Carlisle's Diary

Uncomfortable Questions

Dear Diary: September 6, 2013

It's been a long time since I've written to you all. It's been an absolute zoo at the hospital. I've been working quadruple shifts. It seems like every sick person in NH has shown up in our ER at least twice! Some sort of flu has hit the Dartmouth Campus and the students are coming in left, right, and center. I'm once again short staffed as Charlotte has left to go on her maternity leave but promised to be back as soon as she could. So we have Melanie from the NICU coming down and working with us sometimes too.

So you can imagine it's been quite hectic in my house since Nessie's birthday party which seems to have happened ages ago. Bella's own birthday is next week and to be perfectly honest, I've been so busy I wasn't even going to write until then but as usual in the Cullen family......something came up. As I sit and write this, everyone is home except Edward and Bella. Edward took Bella on a pre-birthday trip to Switzerland. I have no clue why there but as soon as he told her where they were going, she started laughing. So I suppose it's a private inside joke between the two of them just like that lamb on the cake was for their anniversary. Another reason Edward is taking Bella away for an extra week is because the rest of us need just a little bit more time to put the finishing touches on our master plan.....also known as Operation Movie. It has to do with her birthday present. I don't care how much she hates surprises; she's going to LOVE this one. Even the Denali's are coming!

Now we all know Bella who hates expensive surprises and lavish gifts but Edward promised her it wasn't going to be any of that. We have a house in Switzerland as we lived there at one point in the 1950s as well. We not only have regular houses but vacation homes as well. So I guess you can consider that house a vacation home. So off they went. Everyone else seems to be busy doing lord knows what. Rose and Emmett have been helping Jacob restore a really old hunk of junk of a car he found in some garbage dump outside of town. When it comes to fixing up machinery, any lingering animosity between Rose and Jacob pretty much evaporates.

Jasper and Peter have been very keen on teaching Seth on how to play chess while Esme, Corin, Alice, and Amy have really started growing a beautiful garden outside. Leah and Keith are on a hike with Rogue and Alexander. John and Maria have actually also flown the coup to visit some friends in Idaho. The other day when everyone was still at home and more or less in one place, Michelle came by. She was so excited she could hardly keep still. If she smiled any wider, her lips would wrap around her head!

"Hey Michelle! What is it?" Nessie was the first to ask.

"So um.......you remember how I was saying that there was a possibility that Kim would move up here to be with me?" She was literally hopping up and down at this point. She reminded me of Alice when she was excited about something clothing-related.

"Yes we remember." Nessie said with a smile.....we all knew where this was headed but we let her finish.

"So she's moving up here TODAY!!!" She all but squealed that last part as everyone laughed.

"That's wonderful news, Michelle!" Nessie said and gave her best friend a hug as we all nodded in agreement and each hugged her as well with Jacob ruffling her hair while she swatted him away with a giggle.

That puts another Watcher in the neighborhood, but at least it made Michelle happy being near the woman who cared such a great deal about her. Love was a beautiful thing; regardless in what form it happened to come. Alexander once told me that when he was still mortal, his best friend was gay. Back then in Ancient Greece it was very frowned upon so he didn't advertise it for obvious reasons; one could actually be stoned to death if found out. But it didn't matter to Alexander whom his friend chose to love. They were close as two friends could be. When Alexander was chosen, he was sad to leave his friend behind in his mortal life, but watched over him to make sure he lived a safe life. In fact, Alexander was there the day his friend took his last breath of life and he was the one who buried him. Even though he was sad by his friend's passing, he was proud that he had kept him safe. His friend was able to fall in love and live with his partner to a relatively old age.