against hers. Cradling her face in his hands was a little over the line and he damn well knew it. Oh, he knew it as soon as he felt the heat of her face become a mild flame, a blush. It made him feel too accomplished not to draw it out just a smidge as he put on a show of looking for signs of concussion.

"Just as I feared," he kissed his teeth with a regretful shake of his head, "You've got minutes to live."

Minerva lay a dramatic hand over her eyes, slumping back into the wheely chair. "Let me be remembered in death as I was in life." She drawled out, "Mildly unpleasant."

He scoffed rolling his eyes and sliding the coffee cup toward her before moving around the counter to take post in the spare chair, "Mildly pleasant." He corrected, "and delusional." He added after a second with a smile.

Minerva smiled gratefully taking a sip of the coffee, "You know what? I'll take it."

They'd gotten past excuses. Carlisle no longer had to say something stupid like I was just driving by or I need a bouquet for a patient to explain his arrival. It had all begun to feel natural again. He didn't need an excuse beyond I felt like bothering you. It wasn't like Minerva asked for a reason. She just lit up and kicked the chair out for him or from under him once. She'd been quite elated that with all his vampiric instincts at his disposal, he'd hit the ground. The way she'd laughed made it worth it.

The silence was comfortable for a moment, Minerva scribbling something on her notepad that looked like measurements.

"Heard you had a visitor yesterday." He commented, trying to sound as nonchalant about it as possible. Last thing he needed was to give her any impression that he'd spent the night pacing a hole in the rug thinking of every worst case scenario.

"Rosalie, yeah." Minerva smiled over at him, putting her pen down. "She really doesn't like Bella, huh?" It wasn't what he expected her to lead with. She leaned back in her chair, propping her feet up on the counter with her coffee cup cradled in her hands.

It put him at ease to talk around it for a moment. "Not particularly, no." He twisted his ring absentmindedly, watching her eyes dip to the movement in his lap. "She shares your view of things to a certain extent. It comes from a place of wanting to protect Bella but.." he trailed off for a moment. Minerva's eyebrows rose as if to say but? "She thinks she's a bit stupid for being involved with us at all. Worried about it all."

The witch frowned ironically, "Fair, I suppose." She commented sipping from her cup. "She wasn't long leaving when Bella showed up for her shift."

"Much the same when Bella comes to visit." He returned with a sigh, "It's.. complicated."

Minerva shrugged, "As they tend to be. It was nice to talk to her though."

Carlisle's lips lifted in a nervous smile, "Did she behave?" The smile only grew when Minerva let out a surprised laugh.

"What're you gonna do? Ground her?" Minerva asked with a disbelieving smile. "She's— what— a century old?"

"No," Carlisle said with a scoff, trying to wipe the grin off his face but it was impossible. "Only Ninety-Five, I can still ground her."

Minerva shook her head, "She was lovely." She assured. "I forgot you're dirt's older brother for a second." He placed an offended hand over his heart, "Is the patriarch thing for your cover or do you have five immortals calling you papa?" The way she said it made him crack up, puhpuh.

He shook his head, his voice strained to hold in his laugh as he uttered out, "They do not call me papa." He laughed before amending, "Emmet probably has once or twice, actually." He leaned back in the chair a bit, "I do think of myself as their father though. I think they think of me that way too." He glanced out the window, crushing the bullet between his teeth, "That's why they're quite eager to get to know you better."

Minerva's eyes came back to his then, brightening, a hint of a smile tugging at her lips. He still couldn't bring himself to look fully at her, as if she'd see the desperation written in his irises. Soulmate aside, Minerva was important to Carlisle and that made her important to them. It did now, anyway. Touch and go for a while, of course.

"I was a little surprised." Minerva commented, reaching for her cup of coffee, letting her pause hang for just a moment as she took a sip. Her eyes were trained on him and he was almost sure she could see right through him anyway. See where her initials had been carved into his cold dead heart since the day he was born, just waiting for hers to start beating in his vicinity. He was starting to think she might like making him nervous. All it took was a glint in her eye for him to start choking on his words. "I didn't think I'd made a particularly good impression."

Carlisle smiled weakly, "I think they all fall in line with me about your justification in that case." He noted, "I think it made Rosalie like you more."

"My kinda girl." Minerva hummed thoughtfully, "Well, I'd be happy to make a second impression— Maybe one of a more balanced individual this time."

A grin slowly crept across his face, "No, no, just be yourself—" Minerva's foot shot out to kick him before he could drag his eyes away from her face to realize it. Her expression changed in an instant and his followed. Shock and horror.

"Son of a BITCH." She exclaimed, her chair rolling back a couple meters as she cradled her foot in the chair. "Do you mix fucking concrete with your calcium?"

He hid his laugh in his palm, "I'm sturdy!" He reminded wheeling himself a little closer, "It's lucky you have a doctor on call."

"We both know I'm more holistic." She grumbled, bracing her hands on top of her shoe and pressing. It might have gone undetected to someone else but Carlisle heard the sickening snap of  bone as she pressed down, the briefest zip of green in her pupil. He tried not to think about how now she was holistic but when he'd cradled her face in his hands for him to theatrically check her for a concussion after a wee bump on the head, she made not a peep about it. Hm.

"That was a fracture." He said looking at her with wide eyes. It'd taken her days to heal her broken ankle before and she'd just forced a bone back into place like it was a duck that had gotten out of the row, like it was nothing. What the hell had changed?

"Was." She agreed, "You called me unbalanced and broke my foot." She pointed out with mock offence, "You're the worst."

Carlisle put a hand over his heart, "No immortal is balanced and you broke your own foot." He defended and he could see her fighting off a smile.

"You think you're unbalanced?" She asked with a disbelieving laugh. His own lips began to curl, that sparkle in her eyes, that familiar tug in his chest. He could never tell her just how much she was to blame, that she had reminded him what it meant to be alive and to be alive meant losing one's balance. Carlisle had been teetering on a cliff all his life but one smile from her and he was surely falling.

"Entirely off kilter."

Note: *EXTREMELY LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER* This chapter felt BLEGHHHHHH. Just Minerva and Carlisle being totally hopeless in preparation for the next chapter <3