Dangerously Beautiful • Carlisle Cullen

Chapter 7: Not just physical pain

A white room was bright with a mixture of natural and artificial light. Machines made a symphony of beeps, buzzes, and tings. With the addition of the snores coming from beside the bed you would think the room to be alive, but it was quite the opposite, dead still.

A pale girl laid in the bed, and had been for about a day and a half. Colette Swan had been admitted to the hospital, not only because of her condition, but she also didn't want to wake up from her unconscious state from the six hours she was in the ER. It made the staff nervous, especially Carlisle.

Charlie had not left her side. Even though Cole wouldn't know the difference if he was or not, he had decided he was not going to allow her to fight this battle by herself.

A groan made its way from her lips, her arms stretching above her head, as if she had just taken a short nap. Her bones popped, as a yawn slipped out, that soon turned into a cough. Charlie's eyes shot open, flickering in her direction, he rubbed the sleep from them.

"Charlie?" Cole asked as her eyes adjusted to the light, still squinting as she looked at the figure of her brother. "Yeah Lottie it's me." "Where am I?" She asked as she looked around noticing she was in a very bright white room, smelling the disinfectant and bleach from a mile away, she figured she should ask just in case. "You're in the hospital sis."

"What's going on? Why?" She asked, her heart rate slowly climbing as her fear became increasingly worse. "You passed out at the house and I brought you in. Carlisle took a look at you and he found something Cole." "What?" "You know that cough you've been having?" Charlie asked and Cole nodded, not understanding where he was going with this. "Cole, you have masses on your lungs, they're cancerous." Colette looked at her brother, her eyes frozen wide. "Colette?" Charlie asked.

A sob burst out of her, tears immediately flooding her face. "No, that can't be. NO!" Cole yelled as she looked at her brother, her eyes pleading for him to be lying to her.

Her heart rate flew through the roof, making sirens go off in her room, causing nurses to rush in. "Colette, you have to calm down." One of the nurses said as she tried to sooth the girl. Looking up at the ceiling, Colette started to scream, "What did I do? What did I do!"

"You didn't do anything sweetheart." Another nurse said softly as she too tried to calm the girl down. Cole gasped loudly as she grabbed at her chest pained whines coming from her as tears pricked at her eyes. "Ow." She whined as her ragged breaths finally started to slow down. Looking over to her brother she saw the tears that had gathered in his eyes. "You're telling the truth?" She asked. "I wouldn't lie to you, especially with what happened with mom." Charlie told her.

Their mother had breast cancer, had beat it, then died two years later. Her doctor didn't realize it had metastasized and spread throughout her body. Their father died shortly after from heart failure, everyone had said it was from a broken heart.

After Cole had calmed down and the nurses had left after checking everything, the siblings sat in silence. That was until Colette spoke, "How long?" "What?" Charlie asked. "How long do I have to live?" She asked. Charlie sighed, his head looking down to the floor as he spoke. "Dr. Cullen is thinking between four and six months." "That's it?" Cole asked as her voice broke.

Her entire life flashed through her mind in that one moment. The good, the bad, absolutely everything, but then her mind seemed to go blank, black filling her future. A pang hit her chest and what she thought was her lungs, was actually her heart.

She would never see Charlie happy again, she could never see Bella graduate, never see her get married, or see her favorite niece have children. She would miss out on so much. She would never fall in love, get married, or adopt like how she wanted. Tears slid down her cheeks not only for the moments she would miss from her family's perspective, but also her own.